EBR?

[YankeeFlyr]

What does "EBR" stand for?

I've avoided asking this for quite some time, as I figured that if I thought about it long enuff it'd come to me...it hasn't.


>>something<< Battle Rifle???


What is the "something"?

 

[HDCamel]

Enhanced

 

[Telekinesis]

Evil Black Rifle

Or enhanced battle rifle. It is basically an updated version of the M14.

 

[YankeeFlyr]

Ahhhhh

So my M1A is an "enhanced" M14?

Or does that mean doo-dadded up AR-15's with vertical grips, lasers, flashlights and all that?

 

[wacki]

EBR = evil black rifle

It's a jab at the anti-gun lobby because all of their assault weapon bans seem to be based on cosmetic criteria.

There is no such thing as a semi-automatic assault weapon so the anti-gun lobby tries to ban pistol grips, bayonet lugs and other worthless stuff that doesn't impact your ability to make something else dead.

 

[Deus Machina]

Originally it meant something made to work better for a soldier than the old wood-stocked bolt-action rifles. Lighter, handier, more ergonomic.

We often use it to mean 'evil black rifle,' because that's basically what the antis think of it anyway.

 

[wacki]

google says......

enhanced battle rifle = 246,000 results
evil black rifle = 1,650,000 results

 

[beatledog7]

Every Body Run?

 

[Havok7416]

So my M1A is an "enhanced" M14?

Or does that mean doo-dadded up AR-15's with vertical grips, lasers, flashlights and all that?

Yankee it can mean both but your M1A isn't enhanced. The M39 EBR has a telescoping polymer stock with pistol grips and Picatinny rails among other things. It is essentially nothing like a standard M14 or M1A.

 

[Sam1911]

99% of the times you'll see "EBR" written on a gun forum it means "Evil Black Rifle," just like wacki said. A back-handed jab at the (mostly now antiquated) anti-gun theme that modern self-loading carbines were simply killing machines and even worse than "normal" rifles.

 

[YankeeFlyr]

Got it.

Thanks, folks!

 

[MTMilitiaman]

If you're still interested, the Enhanced Battle Rifle was basically a modernization program for the M14 that usually resulted in it being dropped into some sort of chassis system, such as this one from Sage, which had the effect of accurizing the rifle as well as providing rails for lights, lasers, and optics:



Since most of the complaints about the M14 stemmed from it's difficulty to scope and the level of work necessary to keep them accurate, and since most of these rifles are employed more in the DMR role than as regular infantry rifles, most consider the additional weight and the loss of some traditional aesthetics to be acceptable given the increased performance.

 

[rcmodel]

Somehow, making a 9.8 pound M14 weigh 16.5 pounds doesn't sound like much of an enhancement to me!

rc

 

[MTMilitiaman]

Somehow, making a 9.8 pound M14 weigh 16.5 pounds doesn't sound like much of an enhancement to me!

That's probably because you are comparing it to other 9.5 pound infantry rifles.

The EBR is more properly compared to something like the SR-25, which comes in at about 10 1/2 pounds with an empty mag. The EBR weighs less than a pound more and provides similar accuracy at much less cost to the military, and greater reliability to the user. Either of these rifles can quickly approach 16 pounds when you add optics, bipod, ammo, supressor, ect.

I have a couple magazine articles at home that describe the process Rock Island and others are going through converting these rifles over. Rock Island claims the average accuracy of all the conversions they've put out is something along the lines of .75 MOA. They come equipped with 3.5-10 Leupolds, and because the system uses rack grade M14s the military has already bought and paid for, dropping one in a fancy new stock and adding an optic gives them the capabilities of newer, more modern semi-auto rifle platforms at thousands of dollars less. And it uses a proven mechanism that unlike the SR-25, hasn't been plagued by reliability problems since its inception. That means "enhanced" to a bunch of people, including the Navy SEALs.

O and I forgot to add that my brother's battle buddy from his two tours in Iraq deployed to Afghanistan after my brother got out. He kept in contact with my bro, though, and my bro knowing I am a fan of these rifles was pretty excited when he told me his friend had been issued one. A couple weeks later, he was even more excited when he informed me his friend ghosted two guys out from behind a "DShK" at 600+ yards.

 

[txgunsuscg]

The EBR comes nowhere close to the accuracy of the SR-25, at least not in my experience. I have fired both at distances to 1000 yds with match ammo, and on pure accuracy, the SR-25 wins (sub-MOA if I'm doing my job). With that said, I agree that the EBR is more reliable. The SR-25 is a far tighter weapon, hence its better accuracy, and its lower tolerance of crud (way less tolerant than my M-4). I have had far more double feeds and failures to extract with the SR-25 than the EBR. At the same time, I also had an EBR bolt literally fall apart when chambering a round. I actually don't fault the weapon really, as they are reconditioned Vietnam era weapons, something is bound to break with that much usage. I also prefer the SR-25's ergonomics. I used a Mod 0 EBR, and the ergonomics were nowhere near that of the M-16 style weapons. The SR-25 is also a lot simpler to take down for detailed cleaning. To detail clean the EBR requires removing 6+ (if I remember correctly) screws, which must all be re-torqued after they are removed. Thankfully, the interval for that detailed of a cleaning is relatively long...

 

[MTMilitiaman]

Well your experience seems to be contrary to the truth.

From the May 2012 issue (#114) of Tactical Weapons, pp. 10:

Manufacture of the EBR is managed by Rock Island Arsenal based on the Department of Defense's Need Statement for a long-range rifle serving within standard U.S infantry platoons...Rock Island Armory officials report that, despite the M16 series has been the official issue since 1965, there are nearly 100,000 M14 rifles remaining in the U.S inventory. This means that the barreled M14 action that is the heart of every EBR has already been paid for, thus saving money...

And from pp. 12:

The official accuracy specification calls for each EBR to produce a maximum group size of 1.5 MOA with M118LR ammo at 100 yards. Not bad when you consider this is a rack-grade M14 with a chrome-lined bore. However Carlstrom reports that most rifles leaving their shop are much better than the minimum standard. The average group size for every EBR made by Rock Island to date is .89 MOA! ... The completed price of these sniper-accurate rifle systems is less than one-fourth of a similarly outfitted M110... To date, Rock Island has assembled over 6,200 Enhanced Battle Rifles out of rack-grade M14 rifles, and most of those have been dispersed to units that have filed requests for them...That puts more M14 EBRs in the field than Army Marksmanship Unit-built DM rifles and M110s combined.

They list the weight as 14.9 pounds with empty magazine and the Leupold 3.5-10 optic. For sure this is heavy as a standard issue rifle, but the EBR obviously isn't intended to be a standard issue rifle. It's more of a support weapon, and having lugged around an M249 before, I can say that I personally would much rather hump a 15 pound 7.62mm rifle that can reach and touch than any 19 pound poodle shooter.