Yes, that's true, Tamara......
"The A2 stock is far more rugged than the flimsy A1 stocks that were on the rifles you serviced. Trust me, you can administer quite a beat-down with an A2 stock."
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That would be one of those modifications and upgrades over the past 35 years which I referred to. Wasn't there more thickness added to the area of the lower receiver into which the buffer tube threads as well?
Of course, any 'beat down' with an M16, even the A2, is gonna pale into insignificance when compared to one applied with a steel butt-plated
9-pound Garand.
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"I can't think of another modern issue rifle that would react particularly well to being run over. Certainly not the hollow sheet-metal Kalashnikov..."
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Well, Upon reflection, I have to admit that that is perhaps not an entirely appropriate criterion for the modern issue rifle.
However, in my experience the M14 was definitely the more likely survivor of the two in any confrontation with a deuce-and-a-half.
The M16 alloy receiver usually cracked around the barrel and/or twisted in a very unserviceable sort of way.
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"That's like saying that a car is bad because it'll stall if you put a few gallons of water in the gas tank. Inspect rounds before you load them into a magazine! Especially rifle rounds! This is a safety issue, above all else..."
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I take it then, that you have never had the pleasure of working with teenage urban draftees on a military rifle range?
These kids (and I was just one at the time as well, but I 'did' guns) were mostly urban and not the ones with the college deferments, if you get my drift.
Getting them to load the magazines with the projectiles forward was a good first step.
Not so different form most of the third world's "soldier class" these days, I would imagine.
A problem with the AR, and it remains to this day, is that there is no simple and foolproof way to remove a well-stuck/defective round from the chamber. The 'forward assist' was added on the A1 to correct the AR's defect of, well, no 'forward assist' for chambering, particularly with tropical conditions of dirty ammo.
That was a half-solution which exacerbated the lack of a 'rearward assist'-well,other than the aluminum "T" thingy - for removing defective ammo.
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"The SAS (both Limey and Aussie) seems to think highly of them, and not because of the price tag"
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Good Gravy, Mizz Tamara!
Please consider what the issue weapons are for those nationalities!
I certainly never intended to imply that there were not any WORSE weapons than the AR!
The Brits issue what is arguably the most problematic of modern infantry weapons. It is a standing (if somewhat cruel) joke among Britain's allies.
Here in "guns for the government only" Australia the current standard issue infantry 'personal' weapon is the F88 Steyr.
Certainly the Steyr is not in the same league with that Limey thing, but there are enough problems with it that most Diggers with experience of both the Steyr and the M16A2 will gratefully grab the AR every time. With gusto.
Wildalaska:
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"Im gonna finally be controversial, and state that I have never, in 20 years or so, ever had a gun related malfunction in an AR or M16"
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What! Wildalaska be controversial?!
Just my luck, I suppose, to have been in on the wrong end of the AR's developmental timeline.
Still, putting any weapon in the hands of a poorly trained draftee/recruit, especially a 'high-strung' design, will reveal many of its faults in a hurry.
I am reminded of the old Samsonite suitcase commercial - the airline
clerk places the bag on the conveyor, and a gorilla grabs it at the other end and begins throwing it against the wall and jumping up and down on the suitcase.
Through a process of correction, evaluation and evolution the AR15 made it through to the issue weapon of today.
Ah, if only the historical contingencies of U.S. Ordnance could have trended more in the direction of the Stg 90....