Rhodesian weapons

[garywinter]

I fondled an M16 in the Recces' tent at the Rand Easter show earlier this year.

Yep saw that at the Rand Show too

[Andrew Leigh]

When I was there you would shoot anything you vould get your hands on. So I have shot;

DPM
PKM
RPK
G3
FN
AK47
the S.A. 60mm Mortar.

Drove in Hippo's, Buffels and I think what they called a Puma, basically a long wheel base Buffel. We also used Alhouettes, Unimog,s with sandbags and the Pookie. I personally had a Jeep Wagoneer that was mine protected.

[Gunexpert007]

Thanks I'll take a look when my backlog of emails has been handled.

They also used Captured SKS's If I recall

SKSs were a very tough semi auto battle rifle......the Ukraine has been selling their stockpiled refurbed Russian SKSs to international buyers by the hundreds of thousands recently , but has now stopped due to political instability and the invasion of their country by Russia . The SKS lives on to fight another day.....

[AR-Tenner]

Hi Guys

I read about a point 22 automatic rifle an AR designated on perhaps an AR-10 that the SAS use to use and it had such a high rate of fire they would play around and cut down telephone poles with it. Would anyone know about this weapon or have a photo of it?

I am a researcher writing a book on the AR-10, and in speaking with several Rhodesian veterans (mostly SAS, but not exclusively), I learned that interspersed in almost all of the elite units (SAS, Selous, RLI, etc.), individual soldiers would carry Portuguese AR-10s that had been first captured from stores that the Portuguese left behind in Mozambique, then supplied by Machel to the ZANU terrorists, and then captured by these troops from enemies coming across the border. They were apparently very popular for their light weight, excellent recoil control, extremely high rate of fire (explaining the telephone poll-chopping), and peerless accuracy (around 1-2MOA with M80 ball ammo and iron sights).

Portuguese AR-10.jpg

I would be delighted to hear anyone else's experience, or even third-hand knowledge of the AR-10's use there.

[Bokman]

Maybe sightly off topic but I recently bought a Luger M80 pistol from a SAS member that has immigrated to Canada. The pistol was his side arm in the Rhodesian war.

[Wade]

That is very cool!!!

[Wanderin' Zero]

Hi Guys

I read about a point 22 automatic rifle an AR designated on perhaps an AR-10 that the SAS use to use and it had such a high rate of fire they would play around and cut down telephone poles with it. Would anyone know about this weapon or have a photo of it?

Google AM-180.

[Bokman]

Google AM-180.

WOW! what a gun!

[RAGE]

Google AM-180.

Out of interest, Are these rare in SA?

[Wanderin' Zero]

Out of interest, Are these rare in SA?

Depends upon your definition of "rare". You could look for one for a few years back from my perspective not particularly as there are a few around, although they do not change hands all that often.