While I was traveling down south, I stopped in a Army Surplus Store. Now this isn’t your average, run of mill, surplus shop. The proprietor had quite the personal collection on display! More on that later.
But one thing that did grab my eye was this 22lr M249 SAW trainer. The owner seemed to be convinced it had come out of Blackwater’s east coast training facility in Moyock, NC. It was his understanding this was one of a few 22 caliber (That’s 22LR not 223) SAW’s they used for initial familiarization training. I would guess these would be used by “civilian” contractors who may have had zero firearms experience, as opposed to their “para-military” contractors working actual security billets.
But my guess is as good as yours.
After Blackwater went through it’s post Iraq War drawn down, these ended up on the secondary market. At least that is the story I was told. Buy the gun, not the story as they say.
While most of the items in his personal collection were not for sale (NFS), I did get the owner to offer me a price on this item. I recall it was $7000.
Pretty cool rifle. Interesting story. $7000 dollars? It’s still sitting there if you are interested.
Marky
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