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Gunner Zen

By The Armorer on June 3, 2010 | | Comments (13)
32nd-Field-Artillery.jpg

U.S. Army Pfc. Mark Ayers stands ready to dispose of spent cartridge casings during a artillery live fire qualification range on Memorial Range, Contingency Operating Base Speicher, Iraq, May 21, 2010. Ayers is assigned to Alpha Battery, 2nd Battalion, 32nd Field Artillery. The soldiers are required to conduct crew qualification to keep the crew's skills at service of the piece up to standard. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Jason Stewart

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13 Comments

By Mythilt on June 3, 2010 8:33 AM
Heh, forced perspective really makes those .22s look large. ;p
 
By Boquisucio on June 3, 2010 9:33 AM
Oooo - Spiral Wraps!
 
By John (Not The Armorer) on June 3, 2010 1:54 PM
M14B2, steel spirals, yucchh!
I prefer the solid brass M14 cases myself.
 
By John of Argghhh! on June 3, 2010 1:59 PM
As a militaria dealer you might. As a taxpayer you don't.
 
By Boquisucio on June 3, 2010 2:10 PM
Back when I was in the "bidnez", we were constantly scrounging every nook and cranny for solid brass M14's, for there was (probably still is) a dearth of them in the international market.  But alas, if we were lucky, we only were able to get our hands into Spiral Steel Wrap Cases.

In times of famine, hamburger tastes like rib-eye.

That was until, I found a large stash in Argentina.  If memory is not playing tricks on me, the Greeks were buying each (Spiral Wrap) Case for 85 USD.  The Argies were extremely glad to offer (Solid Brass) for 8 USD.  Sweet Mother of Jesus!
 
By John of Argghhh! on June 3, 2010 2:17 PM
Heh.  That was a while ago, though, eh, Boq?  Back before the value of scrap brass went through the roof?
 
By Boquisucio on June 3, 2010 2:34 PM
Well, I am talking back in 2000/01.  Back when the Argie economy was going down the tubes (and where ours is shortly headed).  They were desperate for money, as their Peso went from being at parity with the USD to 3-1.  They had a large stock of old Brass Cases in their factory, priced at the old exchange rate.  Overnight their brass was three times cheaper.

If we could get our hands on Spiral Wraps we used to buy them in the 70/75-USD range.  Turn around and sell them for 85 - Not bad but tight gross margin.  But when I found out of that secret stash at 8-USD, we all of a sudden became VERY important to the Greeks and other sundry arsenals around.

I DO miss hocking boom-boom thingies.
 
By Old Fat Sailor on June 3, 2010 3:22 PM
In WestPac the gig was save the brass for Hong Kong and trade Mary Su for a hull paint out and easy access to her famous floating roach coach. You squids with dragons under your cuffs remember!
 
By SezaGeoff on June 3, 2010 6:17 PM
My goodness - you still use Colonel Boxer's cartridges!  The only ones I have are for the Martini-Henry 577-450 on the wall.  Isn't cultural exchange a wondrous thing!
 
By John (Not The Armorer) on June 3, 2010 10:59 PM
Someone in Great Lake area was trying to peddle 3,000+ of the steel wrap jobs.  Looked like they were from a download operation.    I think they wanted about $10 each....
 
By Fishmugger on June 4, 2010 6:03 AM
Ya buy an egg for a dollar....sell it for 4.....buy it back for 5 and resell it for 3.
 
By Justthisguy on June 6, 2010 10:51 PM
Fish, I read that book, too. Milo Minderbinder was a very bad person. I will admit, though, that Major Major Major had the right idea about office hours, at least if you share my opinion about interacting with the humans.
 
By Justthisguy on June 6, 2010 11:14 PM
Oh, to get back on topic:  It's nice to see that we still have a lightweight towed piece and people who know  how to shoot it. Sometimes everything seems to turn into dogpoo and you have to fall back on simple elementary things.