Survey on reliability of M16 family of weapons.

[jcourson]

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

[Oli]

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.

[dirtrider04]

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.

[Mr.Caketown]

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

[smle-man]

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.

[PyroFox79]

*****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.

[19K]

none with pmags, in iraq, with minimal lube

[The sarge]

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.

[ir0nclash86]

Double feeds, ftf, one casing kaboom. Rifle still intact but casing blew apart right in half.

[Carcassonne]

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.

[ChuckDizzle]

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.

[jrpowell3]

M16A2 in boot camp, M16A4 for qual, M4 for everything else(2 trips to Iraq).

[I Swan]

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.