"Mike Keown" wrote:


"John Fitzpatrick" wrote in message
.. .
Still have my .50 headspacing and timing gauge from over 30 years ago
(M48/60 guy). Used to love watching the tracers corkscrewing after the
barrel rifling got worn.


I still have mine too! M113s in Nam. I used to light cigarettes
on the barrel.. and yes corkscrewing tracers are telling you its
time for a change. I thought I the .45 pistol was the oldest
weapon in the American arsenal? But I've been out of the soldier game for
35+ years :-)
RVN 66-67

*Was* is the key element in your penultimate statement on the M1911.
In the 90s, the services standardized on a 9mm Beretta auto [made in
Maryland] as the replacement for the venerable M1911. It will still
hold the record for longest serving small arms weapon in the US
arsenal for quite a while yet. Ma Deuce was adopted by the Army in
1933, although the basic design, originally for aircraft, dates to
1918. The Army is presently scheduled to start replacing it with a
General Dynamics design, the XM312, in 2005. So it may not get a
chance to challenge the M1911's longevity. *Unless* you want to
roll-in its prior life as an aircraft-mounted weapon.
--
OJ III
[Email sent to Yahoo addy is burned before reading.
Lower and crunch the sig and you'll net me at comcast]