Dear o sung wu,

Thanks for the kind words, we armourers always worked by the simple standard of "Would I use this in combat?"

Sometimes we made a difference to the feelings of the troops, the last Battalion to go to Vietnam (I forget which one), all of their SLRs were brought in for 'thorough repair', they were completely rebuilt, reblackened, and at my suggestion, fitted with brand new woodwork.
The Colonel agreed that it might be a bit of a boost to get one's rifle back looking completely new, so he approved and as all the serviceable old wood went into parts for general repairs there were no extra costs involved.

We liked to think that we made a difference.

Hi, there IS MISE...

You made a tremendous difference to the morale of the troops knowing that you folk completely refurbished their SLR's. I reckon things like that made a big difference, knowing Aussie Armourers had their backs. If only the Yank designers had overcome the infernal 'cook-off' with the M.60 mg, all would've been great. Still, a ridiculous notion, given the high rate of fire, of the thing. I can't figure out any other (practical) way to cool the barrel down, other than dropping in the spare.

In Korea, you would've had the Vickers and the Bren? The latter an excellent weapon, but often complained of being too accurate! Thanks again IS MISE, for all the superb work you and your colleagues did for the troops in Vietnam, in fact, the entire ARA.

Hi, o sung wu,

I remember the M60 very well as I repaired the first 10 repaired in Australia they weren't a very reliable gun to start with but over time, with lots of little faults ironed out they became a reliable weapon.
I thought that having the bipod on the barrel was a joke as was the necessity of having the big asbestos glove to hold a hot barrel.

On the Bren, gunners used to keep a worn barrel nut so that they could use that to loosen the barrel and spray their shots a bit more.

The Vickers was an "Old Faithful" itself and many were sad to see it replaced.

We also had .30 Browning MGs as reserves.