The M-16 must be considered to be the most successful military rifle in the world. Early problems were the result of poor training, which lead troops to believe that their new rifles needed no cleaning or lubrication,,,,,Chaos ensued, until proper training was carried-out. The direct-impingement gas system has worked just fine, and is in no way inferior to the gas-piston system of the Kalashnikov.
Well DI is. It requires a bolt to be run wetter and blows shit into the upper receiver, is less reliable on shorter barrels and suppressed. A gas piston AR15/M16 is more reliable than a DI gun. DI works, but gas piston is better especially on a 14.5 inch barreled gun.
Are you sure you don't mean the M16A4? During its initial roll out in the Vietnam conflict, the men were only issued one cleaning rod for every five M16A1's.
I'm inclined to disagree with this, M 16 rifles require constant maintenance everyday, sometimes as often as twice a day. Field stripping an M 16 to clean it out and then reassembling it are not quick, easy tasks!! Kalashnikov rifles are designed to withstand nature's elements and over-excessive use. I wouldn't want to go to the front lines with a sensitive rifle like an M 16, or one of it's variants.
That and the fact that it has much superior range and accuracy to an AK-47. It's like my recruiter tells me "Take care of your gear and they take care of you".
the m16 was hated by the first users, but the later users that joined in love it. to respond to those who died because of the m16, the rifle failed at first because it had no cleaning kit, not because it was a bad rifle. If the 5.56 cartridge was a problem, then always aim for the enemy's head, problem solved.
The way he puts his empty mags away before getting a full one...reminds me of the Warhammer 40k Imperial Guard s.o.p. With their power packs for their lasguns/laspistols/etc. Plus the standard Litany of Reloading. “Forgive me, Machine-Spirit, soon you shall be whole again. Receive my gift, Machine-Spirit, swallow the light and spit out death.” (Taking the pack out, muttering the Litany aloud. Inserting a fully charged pack.) Keeps the Lasgun firing for up to 10,000 shots before the focusing lenses need replacing. Plus a tiny bit of cleaning, like a AK-47 level kind of maintenance.
I did basic at Fort Dix, New Jersey from July to September 1972 and remember firing the M-16. It wasn't that difficult to fire but kept jamming. To this very day some of its "grandchildren" still have the same problem.
Is it just me or is the audio about 6 seconds off in this vid? Thanks for sharing it, though! Got an AR15 the other day. Long time AK fan, time to see the advantages this design has over it (and a few of the disadvantages as well)
This fine weapon, was designed to allow a riflemen to carry as much ammunition as possible, to allow for higher mobility, to enhance accuracy and to make the infantryman cherish his m14 and hold onto it as long as possible!
I've seen more issues with M1s and M1As than all other semi-automatic rifles combined. The M16 family of weapons are significantly more reliable in harsh conditions than the previous rifles.
Actually most of the jams were because troops didn't have cleaning kits and weren't trained on how to clean the damn thing. The M16 is extremely reliable when well maintained. The problem wasn't the gun it was with the militaries logistics.
That was part of problem, but weapon rushed into service before being fully tested & refined. The M-16 of 1966 was a much different weapon than the M-16 of 1970.This is all extremely well documented in many sources.Rush to blame soldiers more a CYOA.
Also another experience is a Marine in Vietnam said that instead of the enemy killing them it was there guns itself that got them killed but well know it's a great workhorse but in Vietnam if we stuck with the M14 or maybe an upgraded one maybe just MAYBE the war could have gone in a different direction at the same time M16's and M4's and other guns based of it wouldn't be invented.
Kind of enjoy watching these old TF vids. I like the M16. People give it alot of crap but take any weapon system and give it the wrong ammo and no maintenance and see what happens.
You probably had ones issued by the USAF, or at least ones purchased made by their specs. The army demanded a forward assist, the marines and navy didn’t care, and the Air Force didn’t want one.
The real reason for most of the jamming was because of the army switching to ball powder instead of stick powder right before they were shipped to vietnam so it wasnt as unreliable as it was told, but it still wasnt reliable. Then they put chrome in the barrel in the m16a2 to help with the powder sticking in the barrel.
It's not a bad design. It's that in 1966 it was not built to designer's specification, loaded to designer's spec or maintained to designer's spec. The M16s made after 1966 were actually pretty good. In fact some of them are still used in Vietnam. The most questionable things about the M 16 are; the caliber and the magazines. The magazines were original designed to be disposable & the magazine is where most of the jams are caused but there are some great mags available these days ( P-Mags ).
Any post 1968 AR rifle is a reliable platform that will serve well when maintained, using correct ammo, and proper magazines.The earlier models were not adequately field tested prior to general issue.Problems that occurred were inherent to design, ammo & maintenance, and when discovered, were quickly remedied.To fully understand M16 issue, you have to get into politics & bureaucracy of era('55-'65).Several, well researched books on subject.Still pitiful how brass tried to blame grunts
the source of the M16s legendary unreliability stems from its use in Vietnam. The US government used a bad corrosive powder (not the current WC-844). Not to mention they where shipped over seas told it needs NO LUBRICATION AND NO CLEANING. That is why it initially failed. When you see AR-15s fail today it is because people (government included) used to use cheap non factory parts. Now days soldiers know better and with just a drop of oil, AR-15s tend to last as long as the infamous AK.
It was 1966, they had beer in the patrol bases, camp prostitutes were a primary source of US dollars in some national economies and cigarettes burned all the lead fumes out of the air. Three years later three perfectly sane men rode a million gallons of liquified Hindenburg disaster to the Moon. Fingers off the triggers was something Boy Scouts only practiced when the Scout Master was looking.
Again; you have no personal experience and you cite the gun's performance from 50 years ago. Also, the AK-47 is not a "Heavy hitter". It fires an intermediate cartridge with a much less lethal round than the M16's.
The ultimate argument that the 5.56 NATO is perfectly effective is how the Soviets immediately scrambled to make 5.45 Soviet. All these East German surplus magazine pouches from the Cold War hold four of those big steel 7.62mm magazines, where all the 5.56 armies consider six magazines a bare minimum load.
That is too long of a barrel for a carbine. 14.5" is perfect for a carbine, stretch that to 16" for a light precision rifle. A 5.56 rifle with an 18" barrel is getting close to a battle rifle in size and weight, but without the punch of 7.62x51mm. And, as I said, unless you're going to constantly running both suppressed and unsuppressed and/or with short barrels (less than 14.5"), there isn't much reason to switch from the M4.
We should all remember the brave men who died, because of their jammed M-16s and the disgraceful response of the brass(blaming soldiers not design). The AK-47, was heavily field tested and constantly modified when weakness were noted, prior to their general issue in 1951.Sad the M-16's weaknesses were paid with American blood.By late sixties the bugs were worked out and rifle finally a reliable battlefield tool.
forgive me if I am wrong but doesn't the AK-47 and the STG44 fire an round that is in between a pistol Round and a rifle round. when the Ar15/M16/M4 fires a full size Rifle Round, the .556 and/or the 223, therefor makes the M16 a Battle rifle not an Assault rifle
If a soldier didn't clean his M-16, our Drill Instructors would use the firearm to club us. Becasue they claimed that is what you would get if you failed to clean it. A plastic club. We cleaned them religiously. This was especially true when we were issued the M-16A2s.
Have you ever considered the fact that the AK47 is not manufactured in the United States of America? Among American made rifles, the M16 stood out. So people obviously put trust in the M16. People have not had the taste of an AK47. Had the AK47 been manufactured in America, the general popularity would of course favor it more. To those who have tasted the AK47, and say the M16 sucks, it is a great big insult to those who swear by the M16. And people are going to defend it.
Partially true, but fact that use of ball powder with faster burning rate, the corrosion issue, and other design concerns, that would have been worked out with extensive field testing, were not accomplished.Contrary to myth, Kalashnikov was not soley responsible for AK 47, but had a team of well over 100 towards end.Even German input of MP43/StG44, was incorporated into AK.Not first time rifle went into service too soon, the GEW88, had serious issue not worked out till 1895.
the 1966 M 16 was not built, maintained or loaded to designer's specification. In fact, it wasn't even the same caliber that Stoner designed it to be. There has been some speculation that high ranking military officers more or less sabotaged the rifle because they did not like civilian leadership telling them what weapon to use in other words they wanted to get back at McNamara. The weakest part of the design was & still is the magazine but there are some highly reliable magazines available now.
Maybe if you want a short barrel and/or are going to be running suppressed and unsuppressed. Otherwise it doesn't offer a whole lot over the legacy rifles short of being made by HK, which is always a good thing.
The M16 was an Accurate Rifle Medium Range Assault Rifle Compared to the Kalash not that Much of a Heavy hitter was a Great Gun but cause a lot of Death Due to Jamming Problems it's a Great Gun and i prefer it over a 47 any day but it's jamming cause some deaths in Vietnam i read about a platoon with M16's as there weapons came back with only i think around 17-20 Soldiers found dead trying to fix it just like us Humans it has it's Pro's and Cons which makes it a balanced Assault Rifle
but when you put away your side and nationality you can realise witch gun is better... and you are right.. but generaly in world you have much bigger chance to fire ak than m16,because 70% of armies uses an ak and its derivates
AK's are good yes, but, and I say but, to keep the with good accuracy you need to clean it more often than an m16/Ar15..the only thing it has over an AR is that i WILL still shoot when dirty, just not as well...
no i havent but couple of my friends did and they said it is very accurate....OK it is accurate but, do i need accuracy if this rifle can get jammed in heat of battle? think about it
mihailolord carried one for 18 months in Vietnam and own a civilian model that I’ve run thousands of rounds through and have never had a jam or any other malfunction. Those initial problems were resolved by chroming the chamber, adding the forward assist and cleaning the weapon properly. When the Army issued them they indicated the needed little or no cleaning and didn’t issue cleaning kits. Further, when the Air Force first tested it they fired rounds with IMR powder which is much cleaner that standard ball powder that was ordered by the Army when they became the lead agency for the M-16. The weapon got and undeserved bad reputation because of initial mistakes but has gone on to be the standard rifle in its many variations for over 50 years.
@@the_snoo_muffin9028 The way the AK is constructed the whole receiver-barrel-sight arrangement is one big collection of pinned metal parts. The forward handguard is short, thin material which doesn't push on the barrel in any meaningful way, and the stock doesn't wrap around the receiver like the M14 or M1 rifles do. The wood parts are short and separate, while a normal rifle stock is one long piece of timber. There just isn't as much ability for a warped stock to push a bend into the rifle barrel and foul the zero. If the wood on a normal rifle swells a tiny amount the whole length of the weapon, it would bow the barrel up or down as wood runs under the receiver from the receiver's rear mounting screw to the foremost mounting screw. Nothing could do that on the AK.
I just pissed in my sink and yesterday I was to lazy to get out of bed so I pissed in an old Gatorade bottle. I put it next to the other Gatorade bottles. One time i accidentally thought it was Gatorade
man im talking about m16a1,of course its good NOW,50 years of evolving into the good rifle... tell me why is AK infamous? when the AK was invented,the ww2 was still raging,and nowdays when you compare ak-47 with newest Ak,only estetics changed the rifle,mechanism is still imposible to jam, caliber is fitted right ,5.45 and now what can you say about accuracy? ak do not need good powder to fire right...
@@crodsbye You forgot the M2 flamethrower. Never jams. Sometimes fails to ignite, but your bunker suddenly reeking of gasoline makes anyone throw up their hands and surrender.
It depends greatly on the rifle. Introducing a gas tappet system in the AR-15 introduces a whole host of problems and usually decreased reliability and durability. HK is the only manufacturer to have figured it out and the 416 is basically unobtanium. Except for the usage scenarios I previously outlined, a piston really has no reliability advantage over the direct gas system.
Jamming often cause deaths in Nam' and malfunctions of the gun itself cause deaths are casualties could have gone in a different direction. The NVA and VC had much more reliable weapons in terms of how often it jams and how easy it was to maintain may not be accurate as the M16 but a VC/NVA soldier was confident with his gun that is why there are so many variations A2,A3,A4 due to its flaws which are now gone.. the 1911 had very minor flaws as i see it the only thing i see is the hammer bite..
@Dmitri Kozlowsky, many people cannot master that ability. For some it may be physiological. In reality it doesn't very much impact their utility as a rifleman.
e1ghtys1x the Ak switched to the 74 which was basically the same round . The cia was throbbing at the nut sack to find out what it was . It was basically chambered the same as a m16 with minor length differences. In the afgan war the Soviets fought we found out it was a 47 with a m16 round nothing really changed.
13:56 And that was how my M16A2 kept jamming on me during one of my qualification days in the Air Force. My magazine did such a horrible job feeding the round in that it would get diagonally jacked into the chamber. I didn't know how to explain that sort of thing to the arms instructor, but he had to have known going in that some of us had shit-quality mags.
And now we know why the instructor in the video very carefully put his magazine back in the pouch rather than dropping it on the range like the fifty-cent piece of disposable aluminum it was engineered to be.