Posted on 08/10/2003 12:26:06 AM PDT by Destro
July 10, 2002; The Marines are still debating whether to replace the M16A4 rifles with the M4 carbine, and have conducted another round of tests to help them decide. The M4 carbine is six inches shorter than the rifle and 1.5 pounds lighter. It has a lower muzzle velocity, resulting in somewhat less range, accuracy, and penetration, but proponents insist that the difference is minimal at up to 500 meters and battles between riflemen are rarely fought at longer ranges than that.--Stephen V Cole
I wouldn't worry too much. Yes, the M4 is a derivative of the M16 action, but the weapon is vastly more reliable in the hands of a competent operator than some people make it out to be. This is an old bogeyman from thirty years ago, but isn't really applicable today.
I personally have had tons of trigger-time on the M16 system in both desert and jungle, and it has never failed me nor anyone else I know. It is one of the finest weapons out there for a well-trained professional soldier. It might not be the best choice for a third-world peasant, but we don't have too many of those in our military. The only people that tend to gripe about the M4/M16 are either guys who remember the problems in Vietnam or armchair warriors who heard stories from guys who were in Vietnam. The gun has undergone dozens of design refinements since Vietnam, and the original problems were caused by Army mismanagement rather than any design flaw per se in any case.
In other words, your son will be just fine if his training is up to snuff.
LOL!! Yer killin' me!
What kinds of problems are you having specifically? And what is the make/build on the parts?
The only times I've seen people have serious problems with their AR15 actions was when they were using some crappy knock-offs (Olympic Arms comes to mind) that never worked right anyway and were built to strange tolerances or badly put together. I became really good at monkeying AR15 actions not because mine ever had any problems, but because a few of my friends who tried to save a few bucks on a crappy knock-off guns had never-ending problems with them.
Even after the military, I've had factory stock CAR-15s for years, put thousands of rounds through them, essentially never clean them, and I've never had a single problem with any of them. I had a really old Bushmaster AR15 that I used to use as my ranch rifle for years, bouncing through the dusty desert, and that one always worked perfectly as well even though I never got around to cleaning it (still haven't, in fact), though I did dust the outside occasionally.
The FAL is a good rifle, probably my favorite generic .308 military rifle.
I feel for you; I never keep a gun that gives me reliability problems.
LOL.
I think you may have identified the problem. It doesn't *look* crappy. Lots of failures to feed with a full mag that result in the round jammed against the feed ramp with the bullet shoved back into the brass. The bolt doesn't always fully close either.
Perhaps, I should try a Rock River instead, I hear good things about them.
I would go with Colt.
The .30-06 can be a longer cartridge than the .308, but it never really was in military loadings -- theory versus execution. The biggest problem with the .308 is that the bullet is really a bit too large to be optimal for the case size. 6.5mm +/- 0.5mm is probably the optimum configuration for that case. That said, there are some clear advantages to using the .30 caliber bullet on that case from a military standpoint, in that you get excellent barrel life. Since most shooting is short-range, this is an excellent logistical trade-off in the general case; sub-optimal long-range performance but the barrel lasts forever.
Two stage trigger.
Recoil buffer that makes the recoil soft and buttery.
Not saying other makers can't make good guns, but in manufacturing, experience counts for alot.
That sounds like a badly manufactured rifle. One thing that you can say about the AR15 platform is that it is finicky about manufacturing tolerances. If the tolerances are off even just a little bit or the dimensions are slightly off, you end up with a jam-o-matic no matter how good it looks. I mentioned Olympic only because I've seen repeated problems with them (very similar to your problems), and when we've mic-ed them, you can see that the tolerances are off and the dimensions aren't true. Pretty far off in fact, but they aren't the only third-tier manufacturer that has this problem.
If you don't want to have to worry about the manufacturing quality, your best bet is to buy receivers and parts that were built with genuine military tooling e.g. Colt and Bushmaster, or one of the other ones that has very solid manufacturing quality like Armalite. Only a few companies actually have the tooling to produce their own AR15s, and the rest outsource their manufacturing to the same few OEM parts manufacturers and therefore have the same quality. A good custom shop like Rock River that is known to build a good quality AR15 and has a reputation for it is also a fine choice because they'll probably be very selective about who builds their parts. All the receivers I still have are Bushmasters, which have been great for the most part. If you can find an old pre-ban Bushmaster, snap it up. They are relatively rare but were probably some of the best made AR15s of their day, and many people prefer them to the old Colts.
On the bright side, I've gotten really good at clearing malfs.
Now to find a fool and his money. A greater fool, that is.
I think you may be referring the Winchester Model 70 if it was in 30-06. The Winchester M70 first came out in the mid-1930s if I remember correctly, but the Remington M700 wasn't even produced until 1962-63, at which time the military was already using .308 in its issue weapons. The military HAS used a lot of M700s in .308 for various sniper purposes.
That said, I love Remington M700s. Great rifles and Remington has gotten a lot of my money.
I mentioned it. :-)
I've also owned Armalites in their various guises, and never had a problem with any of them, nor has anyone else I know who owns one. They aren't quite military spec generally, but not in any way that matters and they function flawlessly.
My personal preference is Bushmaster, followed by Armalite and then Colt. And like you said, if you want to know for sure that you are always going to get a properly manufactured product, you stick with one of these.
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