I was curious about how the U.S. Military M-16's shoot. I know in the 60's, they were fully automatic. Now they shoot a 3 round bursts, is that correct? You pull and hold the trigger- 3 rounds go off. Release the trigger, pull and hold again, 3 more rounds. Is this how they work? And what is the capacity of the standard army magazine? Thanks for any information.
questions on the M-16
- Thread starter RM
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Kaylee
Member
M16A1 -- triangular handguards, safe-single-full
M16A2 -- round handguards, changed sights, safe-single-3 round burst
after that there's a hodgepodge of A3s, A4s, M4A-whatevers, all with some combination of flattop or A2 upper receivers, full auto or burst, and whatnot. I dunno which is what, but I'm sure our resident AR experts do.
M16 started with 20 round mags, at some point issue changed to 30 rounders, but some folks still like the 20's better.
-K
M16A2 -- round handguards, changed sights, safe-single-3 round burst
after that there's a hodgepodge of A3s, A4s, M4A-whatevers, all with some combination of flattop or A2 upper receivers, full auto or burst, and whatnot. I dunno which is what, but I'm sure our resident AR experts do.
M16 started with 20 round mags, at some point issue changed to 30 rounders, but some folks still like the 20's better.
-K
yayarx7
Member
What they said.
BTW we just changed over to the M16A2, while everyone else is 2 rifles ahead. Oh well, thats what you get for the Air Guard.
BTW we just changed over to the M16A2, while everyone else is 2 rifles ahead. Oh well, thats what you get for the Air Guard.
RM,
M16 safe-semi-auto
M16A1 safe-semi-auto
M16A2 safe-semi-burst
M16A3 safe-semi-auto
M16A4 safe-semi-burst
Basic differences: The M16 had no forward assist. The M16A1 added the forward assist. M16A2 changed barrel, sights, furniture and fire control parts. M16A3 is the same as the A2 except with full auto fire control parts. The M16A4 is the same as the A2 except it has a flattop upper receiver and is usually found with the M5 Rail Adapter System instead of the handguards.
When the Army adopted the M16A2 as standard in 1985 they stopped making many of the parts for the M16 and M16A1. So you will commonly find both of these older weapons with features of the newer ones, like furniture etc. You can't look at a news photo of a soldier or airman with a rifle that has round handguards and assume it's an A2 or A3.
HTH
Jeff
M16 safe-semi-auto
M16A1 safe-semi-auto
M16A2 safe-semi-burst
M16A3 safe-semi-auto
M16A4 safe-semi-burst
Basic differences: The M16 had no forward assist. The M16A1 added the forward assist. M16A2 changed barrel, sights, furniture and fire control parts. M16A3 is the same as the A2 except with full auto fire control parts. The M16A4 is the same as the A2 except it has a flattop upper receiver and is usually found with the M5 Rail Adapter System instead of the handguards.
When the Army adopted the M16A2 as standard in 1985 they stopped making many of the parts for the M16 and M16A1. So you will commonly find both of these older weapons with features of the newer ones, like furniture etc. You can't look at a news photo of a soldier or airman with a rifle that has round handguards and assume it's an A2 or A3.
HTH
Jeff
geekWithA.45
Moderator Emeritus
According to the manual, the burst fire will fire 1,2 or 3 rounds on the first pull of the trigger, and 3 for every pull thereafter, as long as there is ammo to feed.
The reason, again according to the manual is that there is a little cam/sprocket thingy (yep, that's the technical term ) that disconnects after 3 shots, so if you discharge 1 or 2, and run out of ammo, you get the remaining 2 or 1 shots on that cam cycle after you reload.
The reason, again according to the manual is that there is a little cam/sprocket thingy (yep, that's the technical term
) that disconnects after 3 shots, so if you discharge 1 or 2, and run out of ammo, you get the remaining 2 or 1 shots on that cam cycle after you reload.
Detritus
Member
andm i've heard that, that "Cam thingy" for 3-round-burst also has the side effect of making the trigger pull inconsistent.
Badger Arms
Member
This has been thoroughly covered before. Check these two threads. The pull weight issue is addressed in the scan below. Hope this helps.
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=34813&highlight=Burst+Trigger+Pull
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=24583&highlight=Burst+Trigger+Pull
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=34813&highlight=Burst+Trigger+Pull
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=24583&highlight=Burst+Trigger+Pull
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