Posted: 9/29/2007 12:12:29 PM EDT
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Growing up, I heard a lot of information about the M-16 from Viet-Nam vets. You all have heard the stories. When I entered the service,we were using the A-2. Many a night was spent removing every trace of carbon from the weapon, to ensure that it would work next time I used it. When I went off to 'hooah' school, I decided to attempt my own 'torture test' for reliability. I decided to see how long it would run before it quit working. I decided this at the beginning of mountain phase. We were not using a lot of live rounds, mostly blanks. All of the crud was getting blown straight into the gas system. All I did was put 2 drops of oil in the bolt carrier. About a week into desert phase, there was enough sand under the extractor that it wouldn't hop over the rim, and thus malfunctioned. I cleaned that out, and had no more problems. I turned it in filthy (they told us that they dunked them in the armory to clean them). Now in my personal weapons, I clean them up pretty good. I noticed that my A-3 likes a clean bore, and I don't like black crap on the stainless. But as far as malfunctions due to dirt, I have only had the one. |