Pouch, Ammunition, M-24 Sniper Weapon System (SWS)

Move to

General Information

Name: Pouch, Ammunition, M-24 Sniper Weapon System (SWS) ¹ .
Country of Origin: The United States.
Date of Manufacture: c 1995.
Manufacturer: Yet to be identified.
NATO Stock Number (NSN): Yet to be identified.
Mil Spec: Yet to be identified.
Contract Number: Yet to be identified.
Colour: Olive Drab (OD).
Equipment Family: Sniper Weapon System (SWS).
Number Of compartments: One.
Volume Capacity: 750ml.
Weight: 100g.
Waterproof: No.

History

With the M-24 Sniper Weapon System (SWS) entering service in the late 1980s, the U.S. Army replaced the M-21 Sniper Weapon System, an accurized M-14 rifle that enabled snipers to carry ammunition in either the Pouch, Small Arms Ammunition, Universal of the M-1956 Individual Load-Carrying Equipment (ILCE) or the Case, Ammunition, M-16, 20-rd Magazine of the M-1967 Modernized Load-Carrying Equipment (MLCE). Both pouches could accommodate two 20-round M-14 magazines.

Unlike the magazine-fed M-21, the new M-24 was a bolt-action rifle based on the Remington Model 700, a design that had already proven itself as the basis of the U.S. Marine Corps’ M-40 sniper rifle during the Vietnam War. Equipped with a detachable five-round magazine, the M-24 required a different method of carrying ammunition. To meet this requirement, a new ammunition pouch was developed, adopting a layout similar to the earlier Case, Ammunition, Shotgun. Rather than carrying magazines, the pouch held twenty loose rounds of 7.62mmX51mm NATO ammunition secured in two rows of elastic loops, allowing the sniper to reload magazines as required.

Description

Fabricated from a single piece of olive drab nylon duck cloth, the pouch is formed into a small rectangular shape.

The pouch’s lid folds over the mouth of the pouch and is secured to the front of the body by two metal domes, one positioned on each side. Sewn to the rear of the pouch is a 50 mm wide nylon webbing strip, which is stitched to form a vertical channel on either side for an ALICE Keeper, Slide, enabling the pouch to be attached to the Belt, Individual Equipment (web belt). A metal drainage grommet is fitted to the base of the pouch, allowing water to drain freely after river crossings.

Inside the pouch, the female sections of the lid domes are reinforced with a second layer of olive drab nylon duck cloth. Attached to both the front and rear internal walls is a 50 mm wide strip of heavy-duty elastic webbing. This elastic has been stitched at regular intervals to form ten individual loops on each side, allowing the pouch to securely carry twenty loose rounds of 7.62mm×51 mm ammunition.