I bought this ammo brick ten years ago

[cirelaw]

It amazes me how troops managed to carry these rifles the ammo and supplies~

[danielsand]

Originally Posted by cirelaw

It amazes me how troops managed to carry these rifles the ammo and supplies~

That's "child's play" for a grown man!

But, imagine, 14 year old kids shooting it. We shot in prone position, off of the shooting "table", through the window (hard to describe, but that was the shooting range). Imagine a long "room", with row of "tables" on one wall (I forgot how many tables, but at least 20-30) spaced about six feet apart. Each table has a "window", and a sand bag on the "window sill". The window opens to a shooting range out to 300 meters (it has three "shooting lines"....100, 200, and 300).

Each kid was prone on the table, firing from the shoulder. Some smaller kids were literaly pushed off the table by the recoil! There was about three or four cases of broken colar bones (total of about 150 kids in training), and NOBODY walked away without any bruises (including me, and I was the tallest, strongest kid in the class). We were recquired to shoot five rounds, unless the kids started crying (in pain), in which case the instructor would pull the kid off of the firing line.

I don't have to tell you that the kids like me, who fired all five shots (and asked for more!) had all the bragging rights in the evenings, and the pick of the girls?

[John Sabato]

Originally Posted by cirelaw

It amazes me how troops managed to carry these rifles the ammo and supplies~

A very simple answer Eric...

It starts with physical conditioning in Basic Training... and the rest is a confident dependence in knowing that the effort expended in caring for, and carrying your equipment makes the difference between keeping yourself alive, and depriving the enemy of his own life.

The U.S. M-14 Rifle that I trained with in Basic Training weighs even more than your M48... Add to that 4 twenty round magazines, and the basic load of 7.62x51 NATO ammunition, plus a canteen full of water, and a sharp bayonet... and your field gear including the old Steel Helmet, and you are tired even before you stand up.

Do that every day for a couple of months of training, and by graduation day, it is no longer the chore it was when you started...