SAW

The saw is perhaps one of my favorite all time weapons ever. 

I carried this automatic wonder during my first deployment to Iraq.  It was a big, heavy beast compared to everyone else's M-16's, but let me tell you that while carrying it I felt very comfortable about getting into a fire fight.  I PTA to carry, but it'll be your best friend if trouble ever finds you.  I hear a lot of complaints about it, but I never experienced any problems with it. The only time it ever jammed on me was due to the crappy blank ammo we were using.  It's not so big that it can't be fired from the shoulder like a rifle.  You won't be able to hold it in that position for too long unless your the Terminator but when you fire full auto it helps keep the gun level. 
Here's a pic of me and "Big Medicine," my SAW.  On my IBA body armor you can see a large green pouch, (under my right hand) that is an Army issue ammo pouch for the 200 round drums.  Like many Army issued pieces of equipment, it didn't work.  You couldn't close the flap when a drum was in and if you made anything like a "lean over" motion, the drum would automatically eject itself.  I had to carry my ammo in a back pack until I ordered some civilian made drum pouches from Spec-Ops.  

The quick change handle had a nasty habit of breaking and I never had to switch the barrel out but for some reason my command was fanatical about carrying the extra barrel with me. That was a joy I could have done without.  My sling there was three point sling made for M4's, but I jury rigged it for my SAW.
One night, during me rare night off, my sergeant comes and says "Hill, they need you for a patrol.  Actually, they need your SAW."  So, instead of watching "The Ring 2" like I had planned, I got to go outside the wire and patrol through a garbage dump.  It was very surreal.  There were small fires burning where homeless Iraqis were squatting.  I could see the far off spotlights of the FOB (Forward Operating Base) and we walked through this place with barely a glance from the homeless.  I didn't do a lot of foot patrols because we did more convoys.  I was the .50cal gunner but I had the SAW in case the 50 went down.  I was one heavily armed mo-fo.
The SAW is a Belgian weapon that's licensed to be made in the USA.  It fires the 5.56mm round, the same as the M-16's and M4's. And the Marines want to replace it with...an M4, but that's a topic for another time.  The South Koreans use their own copy of the SAW called a K3, made by Daewoo.   
Over the years some improvements have been made.  Here's un updated SAW with some features I wish I had.  The stock was too long on my old SAW so a collapsible one would have been greatly appreciated. A vertical fore grip would have made handling MUCH easier and an optic would have been welcomed.