[Favor Center]

“The first M16 suffered from jams due to some genius deciding that the chamber didn’t really need to be chrome plated like Stoner had specified.That and using ball power with too much calcium carbonate as a stabilizer caused a lot of problems.”

Pretty much (chamber and barrel were to be chrome lined). The ball powder was already in stock, so they wanted to “save money”..... Then, they told soldiers the rifle didn’t need cleaning and didn’t even provide cleaning kits.

[wbarmy]

If I remember correctly, the other problem was that the M-16 was designed to use gun cotton (nitrocellulose). This prevented any type of fouling in the weapon and was strong enough to clear dirt from the barrel on the first shot.