Quoted: I'll just sticking to my experience and happy with my AR and many other rifles in my collection.   I wonder why the Israelis drop the Galil in favor of the M16/M4?  Could it be becuase they have close relation with the US? and other interest with the US?

It was due to excessive WEIGHT of the Galil.

And the fact that we gave them many M16s - free. Price for a Galil vs. "free M16" - what would you choose?

Quoted: I was in the Marines (devidog) for 8 years.  I don't have have any desert experience like Iraq or in the middle east.  But, I have trained in sandy environment, like Camp LeJeune, Camp Pendleton.  I have countless jam with the M16A2 in rainy, dusty, sandy conditons.  If you want to test yourself, just take your AR, with dust cover open and drop it in the sand with the dust cover facing down or leave it in the rain for long period of time and try to shoot it.  Now, take the AK, put it on fire, the reason I say put it on fire, becuase the safety on the AK act as a dust cover like the AR.  I can almost gaurantee you the AR will jam, but not the AK.  I have done this test myself already.  Please don't slam me until you have done the test yourself. Again, I love my AR.  Just point out the facts between the two base on my experience.

That's why you always close your dust cover.  Make it a reflexive part of your training.  I do.  It's called "being professional".  

You mention an interesting point.  Carry an AR and an AK type weapon with the safety in the "fire" position during a dust storm.  After a few minutes, the AK-type will be completely full of dust/sand. The AR-type will be slightly dusty on the inside, but if properly lubed, it WILL WORK, whereas you are lucky if the AK-type will.

Both rifles are roughly equivalent in reliability with the safety on, but even then, it's easier to take the safety off the M16 than the AK.  

You just brought up a good point, though; the gas piston in the AK is relatively open to the environment.  Is there a way for dust/sand to infiltrate through it when the dust cover is "on"?

I think one has to look at what kind of reliability we are talking about

here is number one
2 soldiers ,one with a ak one with a ar (m16)
Both do carry them for a looong time without cleaning or any anything
but under non harsh condition (standing gard )
Then one day they have to use them
Witch one was better

Number to the same, but with regular cleaning

Number 3
Battle condition
This time 10of each
A little dirt and dessert and and some shooting
but cleaning when needed or possible

Number 4
the same as 3 but lazy stupid soldiers that does no cleaning and expect the firearms to work

Number 5
Under attack no time for cleaning ( but started clean ),you have to go on shooting for hours
Remember you can shoot a M16  one shoot every 4 seconds without overheating
but since its at you base no ammo problems ,,theres enough
Shoot until its stops


In each  case  what was best

I do personally only care about case number 2 and 3 and 5

if you  care about 1and 4 YOU are the reliability problem

My personal feedback on both systems:

I have multiple uppers. 2 of them are POF gas-piston systems.

I have built and tested direct-impingement uppers of various barrel lengths.

Here are my observations after attending a full-auto CQB class. (Over 1000 rounds fired throughout the day without a cleaning break.)

The only major failures with both systems were weak extractor springs that were causing sporadic failures to extract leading to double-feeds. This was rectified by inserting plastic o-rings under the extractor springs. No stoppages of any kind the 2nd day across the various uppers used.

Towards the end of the day, some of the direct-impingement uppers were running a little dry. That was easily rectified with a few drops of CLP.

The direct-impingement uppers were noticably lighter to handle which was beneficial in one-hand shooting drills.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the direct impingement system!
(btw - I used a gas piston system for the class)

You have to make sure that the gas port on your barrel is big enough to run your system (my friend had to have his barrel's gas port widened), but once you have enough gas in your system, the rest of it is about fit and finish.

We polish our bolts to make sure that they lock and unlock smoothly. We check to make sure that the bolt moves smoothly within the carrier and that the carrier does not have wear points within the receiver.

Spend some time fine tuning your components and the reliability will follow.

Just fyi - When I received my gas piston upper, it would not function worth a damn. Turns out the feed ramp had a burr in it, and the bolt needed to be polished.

flame suit on...

oh...btw, we were running drills firing prone with our AR's inches off the ground (sideways) and kicking up TONS of dust...they all continued to function fine.