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Channel 4 now, bomb squad


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"those are assault rifle magazines"
"should he have those?"
"No"
"We'll take them then"

Defusing dangerous ordnance is one thing, deciding on the legality of items (and getting it VERY wrong) is another.
Had this happen to a local army surplus shop with pistol & rifle magazines in it for sale. Seized by the police - "these are not legal to own"

Always recall one of the club members in the North East died. He was a very well known character.
Lived alone, so when they went to clear his flat, his collection of inert rounds and other items caused a lot of local press headlines...!

Always gets me.
100% legal to buy & own - yet as asoon as an AT sees it, they implement the same rules that a serving squaddie would be held to if thye were found with blinds, empty cases, etc. & seize it.

NOT knocking the AT's/ATO's - IF I wanted to do that I have a LONG list of *** & funny stories from my time in Didcot base with them...ah, to be back at DLSA
 

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7 minutes ago, saddler said:

"those are assault rifle magazines"
"should he have those?"
"No"
"We'll take them then"

Defusing dangerous ordnance is one thing, deciding on the legality of items (and getting it VERY wrong) is another.
Had this happen to a local army surplus shop with pistol & rifle magazines in it for sale. Seized by the police - "these are not legal to own"

Always recall one of the club members in the North East died. He was a very well known character.
Lived alone, so when they went to clear his flat, his collection of inert rounds and other items caused a lot of local press headlines...!

Always gets me.
100% legal to buy & own - yet as asoon as an AT sees it, they implement the same rules that a serving squaddie would be held to if thye were found with blinds, empty cases, etc. & seize it.

NOT knocking the AT's/ATO's - IF I wanted to do that I have a LONG list of *** & funny stories from my time in Didcot base with them...ah, to be back at DLSA
 

I read one of the autobiography books from a former SAS soldier and when someone was killed on ops they would round up his gear and help clear their stuff up at home. One guy was found to have enough "just incase" weapons AND plastic explosives lying around to fund a private army haha

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3 minutes ago, Rob85 said:

I read one of the autobiography books from a former SAS soldier and when someone was killed on ops they would round up his gear and help clear their stuff up at home. One guy was found to have enough "just incase" weapons AND plastic explosives lying around to fund a private army haha

As I said, I was at DLSA
The RAOC 11 ORD were there at the same time
...all under the same COD Bicester umbrella

I was MoD civvy, so on about a third of the pay of the RAOC guys doing the same job, plus zero accomodation for me - so I was ALWAYS trying to find a job vacancy elsewhere, esp. COD Longtown. THAT would have been perfect.....
My boss always liked to regale me of the old COD Longtown chap. Worked there for all his life. Knew the job inside out & backwards.
Sadly, got to a certain age, passed away. Very much missed....
A few weeks pass. The widow phones his old boss, "When are you coming to take all his stuff back to the depot?"

He'd been squirreling all sorts of odds & **** away at home. For decades.
HOW the house was not a 80 metre wide crater nobody ever knew. There was stuff there sweating more than a Geordie lass in a fur lined bikini....ancient old TNT, shells, grenades. WP bombs from the Northover, the lot. It was literally several tons of kit...ALL live and very much NOT legal to own. Every nook & cranny, the loft, the shed, the garage...live ordnance.
It's probably used as a horror story with new AT/ATO's to this day - though this all happened in the 80's - so it may have been beaten to the role by more recent goings on

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I watched it hoping to see one of the Wheelbarrows I used to make in operation but then realised it’s the RLC chaps so they would have had Cutlass anyway (the successor to WB) - had some fun times training the operators on the robots and have nothing but huge respect and admiration for them putting themselves in harm’s way. Their wives are also amazing...wives I met were some of the strongest people I have ever met with their husbands out of contact in some far away desert country dealing with IEDs day in day out. 

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25 minutes ago, oscarsdad said:

I watched it hoping to see one of the Wheelbarrows I used to make in operation but then realised it’s the RLC chaps so they would have had Cutlass anyway (the successor to WB) - had some fun times training the operators on the robots and have nothing but huge respect and admiration for them putting themselves in harm’s way. Their wives are also amazing...wives I met were some of the strongest people I have ever met with their husbands out of contact in some far away desert country dealing with IEDs day in day out. 

Which mark of Wheelbarrow did you build?

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28 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Which mark of Wheelbarrow did you build?

I managed the development and test of the Mk9...latest one which was for export. 
 

It had things like touchscreen controls and actual joysticks instead of those awful switches on Mk8 which the UK forces were afflicted with! 
 

The Met have some but I am not aware of any other Mk9s operating in the UK. 
 

My Browning Maxus has a chuck out of the foreend as it first started life on the robots! 

Edited by oscarsdad
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1 hour ago, oscarsdad said:

I managed the development and test of the Mk9...latest one which was for export. 

It had things like touchscreen controls and actual joysticks instead of those awful switches on Mk8 which the UK forces were afflicted with! 

The Met have some but I am not aware of any other Mk9s operating in the UK. 

My Browning Maxus has a chuck out of the foreend as it first started life on the robots! 

Last version I worked with was the Mk8.

We had Browning Humpbacks with 13" barrels!

 

1 hour ago, AVB said:

I think to do that job you must have a screw loose (thankfully some people do). “Who wants to deliberately take a chance of being blown up?”  “I’ll give it a go sir”. 

mental but brave. 

You should try adrenalin in large doses, it really is rather good!:w00t:

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Just now, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Exactly, similar to the buzz from parachuting!

I remember entering a corner years ago on the road on knobbly tyres on my enduro bike realising it’s probably the end . What a buzz tho when you make it alive . I sat and cried shaking but also felt great. 
 

we are all going out of this world one way so doing something amazing to help is up there
 

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3 hours ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Last version I worked with was the Mk8.

We had Browning Humpbacks with 13" barrels!

 

You should try adrenalin in large doses, it really is rather good!:w00t:

You’d have loved the Mk9 then...positional presets, flying the gripper head from the console, much better cameras, LED lighting....a massive improvement. 
 

sadly the factory in Coventry has closed now I believe. I loved working there. 

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5 hours ago, AVB said:

I think to do that job you must have a screw loose (thankfully some people do). “Who wants to deliberately take a chance of being blown up?”  “I’ll give it a go sir”. 
 

mental but brave. 

Why? It either goes well and everyone thinks you’re a hero, or, it’s not your problem anymore!!

(said with tongue firmly in cheek!!)

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4 hours ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Last version I worked with was the Mk8.

We had Browning Humpbacks with 13" barrels!

The A5 shotgun was how I found out that the RAOC had a Bomb Squad down the road from the previous employers....
(They were down as a "dealer" on the Browning UK approved RFD list)

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