Would the BAR be a good combat rifle for today?

STLRN,with all due respect. I have 2 very good friends who have been in combat in Iraq. One just returned a couple months ago. Their input only reinforced my opinions. So who`s right,them or you? Frankly who cares? No one is actually saying we should arm the US military with 80 year old BARs. This thread is for fun and a little creative conversation. If you wanna argue that a BAR won`t penetrate hard cover any better or hit any harder at long range than 5.56 knock yourself out. :) Marcus
 
Just Google some images of Iraqi houses and you see what I mean, the houses are made of extremely thick adobe style or concrete construction. This is done to act as an insulator and for defensibility purposes.

Don't know where your two friends were fighting, I know from what I saw during OIF I, III and V that most of the country had very similar the construction. The only place I really never sat was the Kurdish region
 
All things being equal,, the 5.56 will not equal a 7.62. in range, pennetration or stopping power. It is a great woodchuck round. The Marines have the right idea, one man, one bullet, one kill. If you haven't been there and done it, stop BS'ing and spouting your thoughts based on your opinion... because,, you just don't know and shouldn't be expressing a view based on your reading of some gun magazines. Get into it,, join the forces, see it for yourself, otherwise, quit the armchair discussion of things you know nothing about. Sorry. some things just P--s me off.
 
Any gun that spits out bullets to an effective velocity is good for combat any day. Now the BAR was not meant to be used to clear houses, even though back in it's conception it was far better than the M1 Garand for the purpose mentioned. If you can get a BAR that will shoot moa, higher capacity mags and find a scope mount to have an ACOG or Leupold on top of it you may just have a nice weapon for modern combat in the designated marksman or wide perimeter security purposes. I thing the AR-10/SR-25 would be better suited for the purpose. josh
 
Actually all this talk of bigger mag got me thinking if they did go with a bigger mag it would ineffective for close fire support as it was designed for. the longer mag would have hindered it when in a fixed fighting postion or in the prone position. the 20rd mag is almost perfect for that application
 
Marcus,
your photo has a pistol grip BAR. I didn't know they made those...or is that a little custom work of your own? Personally, I prefer rifle grip rifles...but pistol grip will work too.

Interesting, at this moment I have AMC on the movie the Sand Pebble and am watching Steve McQueen use the BAR....it kinda saves the day in the end of the movie if I remember right. Fixin to have to walk out the door so I will have to miss it :( Wish this movie would come out on DVD :mad:
 
I don't normally get into these types of discussions, for personal reasons, however I will say that the M-60 saved our team on more than one occasion. I concede that the circumstances that I encountered are entirely different than what the "boots on the ground" are facing in todays conflicts. The M-60 did damage that can't be fathomed unless you were there to see it.
 
The pistol grip BAR's were used by armies overseas, including the Poles and the Swedes, in 7.92 and 6.5 respectively. Colt made some and I believe the rest were manufactured overseas. Some were made with quick-change barrels.

After thinking about this for a couple of days, it occurs to me that the BAR would have to still be a good choice if the rifles in use were the same caliber. At least I think it would be as good as a heavy-barrel FAL such as was used by Canada and by Israeli. Those were different models and I have only examined an Israeli made version. There is a weight difference and a length difference but I wouldn't consider it significant. The FAL is anything but short and the heavy barrel model is surprisingly heavy. I realize there are 30 round magazines for the FAL and that is a real difference but easy enough to fix.

On the other hand, it has been years since the heavy barrel FAL has been used by either of those armies. There have been heavy barrel HK automatic rifles but I don't know who used them and I don't recall mention of them in this forum, at least not recently.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top