Reply #71: Most Armor units still had M3 Grease Guns till at least the mid 1990s. [View All]

[happyslug]

My old National Guard unit shared an armory with a Armor repair unit that still was carrying M3 Submachine guns in the late 1980s. Some Units may still have them (Through the generally movement ot the 9mm seems to make that unlikely). Thus the M3 Grease guns are STILL IN STOCK.

Now the problem with the M3 (Which it inherited from the Sten and the German MP38 series of Submachine Guns), is its magazine. The Germans when it came to the MP38 designed a double magazine that was NOT staggered (Like the Thompson, M1 Rifle, the M1898 Mauser, the M16, M14 and almost any other rifle made in the last 100 years), but doubled for greater bullets in the magazine (and cheaper construction). When Britain adopted a Submachine gun (The STEN), Britain adopted the German MP38 magazine. When the US adopted the M3 it was designed to be converted to 9mm so it also used the same magazine (when converted to 9mm). This magazine was the weak part of ALL of these Submachine guns. The Magazine would jam do to this magazine (As the bolt tried ot load two rounds at the same time). After WWII the English modified the STEN to accepted Staggered magazine (This was the Sterling Submachine Gun) and the Swedes took the MP39 design and gave it a proper magazine. Both of these were vast improvements over the WWII version. The M3 Grease guns was NEVER modified to accept a proper magazine, thus NOT a good choice of a close in weapon given other (and better choices.

The better Choice would be the Uzi, it uses a proper magazine and is reliable. It is the best COMBAT Submachine gun you can use (I use the term Combat Submachine gun for the above types of submachine guns, for starting in the 1960s you started to get high price Submachine guns for police use, unlike the Uzis these police submachine guns fire from a close bolt for accuracy and tend to be well made, Uzis and most other Combat Submachine guns fire from an open bolt and were cheap to produce). Given the situation in Iraq what we may need would be Uzis, but most submachine guns have limited range. Thus if a combat Submachine are used it MUST be used with longer range rifles. Thus sooner or later you get back to the M16 or AK47 Assault rifles as the best compromise in a weapon for this type of fighting, and unless you having problem funding M16s and/or Ak47s why opt for the Uzi or any other Combat Submachine gun?