Ian and Larry is maybe the best combination of academic and practical knowledge in the guntuber community. Outstanding.

When I was stationed at Kunsan Air Base, I used to carry a M-16, no A1, no A2, just M-16 A nothing. It had the early sights, triangular handguards, 3 prong flash suppressor, no forward assist and chrome bolt. It belonged in a museum.

“I haven’t modified it because I don’t feel like hitting the prison again”

This video is gold: we really get what the soldiers actually do, compared to how military and companies design the guns.

I finally have something featured on Forgotten Weapons. I love those Pilot G-2 pens.

As a young Marine in the late 80's early 90's I remember double mags taped together and lights attached to handguards. I also want to thank Larry for pointing out most people in the military (while they served) aren't into the firearms to the point we knew all of the designations and variants. Sometimes people think military personnel know everything about every weapon but in reality it's just a tool and most know enough to use it correctly, depending upon if they used it as a part of their job. Great video as always, thank you for your work. I'm sharing this old school info on my social media.

In 30 years, you’ll have to explain the Yeet Cannon

Outstanding video once again. Plus, the new book on WWII firearms is amazing. Great work Ian, I love how far the channel and your success have come over the years. You’ve earned every sub and cent. Here’s to continued success in the future!

Ian just lets Larry talk and only asks the occasional clarification - great interviewer. Larry is so authentic. He doesn’t need to act tacti-cool and distant, he just talks and you know he’s the real thing.

18:23 the mags even have old followers. The attention to detail is impeccable in this clone

"I remember seeing in the armourers room they had sawed off the carry handle and bolted on a piece of picitiny rail." That sentence makes me want to be a armourer so badly.

My friends laughed at me when I fixed and old keyboard with some loose keys by rolling up and jamming a piece of toilet paper cardboard beneath the key, It makes me feel good knowing this guy folded and jammed a piece of MRE cardboard between his two mags to get his jungle-style setup done.

All of the real world trial and error that went into the modifications, like the rubber band for the IR cap, inner tube for dive light, specially drilled receiver extension position for body armor, etc is just fascinating. Larry is the perfect guy to explain it all😎

i always found the "proto M4's" more cooler than the M4 Carbines themselves

I have a 90s Bushmaster XM15 government use only marked with a fixed carry handle. I love it. It's my favorite rifle out of the 10 ARs I own. It may be 90s outdated tech but i love how robust it is.

Infinity War is the most ambitious crossover event in history Gun Jesus and Delta Force Dad:

I can’t wait for Larry and Ken to do a review on your WWSD carbine.

Love listening to guys like Larry. Everyone thinks SF troops are all Gucci kit but a lot of the stuff they do with their kit is basically bodging with tape and glue to get things to work the way they need. No matter how new it is they'll still adapt it.

you should turn this type of video into a regular series with various vets who go through the weapons they carried.

I love the pragmatism that comes through in these interviews, it's great to see a discussion like this on practical use more so than competition or 2gun.

US Military requisitions: "We've spent one hundred million dollars on developing and producing the very best, and worst, illumination equipment money can buy!" Delta Force: "We has flashlight held together with rubber bands and duct tape"

"Gordies gone man. I'll be outside. Good luck."

I am still in the navy and I am issued a FN M4 upper receiver with a colt XM177 lower that I can tell has been rebuilt by Crane multiple times!!!!! In 2019!!!!!!

I had no idea I bought a Delta approved Aimpoint for my Sako L579 back in mid 80's here in Finland. My son has that combo today. He threaded the barrel and goes out in the woods with his buddies as free men.

"Basically a 200 meter gun in the desert....a joke" Sage advice

I've got a Norwegian Army/Home Guard manual on patrolling from the 1950s, and there's illustrations of the same type of mag clamping in there, using a stick or pencil as the stand-off between the mags

Right handed with a dominant left eye. Glad im not the only one

Yes I had similar modifications to my marlin 22 racoon gun when I was 7

Delta force sounds so badass That's like something from an 80ies action flick staring an oiled up body builder

The crossover we needed

When he said he's right handed but left eye dominant, that really made me realize the level in which special forces operate I just never could have imagined. You're trying to achieve a level of success where things like that are taken into account. It's also said so matter of factly that this is presented in such a cooler way, to me, then some YT video like "we sat down with a former Navy Seal and here are the top TEN things THEY DON'T TELL YOU!"

As a 10 year veteran Marine I find it so interesting that once upon a time carbines were considered weapons for noncombatants, support types with other primary roles, while the long guns were for the front lines. Then there was a change where carbines became the sought after standard for front line combatants, relegating left over long rifles for the support types and rear echelon. And now, which is the most interesting part, the military seems to be going back to giving the long n heavies back to the front lines lol.

Reminds me of the pictures and stories of my dad's equipment and modifications from his time in the Rangers around the early 80's. They'd put vinyl camo contact paper on the handguards and stocks of their M16A1's and use various modifications to their slings to make them easier to carry at the ready. Then there was also the mags. They'd run paracord through the floorplates to achieve what we'd now call a 'mag pull' and put duct tape around the bottom 1/3 of the mags to keep them from rattling in the pouches. He still has a full set of those mags (his spare set for inspections) and we built a replica rifle for him a few years back. Of course, being somebody that actually knew how to shoot, they also had him as the sniper for a time. Now at the time the job was simply called 'sniper', though modern types would prefer to call it designated marksman. Either way it was pre-Army sniper school, so they sent some people to learn from the Marines instead and come back to teach the rest. His rifle was one of the early M21s (scoped and accurized M14), based on what I can tell from his pictures. Early enough to still have a commercial Redfield ART scope that was painted over, rather than an actual contract one that was matte anodized. But the real amusing part was the improvised cheek piece. I kid you not, they duct taped a pack of 'sanitary napkins' to the stock to make a cheek piece. Apparently it worked very well, certainly better than the leather cheek piece he got for his 'functional repro' M21 (couldn't get the right scope, so we made do with a modern one that functions mostly the same as the ART I scope). And finally, inspired by his desire to make repros of his rifles, I (having not actually been in the military) made my own version of what I'd do to make my idea of a customized service rifle. I did go with the M16A2 as the base partly because I grew up around M1s and M14s and had gotten used to that level of adjustability to the sights (as had the Marines that pushed for that sight), but opted for a chrome bolt carrier, because I've always found that (well done) chrome plating cleans the easiest of all of the coatings I've had experience with. I also used the taller, skinnier C7-style of handguard, never liked the full-sized, full-round M16A2 type, then camo dipped the funiture to emulate that vinyl contact paper that he used to use. All in all, it's been the best of the AR-15s we've built together, haven't had another one go together as easily and it's accurate and reliable, if a little old-fashioned and 80's looking (and yes, I do have a slightly more modern one to grab in case civilization breaks down, but I'd still consider that A2 perfectly useable).

rubberbanding a flash to your mag is the real-life equivalent of hot keying your grenades

Always really impressed by Larry's attention to details. You can see the amount of attention he pays to potential hazards and the thought he puts into *everything*.

We never adjusted our A2 rear sights, we just new our holds. You can easily shoot out to 300 meters without any adjustments

Towards the end of the video you mentioned the Air Force M16 and some of the variants. When I was in Afghanistan in 2011-2012 I was issued an M16A2, but the first thing I noticed was that the lower was a completely different color and fairly worn. It was marked Colt AR-15 M16 and it had an "A2" electropenciled next to M16 and over by the selector switch it had "Safe", "Semi", and in the final position where it was blank "BURST" was electropenciled in. It was a partial fence lower and so I think it would have been the Colt 604, and when I did a serial number search the date of issue to the USAF would have been 1964/65 time frame.

"You need to have different tools in your toolbox" - I'm glad Larry said this and that he said it specifically to Ian. I have a solid appreciation for what 5.56 can do and a substantial amount of respect for Ian and Karl, but I'm still not convinced by their "5.56 is all you need" mantra. Being stuck with 5.56 in open terrain seems like a nightmare engagement. Having one general issue rifle in one caliber is something that a small nation with homogenous terrain and no foreign military missions could pull off and the US don't particularly fit any of those categories :D _EDIT: I would hate to misquote I&K and to be quite honest, most of the times they so vividly defended the 5.56 was when people asked them whether it should be directly _*_replaced_*_ (and they're right, it absolutely shouldn't). Nonetheless they still often give the impression that it doesn't even need to be _*_complemented_*_ by anything else (and IMO it does)._

I can't tell you how special it is to hear LAV speak like this. To an Australian gun guy and for the others down here, Larry is a National Treasure for us. I hope he's respected even more vehemtly in the US. Awesome.

Got that XM177A2 back 1968, down there, worked flawlessly. May be it's me, but I'm alive.

I love seeing modifications that are seemingly rough field bodges that actually have real careful consideration for practicality.

Great in-depth overview! Always interesting to know what thought and modded guys in the field.

Oh, does this count as a collab?

It’s comforting to know that we have intelligent guys like this in our Armed Forces who are real experts on the tools they need to accomplish their missions.

I left SO in '88 but, one of the neatest things about being around back then was the creativity, especially with the armorers. Ours built an A2 with a 22 inch barrel to test as a DM rifle, loved that little tack driver. Comm guys were always coming up with new ways to get more out of our equipment. Everything was new and shiny and kind of crappy but, definitely worth the work to have a base to view all the cool stuff the kids have now.

>Commercial military arms design "We've designed a highly modular, customization system with ample mounting options via out standardized rail system and factory built brackets for quick and easy swapping and fine-tuning it to the individual soldier" >Soldier: Duck tape, glue, and a dremel

This is a one of a kind video seriously. Seeing what the unit goes through rain sleet snow and sunny, it’s interesting seeing what the troops on the ground do to adapt to the mission. Thanks Larry and Ian for this very informative and historical video

This episode is SO GOOD. More of this, when possible please!

It is really quite incredible how far we've come in a few short decades in terms of tactical weaponry. This was a tier one setup not all that long ago. Today you can equipt a PSA with 100 dollars worth of Amazon accessories and have a far superior setup all for under $1k. I'd still take this gem all day though.

I love collabs between my favorite KZfaqrs!!! So much knowledge in these two. Keep up the great videos!

The ship I retired from, USS John C Stennis, had at least one M-16A3 that it issued to armed sentries that had an XM-16-A1 marked lower on it circa 2013. No fence around the magazine release, and the parkerizing was really old. The division I was in when I retired had two bodies who were working in Security, and one of them came by the office to chat while armed up, and he had the rifle. I had a mild freak out when I looked at it, because I knew what it was, but the other guy didn't care. Lower receivers don't really wear out, so I'm sure NSWC Crane rebuilt the receiver into the A3 configuration and sent it back out.

Received my copy of the WWII Volume II book today. :)

Wow, I didn’t know Larry Vickers was a delta operator. Much respect ✊🏼 this is an awesome collaboration Ian, hope to see more content from you guys

That carry handle mount looks way better than the goose neck one I was issued as a PVT.

This was a great video, thanks Ian and LAV for putting this together!

It’s amazing the in-depth knowledge Larry and Ian have and share.

I have a bunch of pics with my DCU shirt tucked in in Iraq in ‘03 and they always get questions. Long before the dump pouch we shoved empty mags down our blouse!

Pretty badass interview. I carried a Colt kind of like this during my first tour in Iraq. It was an M16 marked lower, with a Colt old-style carry handle CAR upper and an old-style aluminum buttstock. Most in my unit had newer normal Colt M4s, but for some reason this old oddball rifle was still in circulation and I got it. I thought it was cool.

This style of video is awesome, I love the stories and personal touch from Larry

A wonderful combination, I could listen to these two all day.

It’s really impressive how creative the military had to get attaching accessories prior to the adoption of picatinny rail uppers and quad rails

Getting "Black Hawk Down vibes" everyone? Because *Larry Vic's Colt Model 723 Set-Up* "perfectly screams" _BHD_ to me. 😅

I always knew of this rifle as the Car-15, I’m glad I took the time to learn more about it and hear interesting stories about how things used to run back then.

Always awesome when two of your favorite KZfaq Gun Personalities come together. That, and it is cool to listen to Larry Vickers talk about his personal experiences; could listen to this dude for hours. Great vid.

One of the best things to see is the collaboration and teaming of the great shooting channels. Whether it is MAC with Erik, Bloke with British Muzzleloaders, Othias and Mae with Ian, -and now Larry with Ian. Great job by all. -Just need to see Larry "taking us through" a full auto STG44 on Paul's "meat target" and the circle will be complete.

But did it run like a champ?

Great to see these two guys sit down and walk through the details.

Love to hear his stories! Also like the improvements and the improvisations... simple, clever and well made solutions!

I can just picture those Delta guys trying to identify this thing: "So it says M16A2..." "But doesn't the A2 have a burst fire switch?" "Why isn't it marked US property?" "What the hell is this thing?"

Aimpoint 2000 used prices just shot through the roof

I really appreciate your videos with Larry. I always learn a lot of really cool stuff from sort of a different vein than usual FW content. Great video, guys.

Wonderful piece of history, as always. Great work. Thanks for sharing Larry, keep these videos coming Ian!

As a marine going from the A1 to the A2 I loved the A2 rear sight.. once I got it figured out.. love the video 👍😊

You definitely can see those guys guarding Schwarzkopf in Desert Storm holding their CAR15's. Also a pic or 2 from Panama and even some Scud Hunter pics showed guys with em, too. I swear I saw a Colt 635 SMG in one of the pics. It definitely wasn't 5.56mm ammunition going into that AR15. First time I've ever heard of an AR15 SMG variant.

Awesome video, I love how larry showed us the gun that delta carried. I find these rifles extremely fascinating.

Two of the most informed people in the industry. Really good interview and great to see you both on the same screen. Thanks gents.

Having joined the infantry in '96, I remember the variation of just the types and models in the service weapons. The FNs always turned an odd purple color.

20:56 When I was in BCT, I was issued an M16A2 that was marked "Colt M16 A1" and the "A1" was scratched out and "A2" stamped in its place. Most of the other troops had FNH M16A2 rifles.

Thanks Larry for such interesting and informative info! Thanks Forgotten Weapons for one of your best videos.

Perfect example of a weapons system that's balanced for most environments, excellent interview with Larry and what makes Delta an incredible special force.

This is awesome.. When field expediency was a skill of a light infantryman.

Man, nice video. Nice to see a guest who is very practiced in real world use of this weapon.

Awesome setup! I love the touch you give it to fit your application.

That aimpoint 2000 was my very first red dot sight. 1989, mounted it on my first handgun, a ruger mk2. 6 months later I got my first ar (Olympic arms a2) and mounted that aimpoint 2000 to the carry handle just like that. Good memories!

When I was at Bragg in the 2000s, we had a cag guy come teach us some updated CQB TTPs and some load out tips and that included a few options for the double mag setup shown here. I don't envy a guy that spends more time in a shoot house than his own house, but I can't say I'm not glad they're there.

I just finished a clone of this build (some minor differences, no Mag-Lite, Burris TRS-25 instead of the aimpoint) and I plan to run it at the next Desert Brutality.

Love the tig welding torch switch on the diving flaslight.

Very cool video and rifle. I like that he clearly knows so much about it but is still humble enough to admit when he doesn't know a certain detail.

Brownells should make the A1/A2 upper receiver Larry is talking about: A2 dual apertures in a slick sided A1 upper with an A2 shell deflector.

I love the GI ingenuity. We always had to make-do.

Nothing better than a professional who knows his craft and knows what works in the real world. Great stuff.

Mr. Larry Vickers, thank you so much-I thought it was just me with the steel double mag holder causing rounds vibrating out on the spare mag!! Mine especially was doing it with my Ruger SR556 in 6.8 SPC, only made in that caliber by them one year, and in gas piston just like I wanted. I like to think I was ahead of the curve, even got into internet fights, about the 6.8SPC AND gas piston being superior. Using quick lean targets, like a 4x4 against a medium sized oak tree, I had Silver State Armory 6.8SPC 115gr OTMs go through the 4x4 and into the softer center of the tree and explode. It did not take many rounds, to our surprise, to see the tree fall over!

Love how Larry said "Your average bear." Must love picnic baskets too!

Great stuff! Mr. Vickers, I used an Aimpoint 2000 on my 45-70 Marlin for quite a few years and really liked it! It is what you said and then some! PS, I think that QXL is/was made by Ikelight. I also dove and used one of them too

I remember these from the video game series Delta Force by Novalogic. Never thought Delta Force really did use this gun in the 90s.

Seriously cool video to watch. Great collab. Thanks for the awesome content as always!

The model I had in service, good stuff. Though, didn't have all the add-ons shown here.

I’ve been using Vortex optics on my ARs. I have a .300 WM, 5.56 and a 6.8mm SPC. The 5.56 I only use in competition. It’s been lightened and anodized black and Cerakote did the upper and lower in a dark pink with a Hello Kitty for me. The 300 I don’t shoot much because it kinda scares me. I won in at a competition in Kentucky for junior 3 Gun; it’s made by Falkor Defense. My 5.56 is made by LWRC and the 6.8mm is a Daniel Defense. I’m still working on what works best for me. I’m sure I’d be more motivated if I had to use my rifles for work like you did, Mr Larry! P.S My dad got a Sig MPX in 9mm with a Vortex red dot. It has a magazine of Buffalo Bore +P jacketed hollow points. It also has a barrel light by SureFire. Dad thought I’d be more comfortable with the machine pistol than just a Glock 19X Gen 5.

VERY interesting hearing Mr. Vickers' perspective and the history!

My dad has one of those. Bought it in the 80’s and got grandfathered under the old laws here in California before all the bans. Built in flash suppressor, 5.56 barrel. Looks exactly like that without the scope and gernade launcher. Awesome rifle.