Decomissioned CETME Model L rifles before destruction after being fully replaced in the Spanish Army and Police by the HK G36
Posted by Brand_New_Dawn@reddit | ForgottenWeapons | View on Reddit | 46 comments
Mobile-Win-16@reddit
I never understood why they were destroyed sell them to us or or donate them to Ukraine or something don’t just destroy them
MlackBesa@reddit
Because that was pre-Ukraine, when we still believed Europe and the West would always be protected from war, and that we didn’t need so many weapons. It was really short-sighted
Mobile-Win-16@reddit
Oh ok
Tounushi@reddit
gun control to make sure military-grade weapons don't end up in the wrong hands, followed by cost.
Gifting them all to Ukraine would make sense now, but if these have been in use, then their overall quality can't be guaranteed.
jura7@reddit
Gun control or not, the cartels will end up with top notch guns (barrett, m134, m249, etc) and law abiding citizen will end up with nothing.
hgwxx7_foxtrotdelta@reddit
Why didn't they put them into warehouse/reserve instead of destroying them? What a waste
RatherGoodDog@reddit
Complete allergy to defence spending in Spain. They barely want to fund their active duty army, let alone pay for storage of "just in case" SHTF reserves that will likely never be issued again.
The Russians are almost unique in the "keep everything" mindset. It is not free of cost to store things for decades, especially not if you want them to work again afterwards.
Jonesaw2@reddit
Hell just send one to each of us. I will foster 2 rifles.
ResponsibleBet3326@reddit
😭
BallisticRicehat666@reddit
Hate when countries do this shit, just store or sell them bro. Such beautiful rifles too
KaijuTia@reddit
Not every country treats guns like collectors items. They are tools. And when tools get replaced, the old ones get disposed of, one way or another. 🤷
BallisticRicehat666@reddit
Even just as tools it makes far more sense to either preserve and store them to use as backups or sell as whole firearms for more than they made as parts- they’re still in working condition, I’d understand if they were already mostly broken
One-Strategy5717@reddit
I agree with you, but from the standpoint of governments, storage costs money and space. If yoy don't have the money or space, it makes more financial sense to dispose of them.
Selling stuff costs money, time, and effort. If you don't have a ready buyer (or your only buyer is someone you don't want to have a ton of MG parts), it is a lot of hassle to dispose of literally tons of metal and plastic. Scrap metal dealers will pay for almost anything.
Figdudeton@reddit
They got demilled and sold to to US importers.
BallisticRicehat666@reddit
Ohhh based off title I assumed this was a steam roller or plasma cutter situation
theDudeUh@reddit
Oxy acetylene torch for demilling.
The ATF says Plasma cutters cut too clean and are too easy to reweld.
Lu1zBeast@reddit
My Cetme L parts kit came saw cut
Taolan13@reddit
the cleanness of the cut has nothing to do with the cutting tool and more to do with the worker doing the cutting.
i've seen sloppy plasma cuts and i've made some clean acetylene cuts.
theDudeUh@reddit
My point was that the ATF rules specifically state that the receiver has to be torch cut for demilling, not a plasma cutter or band saw.
Sure you can do a good torch cut but a skilled operator can do better with a plasma.
dudeCHILL013@reddit
What was the logic behind this law again?
Was it too much competition for the American market or something?
CannonFodder58@reddit
Per the ATF, if it was ever a machine gun it’s always a machine gun and it can’t be imported or sold on the civilian market. The receiver has to be destroyed, but the rest of the parts can potentially be rebuilt on a new semi-auto receiver.
Taolan13@reddit
Yes i'm aware. I'm commenting on the futility of the ATF's ruling, like all of their rulings.
CyberSoldat21@reddit
Well… that’s the point of parts kits lol. I’d rather them be easier to rebuild
Zerskader@reddit
The Spanish were one of the few countries that had someone realize they could make a buck off the US market.
xqk13@reddit
That’s just how it is when US import laws require them to torch the receivers, many countries just don’t want to put in the additional effort to get not little money in comparison
CATfixer@reddit
I believe a decent number of them were de milled into parts kits for the us market
BallisticRicehat666@reddit
That makes it slightly better fs
davewave3283@reddit
I hate OP for sharing, but I’m a well known unreasonable asshole
ApprehensivePilot3@reddit
That's just stupid. Like could they not recycle/reuse them etc.
MlackBesa@reddit
Yes, and I bet they really feel stupid for doing that now that war is a realistic threat in Europe again. I know it, because we did the exact same in France and REALLY regret it.
I_2_Cast_Lead_45acp@reddit
We insult God a little more everyday
DerringerOfficial@reddit
Maybe this was before they could have been donated to Ukraine, but even so, I genuinely don’t understand why they wouldn’t accept the free money of selling them as parts kits to US importers
illuminatiknight@reddit
I compare this to post-Soviet countries, where all weapons are stored in warehouses forever. Until 2022, both Russia and Ukraine had hundreds of thousands of Mosin-Nagants, PPSh, Mauser 98, TT-33, Luger, Maxim machine guns, DP-27s, and so on. Why? Just in case.
Tounushi@reddit
at least with the Maxims, Mosins, and Degtyarevs, the ammo for them is plentiful and still being produced. That ought to be the hard line with stored weapons: how securely they can be supplied. Having 7.63 Mauser for the other stuff would be a bit iffy. A "just in case" storage of disposable small-arms that are dissimilar to current service weapons would be a waste of space, since you can't leave guns in a completely passive storage without some degradation.
illuminatiknight@reddit
Right now, the Ukrainian army is issuing officers with a certain number of TT-33s, although there is a shortage of ammunition for them. The Russian army issued PPSh and PPS to Donbas militants. The samples issued to the fighters did not show any signs of degradation from storage, they were simply morally obsolete, but without loss of combat qualities. I do not see the Ministry of Defense spending on storing infantry weapons, I am sure that these costs are much less than the motorcade of one general.
Zekt0r@reddit
Such a cool rifle for being in barely any media. I looked it up on IMFDB and it only has 3 entries
RatherGoodDog@reddit
From what I understand it was a good rifle for the time, but it was resistant to modernisation. Lack of optics and attachment capabilities.
Also it was probably clapped out by the time it was retired. The newest ones are 35 years old.
chu42@reddit
HKs are similar enough and they have a much more iconic history. So that's probably why.
SAM5TER5@reddit
Which is ironic, since the similar HK’s history more or less started with the CETME
chu42@reddit
But the CETME got started with the Mauser StG 45.
bren97122@reddit
Black Ops 6 being the most recent one and likely the only popular media most people would ever see this rifle in.
DweebInFlames@reddit
God, Black Ops 6 still really bothers me 2 years on. Set in my favourite time period for firearms development in a transitional period between very mass produced generalised service weapons and modern day explosion of modular aftermarket support for the typical platforms, cool ass militaries between the US, Russia, and UK that don't get much of a spotlight nowadays due to that time period not really having much going on in terms of memorable conflicts other than Desert Shield/Storm, what should we do for the multiplayer? Uhhhh let's completely ignore that shit in favour of ugly operators, add modern day weapons (which we botched the models of even more than the base game weaponry), twitch shooter movement and let everyone dress up as neon dragons.
Like, FUCK man. Literally the one time a big company is ever going to focus on that era today and it's wasted in favour of typical live service bullshit.
justaheatattack@reddit
meh, I'm ok with this.
Hey-buuuddy@reddit
marcolmarfirearms dot com specializes in the Cetme L. They are heavy, definitely not my favorite 5.56 rifle.
melaflander34@reddit
What about their LC or LV?
Yeah the LC sucks a lot. Not fun at all. Don't have one with the stupid outdated ENOSA night scope either. It's dumb!
(Reminds me I need to put more rounds through my L's)
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