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| Iraq |
| Breaching Round for M-16s (Ding-Dong!) |
| 2004-01-01 |
| Another SOCOM (Special Operations Command) weapon has become popular with regular troops in Iraq. It’s a 12 gauge shotgun that replaces the 40mm grenade launcher under an M-16 or M-4 rifle (using the same attachment hardware), and firing a special shotgun round for blowing down doors. The Knight’s Armament Company (KAC) "12-gauge `Masterkey’ breaching module" has a three round magazine, a ten inch barrel and weighs nine pounds. The shotgun can be used alone, with the addition of a special stock attachment. Usually, one or two rounds will knock down most doors. The large number of raids U.S. troops perform in Iraq, makes this weapon popular. Many units simply take along shotguns, loaded with the solid shot "breaching rounds." But the KAC system means one less piece of equipment to carry, and gives the user an M-16 rifle to use as well. "Fatima! Someone’s at the door! Open it quick before they blow it down!" |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #11 Better yet, OP, there's a firm in Aregentina (or was, last time I checked) that made a micro-grenade that fit nicely into a 12-gauge shotgun shell. That would work nicely, and reduce the need for that 6mm/20mm assault rifle-grenade lashup the DoD is working on at the moment. Ed. |
| Posted by: Ed Becerra 2004-1-1 11:46:22 PM |
| #10 Boom!Boom! Avon Calling! |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-1-1 9:18:37 PM |
| #9 I've got a 10-gauge double-barrel that I inherited from my great-grandfather. It'll take down a door, take out most small boats, and thresh wheat over about six acres! The left barrel's full choke, the right barrel half-choke, and both are about 40 inches long. The only problem is, it takes two strong men and a husky boy to fire the &$*&*% thing, and NOBODY makes shells for it (Small "THANK GOD!" for that)! I've fired it twice (left barrel only!), and it took about six weeks for the bruise to go away each time. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2004-1-1 3:55:53 PM |
| #8 re: .00 buck - bet it has a nice kick too. I have a Winchester Defender: pistol grip 12Ga, 18" barrel, and when I use .00 buck, the barrel comes up so quick I pump another shell in reflexively. It holds 8 shells, and I'm sure most doors would have no chance of stopping it... :-) |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-1-1 1:52:10 PM |
| #7 raptor: Pretty sweet deal here, although it's known that SOCOM has used this for years as a staple of the M4A1 SOPMOD kit :) By the way, I have plenty of gun magazines here (Guns & Ammo and the like) here, and one of my back issues is about "breaching round ballistics" on human bodies (courtesy of an FBI study) -- at a breacher's extremely-close-quarters range of work, breaching rounds're still lethal enough :) snellenr: Rifle grenades would do the trick -- I've a downloaded video of high-speed grenades in action designed to knock down the door outright, and have you seen the XM320 grenade launcher for the XM8 rifle? |
| Posted by: Lu Baihu 2004-1-1 1:29:39 PM |
| #6 True "masterkey" would be a tank's main gun! |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2004-1-1 12:15:27 PM |
| #5 I'll huff - and I'll puff and now I'm gonna blow this f**king door down !! |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2004-1-1 9:47:09 AM |
| #4 Masterkey Excellent! |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-1-1 8:33:23 AM |
| #3 I was always under the impression that a 40mm grenade could also be used as a breaching round... just be sure to stand back from the door a bit. |
| Posted by: snellenr 2004-1-1 8:25:54 AM |
| #2 I was under the ipresion that breaching rounds used powdered metal,no round going through 2-3 walls.30 rounds of 5.56,backed-up with 3 rounds of.oo buck.Now that be cool. |
| Posted by: raptor 2004-1-1 6:51:07 AM |
| #1 Wow. Cool! |
| Posted by: Ptah 2004-1-1 6:31:14 AM |
