Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1086092
For couple of years now, there is no conscript service in Poland and all military service members are volun- teers. Equipment is designed to pro- vide maximum ergonomics and higher performance. Nowadays nobody de- signs the firearms for use in total war conditions where they will be used by human being that was forcefully draft- er. This means that modern firearms require bit more care and experience. Let's not forget about one very important factor. The knowledge of advanced technology and level of fa- miliarization with more and more complicated hardware in society is on totally another lever than it was 15- 20 years ago, not to mention times when AK assault rifles were issued. Modern society is used to handle and use more complex products, tools and service. Same thing goes with fire- arms. MSBS/GROT is as like AK/Beryl as new Golf VII to Golf III. It's still a car but far more advanced. TDF is volunteer part-time military service. The occupation or education does not have bigger meaning, at least not in the initial phase, previ- ous experience with firearms is more important. There are totally unexpe- rienced people, firearms owners and even shooting instructions. By one of many reasons, GROT rifles were is- sued to TDF for complex testing with variety of people. It's simple – people who have no experience with firearms will do things that would not come to mind any gun owner or competition shooter. On the other hand, mixing in one team experienced people with complete rookies will be great indi- cator of how many malfunctions are result of lack in training and how many of them are design flaws. Report from TDF HQ is up to the date 24th of December 2018. I will explain the issues with MSBS/GROT C16 FB-M1 below. Most common problem was not holding zero by iron sights, when it was folded and unfolded (in more than 300 rifles). It was discovered that it was result of too shallow hol- lows in the knobs. All GROT rifles were inspected, and all iron sights were replaced by manufacturer. Manufac- turer also increased quality control of sights during production. Of course, it is unacceptable for iron sights to lose zero since these "last resort" when primary optics will defect (electro-op- tical sight is primary sight of GROT – at least by the presuppositions). It would be unreasonable to rate such a firearm as "sucker" because of the iron sights mounted on the MIL- STD-1913 rail, but unfortunately such opinions were common. Second frequent problem report- ed was weapon sling and unfasten- ing of slings swivels. In February 2018 a batch of 214 rifles were in- spected. 72 faulty sling swivels were found, and manufacturer replaced www.fragoutmag.com