Brit M79s

[baboon]

Apparently the British army bought 400 M79s in the late '60s. These made their only appearances in Oman and the Falklands and have spent most of their time in storage(as recently as 1992). Does anyone know if they are still residing in some lonely armoury? Who else still uses the M79? I have also heard the M79 is more accurate against point targets than the M203, is their any truth to this?
Thanks
baboon

[1026]

Baboon- The M-79 is still in use aboard U.S. Navy ships. We didn't use them much, though, just blew holes in the ocean and fired the occasional white star parachute. I don't know about the point/area target accuracy vs the 203, although a couple 'Nam vets with whom I worked told me they preferred the 79.

[DGR]

Well I don't know about the UK, but Australia went back to the M79 when the AusSteyr came into service. Now, nearly 10 years later, they are finally getting around to accepting the M203PI on the steyrs. Hopefully they will be seen in East Timor when the next battalion rotates in. But probably won't be until next year, knowing how fast the Au Army moves...

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Cheers

Damian

[baboon]

SAS and Commandos already have M203s don't they? The M203 on M4 appears in a few of the East Timor photos. Also have seen M203 on M16 (4RAR and 1 Cdo Regt )

[PathfinderJr3325]

SAS has M-16/M-203s

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Check Six

[baboon]

Have finally seen a pic of the M203 on Steyr, at the NZ Army website. Seems the Kiwis are ahead of the Aussies on this one.

[Chris]

The NZ Army has had the Aug/M-203PI's in service for 4-5 years now, seems not long after the Steyr came into service in NZ in 1987,there was a prototype Aug/M-203,but was a low proity,
Its a good combo weapon,and is now a mature system,they found that some barrels were getting bent due to the barrel and nut interface was not true,the armour's have the fix sorted.