Comments on: Joes Get New Grenade Slinger

By: mondo

mondo — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:22:35 +0000

I carried the M79, with C-CO 2/501 101st Airborne Geronimo’s 1969, in the DMZ. It was a valued weapon, and I didn’t need night vision, in a combat night assualt. I used that weapon in cornering a platoon in the open, to there bunker & instrumental in wiping it out & using flares as well all night, by having spooky on station over cloud cover. Are flares available in the battlefield areas of Iraq & Afganistan, I see that as need in those hills & mountains ? What about buck shot, for close encounters? It looks like a valued weapon, but I would still take the M-79, on a sling, for backup, there’s no breaking parts, Geronimo!

By: Wes

Wes — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:09:57 +0000

The six-shot M32 seems like a better solution.

By: Will

Will — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:47:35 +0000

The 20 mm airburst munition for infantry is dead along with the OICW that was going to shoot it. There’s a 25 mm airburst munition that will be used by the XM25 currently under development. There’s an airburst 40 X 53 mm grenade under development as ammo for an alternative to the XM307. The M79, M203 & M320 shoot 40 X 46 mm ammo.

By: Cosmoskitten

Cosmoskitten — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:01:02 +0000

Nice comment based on experience, Steve M.
It makes me a bit concerned though. Are there any other effects or costs associated with quadrant sights, leaf sights or the PSQ-18A. One would think that the army tested the sights in a realistic manner, to find out wich of them would work out best in real combat situations. Getting assigned 3 different sights in a short time frame seems strange. And when you got a good sight, is it not obvious that you need to train with it, before you go into combat?

By: Steve M

Steve M — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:03:36 +0000

This is awesome! I wish we had been issued these in Iraq. I had an M203, and while I was quite proficient with the quadrant sights, we got rid of those when we were issued our ACOGs. So then we went to leaf sights. I got mine sighted in "fairly" well (I'd say about a 50% first shot hit rate to 250yds)... and RIGHT before deployment they made us turn in our leaf sights and get issued the PSQ-18A. This is also known as the worst POS sight ever. It's the most bulky piece of plastic I've ever seen, adds a pound to a weapon that's already approaching the empty weight of an M249, and it breaks. Mine broke the first week in country. So then I had NO sight to use with my M203. The one time I had to fire it I just guessed. On a side note the PSQ-18 was supposed to be able to be used at night to achieve good accuracy... well on mine the night range did not illuminate, so I would have had to use a flashlight to fire the thing. Total Fail. Good job on the army for replacing an obsolete system with something really well thought out. And yes, my battalion also "found" some M79's as well as some new 6shot M32s and we carried those to great effect.

By: Christian

Christian — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:43:43 +0000

Thanks for the head’s up Bud…guess I still needed that second shot of Joe before hitting “publish”…

By: gruntdoc91

gruntdoc91 — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:54:39 +0000

yeah i know the germans use but theyre not exactly in close combat while in the nco german nco club swilling down beer in khandar.it seems like a lot of work from the story stand still,then lase with range finder, turn dials until a green light comes on then fire grenade.from personal experience the reason a lot of 203 guys miss is the lack of live fire training time in the states.going to a range 1–2 times a year dosent make you a proficient shot with anything.ive seen grenadiers w/203’s nail targets almost to the outer limits of the grenade with accuracy because they were able to take time get good with it. i would hate to see joes getting hit while doing algebra to fire one grenade.

By: Ed

Ed — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:52:54 +0000

I wonder if this thing will be made compatible with the 20mm airbursting munition so our troops can add even more precision to their strikes.

By: Bud

Bud — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 19:21:45 +0000

Piece of junk huh? It is used by more than 13 countries (just since 2000) to include Spain, Norway, UK, Germany and select US SOF units. If the 1967 era R/M M203 copy is so good then why did the HK candidate win the XM320 competition? Maybe you work for R/M?
It is in fact an excellent, combat proven launcher that will serve the US war fighter well either “underslug” on the M4 or M16 or in stand-alone mode w/ or w/o the stock attached. An update version of the DayNight sight is also in the works that includes the laser range finder in an even smaller package. Medim velocity (800 m MER) ammo is also under development for the M320.
The article has a typo — it is 72,000, not 7200.
Piece of junk my ass. Idiot. Bet you never even handled one.

By: dan

dan — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 18:58:21 +0000

This thing is a piece of junk compared to the universal mounting R/M Equipment launcher. Ck it out at: http://www.40mm.com