Malian Soldiers marching with 7.62x51mm NATO Zastava M77 B1 Battle Rifles.
Posted by Brilliant_Ground1948@reddit | ForgottenWeapons | View on Reddit | 16 comments
WalkerTR-17@reddit
Put a magnified optic on and you’ve got a cheap kinda okayish DMR that makes sense for a military like this. But uh just running it as a battle rifle seems like maybe not the best choice
Epilektoi_Hoplitai@reddit
I imagine that these are being used for counterinsurgency in the Sahel. Bigger cartridge could be useful for longer range engagements compared to x39mm.
Brown_Colibri_705@reddit
I'm sure all those well-trained soldiers can make great use of the improved ballistics past 300m with those wonderful irons. Definitely worth the greatly reduced ammunition load out.
Epilektoi_Hoplitai@reddit
Tuaregs aren't out on foot patrols in the desert. Most of the combat footage I've seen has been one side or the other ambushing vehicle columns. They could still probably hit a hilux technical, and it'll be worse off than if it were x39s.
That said, this is a parade - these are probably only issued to this whole group for display, and not actually 1:1 replacing intermediate cal AKs in actual use.
Brown_Colibri_705@reddit
x39 will easily penetrate the doors of a non-armored vehicle. Anything tougher than that and x51 won't make much of a difference unless you're using steel cored ammo, which I doubt they have. The simple matter of fact is that any gains in ballistics from x51 are completely waisted on these guys, just like on most other infantry.
Pratt_@reddit
That was unfortunately the case for most NATO countries during the Cold War, but strange to see battle rifles in any country nowadays.
WalkerTR-17@reddit
Yes but those were designs that were made from the ground up to be that, not one modded to be that.
Brown_Colibri_705@reddit
A Yugo AK works fine in whichever 7.62.
Fuzzy_Draft_5683@reddit
They run aims as well
Initial-Top8492@reddit
Fal 47 is not real, it cant hurt you. Meanwhile :
EmeraldP13@reddit
Yeah I always thought the M77 was what happened when an ak and a FAL love each other very much
Free-Engineering6759@reddit
How's that to shoot, compared to FN FAL or HK G3?
BigFreakingZombie@reddit
Never shot one but my guess is that it would feel pretty similar. It's basically an AK in .308 after all.
Wolfmanreid@reddit
Really interesting I wasn’t aware anyone had adopted those for military use. Is that the same configuration they were imported to the USA in?
MFOslave@reddit
Mali and Cyprus both adopted them but you can't find any literary references stating such. Just internet anecdotes and a handful of rare photos.
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