24 March 2022 Garand Picture of the Day

A lot of brass visited the 106 range, my favorite trick was to pile a dozen ammo boxes 10 yards behind a gun and fire it... toothpicks! The back-blast was truly awesome.

Army MULE and the 106

Attachment 125025

Bob-- I remember seeing the 106mm during an orientation at Ft. Benning OCS in 1976. We were sitting the bleachers when they cut lose with the gun. It picked several folks up off the bleachers. They did the same thing you stated blowing empty wooden crates to tooth picks. The good days when things were so much simpler.

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Originally Posted by Bob Seijas

The back-blast was truly awesome.

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Did any of you ever have to sweep the firing pad(if you used one) clear of unburned cordite? It was piled and touched with a match. Burned fiercely like mortar increments or arty charge bags, very bright and always a post ex crowd pleaser.

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Originally Posted by BEAR

While in Alaska I had fired the 90 with sub-cal devices several times for orientation. Then there came a time when we were allowed to fire surplus live rounds and I had a chance to fire one. I laid next to the gun with my body at a 45-degree angle as I had with the sub-cals. When I touched off the trigger I found myself lying in front of the gun with a totally numb right leg. Lesson learned!

BEAR

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Once I was tasked with training and firing four other soldiers with the AT4 anti-tank rocket. I'd never even seen one before so I sat down and read the book cover to cover. They had to fire from a pit, not a prepared position. After instructing the four I fired them one at a time. As it was a pit and I needed be close we hunkered down and got friendly. I talked the firer through the steps of preparing the rocket and they fired when ready. The first three went great, right on target, the last one I let my left leg drift out a bit. When the soldier fired my left leg was pummeled and it went numb. Lesson learned. But the guy completely missed the blasted target.