The M-16 is a Good Rifle
BY Herschel Smith
3 hours, 29 minutes ago
This is an oldie from American Rifleman (via WiscoDave).
From the time I came to Vietnam in May 1967 to date, I have been on 82 patrols as an infantry unit commander and have been shot at on 38 separate occasions. From this experience I have several observations which may interest readers of THE AMERICAN RIFLEMAN, especially those who may be slated for combat duty in this area. The standard U.S. infantry rifle in Vietnam is the M16. There have been stories of men getting killed because their M16s jammed in battle. My advice is to ignore these tales. I have carried at different times two M16s as well as two of the stubby little CAR-15s. The CAR-15 is simply an M16 with a short, carbine-length barrel and telescoping stock. With these four arms I have never experienced a jam in 18 months of combat. If given the same care as a .22 rimfire semi-automatic rifle, the M16 will not fail.
[ … ]
I have knocked out Communists at ranges from 50 feet to 750 meters and have yet to use full-automatic fire. There are two reasons why I stress semi-automatic fire. First of all, it is just wasteful of ammunition. The average G.I. carries from 10 to 20 18-round magazines (21 rounds can be squeezed into the M16 magazine, but overfilling can cause jams. One can fire off 20 magazines of ammunition in from 5 to 10 minutes, but then there are likely to be problems.
You can read the rest at American Rifleman.
Of course the M-16 / M4 and AR-15 variants today are good rifles, the current suite of AR-15s even better (in most cases, assuming you don’t buy a “rack” or budget AR).
Here is another image that’s helpful.
All of the initial changes were made by the Army against the advice of Eugene Stoner, and all of the changes you see in the image above were made back to what Eugene Stoner had originally designed.
It remains today an awesome weapon. Personally, I don’t think the DoD should ever have gone with the new ceramic cartridge design. The only change that should have been considered is a re-barrel to 6 mm ARC. It is a awesome cartridge – I know from hunting with it.
John Moses Browing and Eugene Stoner are the greatest weapons designers America ever produced.
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