Comments on: AR-15/M16: The Rifle That Was Never Supposed to Be http://www.gundigest.com/article/the-ar-16m16-the-rifle-that-was-never-supposed-to-be Expert advice from the world's leading authorities on gun values, gun prices, gun history, gunsmithing, shooting and tactical gear Tue, 07 May 2013 20:11:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: master gunnyhttp://www.gundigest.com/article/the-ar-16m16-the-rifle-that-was-never-supposed-to-be/comment-page-1#comment-15471 master gunny Tue, 28 Aug 2012 13:48:42 +0000 http://www.gundigest.com/?p=136951#comment-15471 Read Colonel Moore’s book, “We were soldiers one and Young” to get a better understanding of how critical reliability is to a grunt. One passage, regarding Lt. Herricks surounded platoon, say it all. Troops fighting for their lives against overwhelming odds were forced to discard their weapons and pick up those of their wounded comrades in order to stay in the fight. Many times those weapons were also not functioning and so the troops had to rummage through the perimeter to find a working weapon. Trust me, that sucks

]]> By: master gunnyhttp://www.gundigest.com/article/the-ar-16m16-the-rifle-that-was-never-supposed-to-be/comment-page-1#comment-15461 master gunny Tue, 28 Aug 2012 13:42:42 +0000 http://www.gundigest.com/?p=136951#comment-15461 As the armorer for the 6th Engineer Bn I one had to use a hammer and screwdriver to force the bolt into full battery (with a round in the chamber!) in order to clear a malfunction. I was shocked because the weapons was not anywhere dirty enough to explain the severe malfunction. That same day I have another stoppage, same problem, but again the fowling was not that severe. I could go on and on with why I feel the weapon is a poor choice for an infantrymen but suffice to say that I will stick with my M1A and HK-91.

]]> By: master gunnyhttp://www.gundigest.com/article/the-ar-16m16-the-rifle-that-was-never-supposed-to-be/comment-page-1#comment-15451 master gunny Tue, 28 Aug 2012 13:35:06 +0000 http://www.gundigest.com/?p=136951#comment-15451 Gents,
With respects it’s obvious to me that you guys are too young to remember the controversy surrounding the introduction of the M-16. Not mentioned in yourt article were the constant complaints about the weapons, their unreliability, the congressional hearings on the malfunctions that that were literally getting our tropps killed in Vietnam. Numerous accounts of troops found dead in their fighting holes with their weapons diassembled were presented as evidence that the weapon was despised by the troops. Mothers would get urgent letters from their sons asking for cleaning gear and solvents because the weapons fouled so easily and severely. The forward assist, and chrome chamber were just a couple of the modifications necessary to solve some of the problems.

More offensive to me was the remark that the M14 was prone to jams and problems and speaking from experience I can tell you that is exactly the opposite of the truth. The M14 was rock solid reliable, accurate, and robust. The M1-16 fragile, unreliable, ualofre

]]> By: tinock28http://www.gundigest.com/article/the-ar-16m16-the-rifle-that-was-never-supposed-to-be/comment-page-1#comment-12851 tinock28 Tue, 17 Jul 2012 01:46:55 +0000 http://www.gundigest.com/?p=136951#comment-12851 I liked the article on the AR-15/M16 rifle very much, I remember an article back in 1956-57 in one of Gun Mag’s about the AR-10, I thougt at the time it was a good rifle.

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