Owen and Austen - The WW 2 ‘Aussie’ Machine Carbine Story

[muffett.2008]

When I first donned the green suit in the mid 60's, the Owen was still king, it rapidly became my favourite weapon, achieving skill at arms and the ability to write your initials on a figure target was proof of how controllable it was.
I adapted equally as fast when the F1 replaced it, as a left hander, it was almost as if the gun was designed just for you. I had to learn to shoot it right handed when selected to compete at BISAM in 1987, but we were simply outgunned by the Asian countries that had adopted AR180's and other 5.56mm short rifles that we considered not true sub machine carbines.
At least they were impressed by the big holes we left in the targets, at the end of the comp. when we had a swap around, I found that the carbines used by both the philopeno's,Indon's and Malaysians, although accurate single shot, were uncontrollabe for bursts and heated the handguard so much you had trouble holding them, in return all of the teams were wrapped in our little spud gun.
The Kiwi's were using a Mk.3 sten, pretty much rubbish compared to the F1.

This is me trying not to look to bored while supervising some of them.
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