Guns of Ukraine war picture thread

[Suck My Glock]

While the U.S. Army Rangers and Navy Seals have used the 84mm M3 Carl Gustav recoiless rifle since 1988, the Australians were using the earlier M2 version long before that. They eventually changed over to the M3 model as well, relegating the M2s to war reserve stocks and mothballed them.

Suddenly, Aussie M2s are showing up in Ukraine. And fortunately, though older and heavier, they still can fire the modern updated ammo.

Another pic of a member of the Belarusian volunteers. They seem to have outfitted themselves primarily with the CZ BREN2. About 50% of them sport SightMark Ultr Shot R-Spec reflex sights.

In a future American insurrection/civil war or whatever,...if you're too fat to run around with a rifle, maybe you can joystick a combat drone like this? This Ukrainian DIY commercial off-the-shelf multi-copter drone has been outfitted to carry and drop munitions. This one is claimed to be accurate to 1 meter from a height of 300 meters.

Vlad, help me fit all these weapons in the car, comrade!
How many can you identify just from the butts? I see one M16, one Vz23 smg, one Vz58, one AK12, 2 RPDs, 3 wood stocked AKs, one SVD, an AT4 and an RPG-26.

Officer of volunteer unit. Donated commercial night vision optic, Makarov pistol, Vz61 buzzgun, RDG-5 grenade, American cigs and GoPro camera.

 

[Suck My Glock]

2 symbols of attempts at world domination in Kyiv in the same photo;...McDonalds and AK.

 

[Suck My Glock]

Germany just announced they are donating MG3 GPMGs, so the sound of Hitler's Zipper will sound over the Ukrainian plains once again.

 

[aroyobob]

In reference to the commercial drone capable of dropping mortar-like munition:

Caption of video: Claimed to be a Ukrainian drone dropping munitions on a Russian vehicle.

https://twitter.com/UAWeapons/status/1507836952694988804?s=20&t=EEHlLRD6DRKKzHyE3b52GQ

 

[That Guy]

Looks like another Maxim, this time in Russian hands (in a Loncin industries motorized delivery tricycle.)

another maxim.jpeg

You know what you DON’T see in all these pictures of Russian Maxims?


Condenser cans. If Peter Kokalis were alive he’d be ranting and frothing at the mouth like the Tasmanian Devil on meth (but it didn’t take much provocation for him to do that anyway).

 

[Suck My Glock]

Nothing warms the cockles like a pile of AK74s. Unfortunately, these were captured from the Ukrainians by Russians.

 

[Suck My Glock]

https://twitter.com/war_noir/status/1508464081195479042

 

[aroyobob]

Looks like another Maxim, this time in Russian hands (in a Loncin industries motorized delivery tricycle.)

another maxim.jpeg

You know what you DON’T see in all these pictures of Russian Maxims?

Condenser cans. If Peter Kokalis were alive he’d be ranting and frothing at the mouth like the Tasmanian Devil on meth (but it didn’t take much provocation for him to do that anyway).

funny you mention that. What I did notice is that a number of them seem to have an opening on the top of the jacket for adding water. I'm guessing the water in the jacket just boils off and then the crew adds more. I thought it might be because the weapons were expected to be dragged along(thus the wheels,) and a fragile tube + can wouldn't last long.

 

[That Guy]

Looks like another Maxim, this time in Russian hands (in a Loncin industries motorized delivery tricycle.)

another maxim.jpeg

You know what you DON’T see in all these pictures of Russian Maxims?

Condenser cans. If Peter Kokalis were alive he’d be ranting and frothing at the mouth like the Tasmanian Devil on meth (but it didn’t take much provocation for him to do that anyway).

funny you mention that. What I did notice is that a number of them seem to have an opening on the top of the jacket for adding water. I'm guessing the water in the jacket just boils off and then the crew adds more. I thought it might be because the weapons were expected to be dragged along(thus the wheels,) and a fragile tube + can wouldn't last long.

Back in the day (I mean WAY back in the day) trained heavy machine gun crews knew how to move and emplace their guns by disconnecting and reconnecting the condenser hoses. I once talked to an M1917 Browning MG squad leader (M1917’s were aptly called “heavy machine guns in WWII) and he related to me in great detail how much it sucked dragging that gun up, over, and thru hedgerows in Normandy. The condenser can was crucial for the sustained fire of the 1917. It’d be just as true for the Russian Maxims. IIRC an M1917 all up weighed 100 pounds and a Russian Maxim with wheeled mount, gun, shield, and can weighed 150 pounds. Yeah, you’re probably right about them leaving the jackets open to cool the barrel but I’m uncertain if they are adding water. The reason that water fill port is so large was to help the gun crews by making it easier for them to put snow and ice in that jacket in order to cool the gun. Now I’ve never fired a Russian Maxim but it’d imagine that the volume of sustained fire needed to cause the water to steam off would make it very difficult to see what you were shooting at particularly with a huge opening. My gut feeling is a) the condenser cans over time were lost/misplaced/had dry rotted hoses, and b) not a lotta people are around who are proficient with Maxims.

 

[Suck My Glock]

not a lotta people are around who are proficient with Maxims.

That's the truth!

I can claim to having probably more experience maintaining Maxims than most Ukrainians or Russians, merely by fact that a good friend has 3 of them. (You may have seen him at Big Sandy or in a couple videos with Ian at Forgotten Weapons.) Until this month, I doubt but a few depot armorers had much knowledge about them. Being allowed to fondle "Finicky Bi*ch" as an assistant gunner included being taught how to disassemble the lock and set the timing on the fuzee (recoil) spring and replace barrels. And coming up with replacement coolant seals and fittings is no easy task, either.

 

[Suck My Glock]

Here is a group of Ukrainian Border Guards in Kharkiv with their recently donated .50 BMG Desert Tech HTI bullpup.

 

[That Guy]

not a lotta people are around who are proficient with Maxims.

That's the truth!

I can claim to having probably more experience maintaining Maxims than most Ukrainians or Russians, merely by fact that a good friend has 3 of them. (You may have seen him at Big Sandy or in a couple videos with Ian at Forgotten Weapons.) Until this month, I doubt but a few depot armorers had much knowledge about them. Being allowed to fondle "Finicky Bi*ch" as an assistant gunner included being taught how to disassemble the lock and set the timing on the fuzee (recoil) spring and replace barrels. And coming up with replacement coolant seals and fittings is no easy task, either.

I used to know Peter Kokalis fairly well and he’s about the only guy in my experience who truly was proficient with water-cooled weapons (well, J. Curtiss Earl did too but I only met him-I never knew him). PGK had some pretty spectacular examples of Vickers (he claimed he had the only Vickers factory MG chambered in 7.62X54R extant) but they were buried so far in the back of one of his gun rooms I doubt he ever fired them much. But yeah-he loved Maxim types. If you wanted to get a laugh outa him, no matter what the occasion, all you had to do was say in a German accent, “IT MUST BE MOUNTED ON A TRIPOD!” PGK was even of the opinion they’d still have relevance in the modern world protecting static installations and I tried unsuccessfully on several occasions to get him to understand why this was kinda stupid but I finally gave up. That was one of his major faults: he understood military weapons, i.e. the mechanics, design, history, and variations thereof, but he just had no grasp of the real world boots on the ground use of these weapons.

 

[Suck My Glock]

Weapon appears to be a TS.M.308 sniper rifle —which is essentially a local copy of Brügger & Thomet APR308, produced by "Tactical Systems". These are Border Guard Force members.

 

[Suck My Glock]

Notice the little green guy has a Vz61 Scorpion slung at his side. Also, the M2 .50 BMG on the truck. These are Georgian volunteers.

 

[Suck My Glock]

Fighters with recently obtained Leica Rangemaster CRF 2400-R Rangefinders and some rare hardware:
.50 Cal Barrett M107A1 AMR, a rare "Accuracy International" AXMC sniper rifle with Archer TSA-9 thermal scope and UKROP UAR-15 rifle can be seen.

Mexican-American Marine Corp vet with his Malyuk and IPI suppressor

 

[Suck My Glock]

A VZZ Vintorez captured by Azov in Mariupol. Note that the mags have two different kinds of ammo inserted; 7N9 blue tip (Precision ammo) and 7N12 black tip (Improved body armour penetration)

Not all weapons recovered from the battlefield can be reused. This AK12 was in a BTR hit by artillery. Bouncing around inside a steel box produces results like this.

Donyetsk separatist volunteers get the crappy hand-me-down weapons, yet are still thrown into the front. The 2 guys closest to the camera both have Mosin-Nagants, while the guy furthest away has an AK. Their burnt out BTR-70 has them stranded in Mariupol.

 

[Mike-4]

As a fan of all things AK-47 / AK-74, keep these pics coming!

 

[That Guy]

Generally when stamped receiver Kalashnikovs such as AKM’s are in vehicles which have exploded they break in half with the fracture point being just behind the trunnion. I saw this happen to numerous AKM’s in Iraq irrespective of manufacturer. Never saw a milled AK that was in a vehicle explosion.

 

[Suck My Glock]

I don't think this guy has enough ammo.

 

[That Guy]

I don't think this guy has enough ammo.

Might need a spare barrel though……