Pete,
I've used the simunitions before my last deployment, so they're in the Army system. As far as I have seen they are only chambered for 5.56mm and 9mm. The .50 cal you showed was for scaled gunnery and would probably give you a bad day if you got hit with one. The simunitions come with a separate bolt that you have to swap out to use because they don't function like service rounds (which as you can guess can lead to accountability issues.) It's nice to train with your own weapon, and as a tanker, it's your only chance to fire your M9 in "anger" during training.

They're not a bad training tool because they break you of a lot of bad MILES habits. It's too easy to cheat with MILES. You're also going to make more of an effort to learn how to not get shot when you have pieces of plastic stinging you. We actually thought about using them as escalation of force measures in Iraq, but there were too many drawbacks.

Get 'em if you can though. They're a great train-up tool before live fire training.

[quote]

No they fire blanks, which activates the laser. If you don't have any blanks, you can't fire the laser unless you cheat and push the button on the transmitter box.

-OR you tap the speaker outlet on the face of the Transmitter just right that sometimes sets the laser off silently. Usually resulting in the Targetted Soldier going "WTF"? while he tries to find an OC/T to reset him.

Side note I did once see the M19 adapter with MILES used with 3 Rifle transmitters attached to the rods, giving a "Minigun" effect when fired.

The SEALS came through one night while I was at the NTC a couple of weeks ago (they were not happy with the likes of me around - but it was too dark to take photos anyway). They used the sim rounds. The OPFOR guys that were being attacked in the hootches loved and hated them at the same time. They said they hurt like hell when you were hit in areas not covered by a helmet or IBA or whatever.

I can attest that simunition hurts like hell when you get hit in unprotected areas, even from a medium distance. I had a couple of ugly bruises with broken skin on my arm from one encounter with them. They also have a nasty habit of jamming more often (and in more creative and hard to clear ways) than standard ammo (at least the brand I had a chance to use for the Glock). That said, they are very realistic and a lot of fun to use.

My 16 year old (soon to be 17) son comes back from Zussman MOUT site with huge welts from the simunition. He volunteers along with many other people as insurgents, villagers, etc. My nephew went with him and came back with a rifle butt mark on his forehead. He resisted and was subdued. We still laugh about it.

I haven't been an NCO since 1986 when I was commissioned as a second lieutenant. Twenty-one years ago, where does time go?

A few times at Ft. Hood we ran around with BFAs on our M106 tracks. Also fun on a .50 cal ground mount for Scout Stakes OPFOR.

Here's another training device for the nomenclature hunt


Paul

I recall using a contraption like that in TBS when learning how to “call for fire”. It allowed a pneumatic “lawn dart” to be fired by the mortar to practice before calling in live rounds on another range later. I don’t remember the nomenclature though.

Correct me if i'm wrong but I didn't think that the MK-19 had anything other than the TPT round for training (the orange puff round). At least when I was a scout and had a MK-19 on my truck we had to put it away when we did training other than the gunnery since it was useless.

On to the simunitions. They repalce the barrel and the bolt off of the 5.56mm weapons namely M-16's and M-4's. The Mags were clear plastic. They shot the equivelant of a .22 with wax paint . Yes they do hurt when hit, so they had us wearing Paintball masks when "fighting".
Then again all that info is as of 04 when I took up flying.
-Dan

The same round is used in the blue barreled M9 as well. Even when using 5.56 in the shoot house we have to use sims in the pistol because of the way the 9mm ball ammo chews up the targets. Unfortunately the "wax paint" is launched within a plastic projectile at a rate of 550 fps. It will break the skin through ACU's and nomex gloves if fired close enough. Still not as painful as the high velocity paint balls used at Gryphon Group. The paintball guns they use are far less prone to jams and deliver a merciless stream of fire.

Interesting Pete. I guess we are talking about the ammunition shown on the small pic below. Since the .50 Multi Purpose round originally is Norwegian I guess you got the same practise round as we got as well. We have been using this type of ammunition for a long time and it is great for advanced training on and outside a firing range. The practical range is only 150 meters so we can build "field ranges" allmost everywhere. I have not experienced a lot of malfunctions with this ammo, but our blank firing and training barrels are very different from your BFA. Also got the same type of cartridge for 5.56 and 7,62 which are great for training advanced contact drills in a safe way for example.



Erik

PS. Here is a link to a site with some more info on the training round: Nammo

Wow, this is a lot of talk for a simple question.

It's a blank adapter; I believe the question is at the very top.

Plastic ammo has been around for years at least since 90. Plastic ammo is most defintely NOT a simunition. My knox battle buddy was popped at point blank with 9mm simunition by an overzealous ranger and charging seals at knox. It hurts like hell, think frozen paintball, with more concentration, and will sometimes break the surface of your skin like a blood blister.
Plastic ammo on the other hand has the ballistic characteristics of regular projectile in the same caliber but is lighter and therefore will not travel as far given the same velocity (or load). For instance a 7.62mm G3 round will travel 400 meters "area target " effectively. If you get hit by plastic round you are in for a painful experience. Getting hit is pianful but unlike regular rounds that will leave metallic path which an xray can pick up and doc can basically see where said projectile is located. The plastic rounds leave no trail (and at the time were not picked up very well on xray). So the doc has to physically probe for the projectile path. If it went straight in not a problem. However, hit one bone more and the thing makes left at Albuquerque and then right .... good luck finding the bugger and all its damage. Missed internal bleeding is the big danger.

Oh and I was in the boy scouts for 6 years.... LoL