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Calgunners in Service This forum is a place for our active duty and deployed members to share, request and have a bit of home where ever they are.

View Poll Results: How reliable was your M16/M4?
Functioned well 47 61.04%
Experienced a malfunction once a while 27 35.06%
Experienced a malfunction very often 3 3.90%
Voters: 77. You may not vote on this poll

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  #1  
Old 04-05-2015, 1:07 PM
Cactuscooler Cactuscooler is offline
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Default Survey on reliability of M16 family of weapons.

Hi everyone,

I Just wanted to do a quick survey/poll on current reliability of the M4/M16 family of weapons. For research purposes I ask to only respond if you served post Vietnam. I would like to eliminate the well known issues with the 1st Generation of M16A1,XM177 rifles.

I ask that you post your configuration of the M16, whether a M4A1, or M16A2,etc. Along with the country you were deployed to.

Please indicate any type of failures you experienced. Such as failure to extract or failure to fire, or severe malfunctions.


Thank you for your service and happy Easter!

Last edited by Cactuscooler; 04-05-2015 at 3:16 PM..
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  #2  
Old 04-05-2015, 3:03 PM
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M4 no malfunctions - deployed to an ocean
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Old 04-05-2015, 4:49 PM
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M4 Carbine, no malfunctions - deployed to the 'stan
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  #4  
Old 04-05-2015, 4:58 PM
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M16A2, no malfunctions or issues. Ham Tan, Vietnam 1974. Recovery, classified.
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Old 04-05-2015, 5:20 PM
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M16a2 severe malfunction cracked upper and lower receiver, ejector and dust cover blew off, magazine egg shaped and all the rounds fell out. Multiple (at least 5 different guys I know of) M16a2 severe weapon malfunctions in 1 firefight, only minor injuries luckily, investigation blamed it on the ammo. We dumped the remaining ammo in the ocean later. Op United Shield Somalia

Last edited by tnlrat37; 04-05-2015 at 5:24 PM..
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  #6  
Old 04-05-2015, 6:08 PM
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M16A2 and M4 Iraq 05-06 no issues mission not gonna tell ya.
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  #7  
Old 04-07-2015, 12:19 AM
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M16A4 - worked/and works perfectly. Had a couple double feeds on my rifle qual due to bad mags, but that was it.
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Old 04-08-2015, 9:31 PM
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M-4 carbine, configured a variety of ways. No issues on mission... a few double feeds during various training rotations which I attribute to the magazine, not the weapon system. Iraq
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Old 04-08-2015, 10:57 PM
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M16A2. I was a UH-60 helo mechanic (MOS 67T/15T) so my primary weapons were a torque wrench and rusty screwdriver. ;-)

The M16A2 that I had in BCT was nearly flawless. Very reliable. We shot quite a bit, too. That rifle was built by FN.

The Colt-built M16A2 that I was issued when my unit shipped out to Iraq for OIF 3 (2004-2005) was a piece of garbage. The rifle clearly was a "mixmaster" with a stamped over lower receiver and came to me in a poor state of repair. It clearly wasn't maintained well by previous users. The bolt was coked up with residue and I spent hours trying to clean it. Despite my best efforts, I consistently ran into mis-feed issues after 40-45 rounds. Then I'd clean it again and was good for another 40-45 rounds. Thank God my life never depended on that particular rifle!

I got really good at doing SPORTS, haha.

Last edited by Nacho_Eater; 04-09-2015 at 12:23 AM.. Reason: Typos
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  #10  
Old 04-09-2015, 9:11 AM
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M16A2, Iraq and Afghanistan, no issues
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Old 04-09-2015, 9:30 PM
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Deployed to both sandboxes with M4s, no malfunctions there or stateside over 14.5 years (blank round induced malfunctions don't count) that was not caused by a bad magazine or in one case, shooting MK 262 in the middle of the summer in the 'Stan in an extremely filthy rifle, and suffered from a stuck case and blown primer, this was after dumping 31 mags thru the rifle without any cleaning or additional lube after the initial lubing before shooting started. I cleared the primer and stuck case and shot another 2 mags of M855 or M855A1 thru it before calling it a day (rifle was running sluggishly at this point)
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Old 04-09-2015, 11:01 PM
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Had many failures to eject and some some failures to fire that even my drill sergeant couldn't figure out (I was a total gun noobie back then).

I thought this was a TRADOC thing as they give Tradoc pure garbage but my unit also had ancient M16's that were just as unreliable. Nobody had an assigned weapon, you just signed for one on range qual day so the insides were generally disgusting as, naturally, the armorers didn't do a damn thing to maintain the weapons.

I was in an intel unit so we weren't in dire need for more modern rifles but man it sucked when I deployed. Had plenty of people give us funny looks for carrying M16's around BAF and KAF. Even the Afghan army guys had nicer and newer rifles than us lol
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  #13  
Old 04-13-2015, 9:52 PM
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Anytime in OSUT at Benning and during the following 11 years of combined active and reserve service (all stateside, sorry... but Infantry so a lot of real field use), as well as running the platform in its various civilian manifestations for the last 20 years... I have never experienced a LIVE cartridge malfunction that wasn't attributable to the magazine or ammunition.

Blanks are another story. Don't get me started.
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  #14  
Old 04-13-2015, 10:20 PM
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Not so much, but ftf in Iraq, but probably due to sand storms. Other than that, my m4 and m16a4 never let me down except during heavy sand storm times.
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  #15  
Old 04-13-2015, 10:38 PM
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Let's see
They are the most popular gun
They have been in service for 50 years

And you wonder if the most popular firearm in America is a unreliable hunk of junk????

I want some of what you are drinking!!!!!
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Old 04-15-2015, 7:57 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hermosabeach View Post
Let's see
They are the most popular gun
They have been in service for 50 years

And you wonder if the most popular firearm in America is a unreliable hunk of junk????

I want some of what you are drinking!!!!!

Why not? Popularity is a function of marketing, not quality. Look at glocks Add in the fact that you are referring to a platform rather than a manufacturer and it only increases the pool of potentially poorly made firearms. I loved my M16, enjoy my M4, and will kick your *** with my AR
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Last edited by jcourson; 04-15-2015 at 8:02 PM..
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  #17  
Old 04-17-2015, 9:27 AM
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M16A4
Deployed to Iraq once
Had a few double feeds that I suspect were caused by a bad magazine. Stopped using that particular mag and never had a problem after.
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Old 04-17-2015, 1:48 PM
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Used m16a4 service rifle to qualify in boot camp and MCT.

Qualed with in the fleet and took with me on the 31st MEU a m16m4 carbine. I remember experiencing failure to feeds for about 4 rounds during one qual day. Just hosed her down with CLP and she ran well.

*****I must note that those ACOGs hold up extremely well. I saw many rifles fly around in the back of my AMTRAC and smash all over, holding zero well enough to qual with at 500m. Also saw some fall off of 7tons onto the street and hold up/keep zero.
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Old 04-23-2015, 8:24 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dirtrider04 View Post

*****I must note that those ACOGs hold up extremely well. I saw many rifles fly around in the back of my AMTRAC and smash all over, holding zero well enough to qual with at 500m. Also saw some fall off of 7tons onto the street and hold up/keep zero.
Ive seen a bunch lose their seal and get all fogged up. But relatively few compared to how many have been issued in our unit. Maybe like 5 our of the 300 or so we had.
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Old 04-19-2015, 2:41 AM
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M4A1

In garrison life it would FTF every once in a while , got issued a random the day before deploying to Teh Stan. That random only had issues with mags dropping , i cleaned the thing weekly tho
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Old 04-23-2015, 7:59 PM
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Any problem I ever saw was magazine related or failure to do basic operator maintenance i.e. cleaning. I saw M16A1s that had 20-30k rounds through them at basic training companies that still chugged along. the magazines were the weak point.
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Old 04-23-2015, 8:48 PM
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none with pmags, in iraq, with minimal lube
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Old 04-23-2015, 8:54 PM
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M16a4 Iraq, M4a1 multiple countries. Zero issues with either. Take care of them and don't over oil them. That is the biggest problem I saw.
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Old 06-08-2015, 9:42 PM
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Double feeds, ftf, one casing kaboom. Rifle still intact but casing blew apart right in half.
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Old 06-09-2015, 9:12 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cactuscooler View Post
Hi everyone,

I Just wanted to do a quick survey/poll on current reliability of the M4/M16 family of weapons. For research purposes I ask to only respond if you served post Vietnam. I would like to eliminate the well known issues with the 1st Generation of M16A1,XM177 rifles.

I ask that you post your configuration of the M16, whether a M4A1, or M16A2,etc. Along with the country you were deployed to.

Please indicate any type of failures you experienced. Such as failure to extract or failure to fire, or severe malfunctions.

Thank you for your service and happy Easter!

Colt and FN M16A2 w/1:7 twist rate. I can't remember a single malfunction with live ammo. Blanks would cause malfunctions every now and then.

I think 98% of the time we used 55 grain bullets, and 2 % of the time we used SS109/M855 ammo. The SS109/M855 was taken from belted SAW ammo. We never had any lose SS109/M855 ammo.
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Old 06-11-2015, 8:02 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Carcassonne View Post
Colt and FN M16A2 w/1:7 twist rate. I can't remember a single malfunction with live ammo. Blanks would cause malfunctions every now and then.

I think 98% of the time we used 55 grain bullets, and 2 % of the time we used SS109/M855 ammo. The SS109/M855 was taken from belted SAW ammo. We never had any lose SS109/M855 ammo.
That's interesting. I never once encountered M193 (55gr) while in. We had green tips and tracers. I was in from 01-08.

Edit: And in response to the original poster.

I first used an M16A2 in basic training. It malfunctioned fairly often probably once in a 40 round qualification, but it was old as hell, and was a knock off contract rather than a Colt. Only a few privates actually had Colt rifles. The most common malfunctions were failures to feed/double feed, failure to go into battery. At my regular duty station I used an M4 carbine. Deployed twice to Afghanistan and once to Iraq and never saw a malfunction out of it. I was impressed with the level of durability the rifles exhibited.

Last edited by ChuckDizzle; 06-11-2015 at 8:10 PM..
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  #27  
Old 07-02-2015, 3:49 PM
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M16A2 in boot camp, M16A4 for qual, M4 for everything else(2 trips to Iraq).

Last edited by jrpowell3; 07-02-2015 at 4:01 PM..
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Old 07-02-2015, 4:17 PM
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My dad said no issues with m16 in Nam he was in late period of the war when it was winding down. I was in USN M16's were in the armory but main rifle used was the M14. I I really never saw M16's deployed but we had older stuff like the M60 and 1911's as late as 1997.
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