Any Vietnam Vets with knowledge on the use of the XM21 and accessories?

[matthewison]

I was a 1st air cav. / H co. 75th ranger Snipers. Trained in 1970 Bien Hoa Vietnam, ourxm-21 stocks were made of select wood with only the barrel being glass bedded. They were extremely accurate and held there 300 meter zero (offend checked using firing cradle) Iron sights & 3x9 Redfield scope, were zeroed at 300 meters. The Redfield would adjust this point of impact out to 900 meters if zeroed at 300 meter with match grade ammo.
The Redfield’s were only mounted as needed, and carried in a small leather case designed to be mounted to your web gear.
We had the first generation starlight scopes, zeroed at 300 meters only. They were mostly use on firebases, as a hand held aid.
I never saw an xm-21, with a full auto selector switch. We used the standard 20 round Mag.
The better enemy snipers, we encountered (seldom) used the SKS rifle with iron sights, effective only at moderate ranges, certainly no match for the xm-21.. But really the troops often called in a cobra gunship to deal with the problem

[1940upf7]

Hello Don and Col Colt,
I have a Jim Leatherwood owned ARTII also.
Since I acquired that scope, I have been trying to learn more about Jim and his Vietnam experiences. So contacting Mr. Boutin could be a big breakthrough!
Do you have any idea how to contact him, or would you put me in contact with him?
Thanks for your help!
Kevin

[can14]

I have a realist ART 3x9 scope, US ART 11s and Israeli ART 11 Scopes. Israeli scopes have aluminum m14 mounts where as US have steel m14 mounts The israeli scopes
came with us gi m14 rifles

[Col. Colt]

Sadly, I understand that "Hook" Boutin has passed. But there are still quite a few Vietnam era vets surviving, and I would encourage everyone to document as much of that history from "the horse's mouth" ASAP. We have already lost the WWII Generation, largely, and few Korean War vets are heard from.

Glad to hear that the XM-21 was a good piece from people who were there. That is it's reputation, but it's nicer to hear it from someone who waw it in action. CC

[riflegreen297]

I have a tub of original documents (photos/ documents/certificates/ graduate rosters/training schedules/combat after action reports from sniper teams ) from the 1st Sniper School stood up by the 25th ID in Vietnam ran by MAJ. Powell in Vietnam. There are a lot of documents back and forth from Vietnam and Benning dealing with standing up the school, bringing over AMU guys to help instruct, developing the XM-21, Starlight scope, rifle scopes for the XM-21, camouflage and sniper manuals. Photos showing the M-21 being used by the students using the M84, ART and PVS-2. A lot of fascinating documents.
021.jpg IMG_1401.jpgIMG_1402.JPG

[lyman]

I have a tub of original documents (photos/ documents/certificates/ graduate rosters/training schedules/combat after action reports from sniper teams ) from the 1st Sniper School stood up by the 25th ID in Vietnam ran by MAJ. Powell in Vietnam. There are a lot of documents back and forth from Vietnam and Benning dealing with standing up the school, bringing over AMU guys to help instruct, developing the XM-21, Starlight scope, rifle scopes for the XM-21, camouflage and sniper manuals. Photos showing the M-21 being used by the students using the M84, ART and PVS-2. A lot of fascinating documents.
021.jpg IMG_1401.jpgIMG_1402.JPG

you should publish those, or get copies to one of the sniper book folk that plan on a revision so they can include that data (if you have not done so already)