Hey Air Force guys - who remembers the GAU 5/A?

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sigp220.45

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I doubt any of these old warriors are still in the inventory, having morphed into the ubiquitous M-4.



This is how I remember mine. I never paid enough attention at the time - I know they were Colts, but not how they were marked. No forward assist, short barrel with the long flash hider, collapsible stock, and full auto fun switch.

The closest I came to using mine was to warn off a truck load of drunken No-Dak farmboys in the missile fields somewhere in the Minot hinterlands.

I was always told that GAU stood for (in the finest Air Force fashion) "Gun, All Use."

I'd like to recreate it. I wish I had a picture of me with one of my mine back in the day, but that Smith and Wesson seemed so much sexier.

Anybody have any pics of theirs? Memories?
 
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I would not be surprised if a few were hanging out in an long existent AF arms room. You would be amazed at what supposedly "obsolete" hardware ends up "in theater" during mass deployments. Definitely look more handy than a M4 loaded down with a bunch of extra junk.
 
No pictures only memories of the old GAU. I didn't have the rank to be issued one when I was in the Air Force. Only the Flight Chief and Shift Commander carried them. Nothing more intimidating to a new Airman than the old Vietnam Vet Flight Chief coming up to your post with that GAU slung over his shoulder.... The young Butter Bar shift commander, not so much. :)
 
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I didn't get to carry one all that often. Most of the time the rifles were AR-15's with the prong flash hider, no forward assist, but did have full auto. This was the early 80's . The GAU was handier, and I thought way better cool factor.
 
I am pretty sure GAU stands for Gun, AUtomatic - but - there are citings that say it is Gun, Aircraft Unit - which may or may not be true.

I would have to check again, but it follows standard USAF nomenclature for the NSN assigned. Still a nice gun, and probably still in storage somewhere in the USAF, but I am sure they are upgrading since many units that still have early Colt 601 models with "Armalite"marked on them have been sighted still in service - but no longer able to be upgraded.

Here is a link for the various units:
https://bpullignwolnet.dotster.com/retroblackrifle/sitebuilder/images/USAF_Chart-600x450.jpg
 
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The AF seems to hang onto small arms much longer than the Army. Since that is not their primary mission, it kinda makes sense- why throw away a still perfectly serviceable weapon?
 
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GunarSailors said:
Wasn't that long flash hider actually considered a compensator?
Click to expand...

The nomenclature was "moderator".

The ATF ruled it a suppressor. It cuts back on the noise from the shorter barrel. It had some baffles in it. It reduces it back to about what a normal rifle sounded like, so it wasn't "quiet" by any stretch.

They'd get gunked up and start getting louder over time. Soaking it in diesel would take care of it until it got gunked up again.
 
I carried one as a flight chief and shift commander at a couple different bases. Loved the size.
 
In a similar vein did anyone have experience with the CAR-15?
CAR%2015%203_zpshlzkves1.jpg
 
I built a similar gun, an XM-177E2 clone. I need to do a few digitals one of these days. Mine isn't 100% perfect, one can get too crazy on this stuff. The Upper is about 100% but my lower is an older Colt, SPORTER marked, with the plastic stock.

Still looking for a reasonably priced aluminum/vinyl covered butt stock.

EVERY shooter that shoots my XM goes on and on about how light and quick handling it is versus an M-4 or most other modern AR's.

FN in MT
 
Frank237 said:
I built a similar gun, an XM-177E2 clone. I need to do a few digitals one of these days. Mine isn't 100% perfect, one can get too crazy on this stuff. The Upper is about 100% but my lower is an older Colt, SPORTER marked, with the plastic stock.

Still looking for a reasonably priced aluminum/vinyl covered butt stock.

EVERY shooter that shoots my XM goes on and on about how light and quick handling it is versus an M-4 or most other modern AR's.

FN in MT
Click to expand...
My Colt Comando was a Colt model 639 or XM177E2. This was probably the 80s.

629-1-sm-721x237.jpg


It did have a teardrop forward assist, but what I really remember is that this was the first one I had with heat shields in the handguards
 
Wasn't that long flash hider actually considered a compensator?
Click to expand...
The nomenclature was "moderator".

The ATF ruled it a suppressor. It cuts back on the noise from the shorter barrel. It had some baffles in it. It reduces it back to about what a normal rifle sounded like, so it wasn't "quiet" by any stretch.

They'd get gunked up and start getting louder over time. Soaking it in diesel would take care of it until it got gunked up again.
Click to expand...
Colt_Shorty_cut_away_bmp.jpg
 
Isn't GAU also used in the name of the 30mm gun on the A-10? Maybe GAU-8? My memory is rusty on that.

I don't like the short barrels on these little 5.56mm's. The round relies on high velocity for lethality and effectiveness falls off as range increases.

My son found that as range exceeded at most a couple of hundred meters, the M-4 carbine wasn't as potent as he wished. When he went back to Iraq as a security contractor, he was issued a M-4 and a Browning Hi-Power 9mm, but bought a H-K G-3 for missions where he might have to fire at distance or shoot through light cover. The 7.62mm round proved much more effective.

In one case, he had to kill an enemy shooting at him from about 200 meters, from behind an empty 55 gallon drum. Only by using a magazine of armor piercing 5.56mm did he finally kill that man. One round seemed to penetrate the drum and the man fell out from behind it and could be finished off. He wished fervently that he'd carried the G-3 that day.

At close range, the short 5.56mm will suffice, and I suppose it usually performs better than the old .30 carbine, which USAF troops carried before the 5.56mm arrived in the 1960's.
 
I carried one for my (almost) ten years in CCT in the 70's. I wasn't a gun guy much back then, at least not enough to learn a bit more about it. One thing that made me respect it was a night firing exercise up in Scotland. It was a (IIRC) 200 meter range and we were firing tracers. About every third round or so went ricocheting into the night sky.

I liked in and am currently looking for a way to get mt SBR license and have one built for me.
 
Texas Star said:
Isn't GAU also used in the name of the 30mm gun on the A-10? Maybe GAU-8? My memory is rusty on that.

I don't like the short barrels on these little 5.56mm's. The round relies on high velocity for lethality and effectiveness falls off as range increases.

My son found that as range exceeded at most a couple of hundred meters, the M-4 carbine wasn't as potent as he wished. When he went back to Iraq as a security contractor, he was issued a M-4 and a Browning Hi-Power 9mm, but bought a H-K G-3 for missions where he might have to fire at distance or shoot through light cover. The 7.62mm round proved much more effective.

In one case, he had to kill an enemy shooting at him from about 200 meters, from behind an empty 55 gallon drum. Only by using a magazine of armor piercing 5.56mm did he finally kill that man. One round seemed to penetrate the drum and the man fell out from behind it and could be finished off. He wished fervently that he'd carried the G-3 that day.

At close range, the short 5.56mm will suffice, and I suppose it usually performs better than the old .30 carbine, which USAF troops carried before the 5.56mm arrived in the 1960's.
Click to expand...
I agree. 7.62x51 over 5.56x45 any day. However sometimes you must carry what you are issued.

When I have a choice. . . G3k is my favorite

g3k.jpg
 
I was told that GAU stands for Ground Assault Unit, but according to Wikipedia its stands for Gun, Aircraft, Unit. The GAU-5 was the military name for the Colt CAR-15. It had the same 16 inch skinny barrel as the AR-16/M-16, but with the carbine length handguards. It also had the same flash hider as the M-16, not the extended suppressor as seen on the XM-177.
I carried one when doing weapon movements at Camp Bullis in the early 80's. Later, in 1999 when my squadron converted to the TACP mission, we tried to get GAU5s for my ETACs, but luckily, the M4 pipeline was open and we traded in all of our old M-16A1s from factory new M-4s.
 
I never got my hot little hands on one but as an OSI Agent the Security Police K-9 guys I worked with carried them. I would still like to get my hot little hands on one.
 
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