To Finger or not to finger, that is the question....

[Truck Driver]

Not according to the arms drill manual.

Ohhhhhhhhhh.... which goes completely against everything you drum into a
recruit about weapons safety, naturally enough...

[hptmurphy]

parts is right ...for ceremonial the magazine is left on as it was with the FN. This was purely ceremonial and all safety precautions were carried out off the square prior to the drill. I can rememeber carrying the drill as part of my passing out parade...which was carried out with the FN......60 recruits carrying out all the major movemants in the arms drill manual without a word of command........spectacular!

[The Joker]

According to the manual, you cock the weapon, do the inspection etc. The the next order "ease springs" as per manual. Remove mag....etc

Not according to the arms drill manual.

[Truck Driver]

Is the drill movement for inspecting the weapons done with the mag on?

Nope.... mag should still be removed from the weapon, for the safety
reasons already discussed above....

[California Tanker]

There is one rite of passage that requires the insertion of a digit to be crushed by the mechanism. Any user of the M1 Garand must sample the Garand Thumb.

NTM

[The Joker]

Is the drill movement for inspecting the weapons done with the mag on?

[apod]

Never ever put your finger into the breech of any weapon.Even if it is dark.Use a torch if you have to.Anybody who is teaching that is teaching herecy. :confused:

[hptmurphy]

and remember that to carry out this manouvre one must cock the weapon...make sure the magazine is off when doing so...as some individual forgot to do so in the past and when the barrel was reattached and the mechanism was cleared there was a loud bang...where in the office ordered the magazine to be removed and the action release again...hence a second loud bang....this really happened in a stand too room not to far from me ...as a result the FCA unit who were going to the range on the same morning placed a red flag outside the stand too room.

[Docman]

although I doubt if one could insert a digit into the ejection port of the Steyr

With the steyr you only have to remove the barrel. There is no need to put a finger in the chamber.

[The Joker]

A7

[Ex-soldier]

If you could spend the time and money to buy nail varnish and apply it to your fingers then why in the name of all that is holy would you not just clean the damn rifle?? I know that my platoon commander would have had a lot more to say about a recruit wearing nail varnish than he would about a little bit of dirt in a rifle barrel. The dirty barrel would result in you being told to clean it properly but the nail varnish would have resulted in a little physical exercise.

[Big Al]

Has anybody ever lost a digit from putting their finger into the weapon?

I nearly lost a few fingers after putting it into a weapon, but I learnt my lesson, I will never touch another sgwn.


[MOD:The moderator wishes to remind all and Al that this is a family show.... ]

[hptmurphy]

not nessacacrily so as the drill for inspecting the clean breech of a weapon involved the bearer of the weapon inserting his thumb into the breech to reflect the light and show the inspecying office that the barrel was clean .the old trick was to put clear nail polish on the nail to reflect the light and and improve the picture.

So insetion of the finger was acceptable in the old days with the older weapons...although I doubt if one could insert a digit into the ejection port of the Steyr

[trellheim]

No competent soldier would put their fiddely bits in a guillotine
xxx^^^^^^^