AR Sponsor
Posted: 3/15/2010 7:35:42 PM EDT
| is there a diff can someone please explain. |
| There can be a billion differences between the two depending on how you set yours up. However the most basic difference is that the M4 is the military designation and the AR15 is the civilian Designation. As for the military, they further break it down into M4A1 M4A4s..... so on and so forth. All having a few differences. This probably just confused you more. |
|
The true M4 is the military full auto carbine made by Colt Defense.
Civilian clones are known as M4gerys. 
AR15 is technically a model of rifle made by Colt for LE and private citizens. It comes in many different configurations. In common usage though, "AR15" is used to describe just about any rifle even loosely based on Eugene Stoner's original Armalite rifle. ETA: The M16 is the military's selective-fire battle rifle based on the Stoner design. It is typically a 20" barreled rifle. The "M4" designation is a continuance of the Army's carbine numbering system. It started with the M1 carbine of world war II fame, and was followed by its M2 and M3 selective fire brethren. M4 was simply the next available number in the series. Anyway that is why it's a different designation than the rifle. It's officially considered a carbine. |
|
Ugh...
there were threads in GD about this a while back but I can't remember the answer. I think the original M4 was full auto, and the M4A1 was beefed up to try to fix some of the issues they were having with the standard M4 due to its full auto capability. I don't recall if they went back to a burst fire control though. Among the changes I know of was a heavier barrel profile... Sorry but I've been out of the military for over 20 years, so I'm not very savvy on the newer military weapons. I'm an AR guy... lol |
|
There's a bunch of info laying around this very site about all this...basic history and whatnot.
Information Library: http://www.ar15.com/content/ Or more specifically one of the articles linked from there: http://www.ar15.com/content/articles/primer/ Hope this helps! |
|
Quoted:
The true M4 is the military full auto carbine made by Colt Defense. Civilian clones are known as M4gerys.
AR15 is technically a model of rifle made by Colt for LE and private citizens. It comes in many different configurations. In common usage though, "AR15" is used to describe just about any rifle even loosely based on Eugene Stoner's original Armalite rifle. ETA: The M16 is the military's selective-fire battle rifle based on the Stoner design. It is typically a 20" barreled rifle. The "M4" designation is a continuance of the Army's carbine numbering system. It started with the M1 carbine of world war II fame, and was followed by its M2 and M3 selective fire brethren. M4 was simply the next available number in the series. Anyway that is why it's a different designation than the rifle. It's officially considered a carbine. I disagree. All M4's and M16's are AR-15's, but not all all AR-15's are M4's or M16's. AR-15 is the entire family of weapons based on the original design and that is the correct usage. There are many different versions of the AR-15 platform, of which the M4 and M16 are only two. For What it's worth, Colt marks some semi-auto-only LE/Civilian rifles as "M4's". The LE6921 and LE6933 are both marked as "M4LE" and the MT6400c is marked the Match Target M4 Carbine. |
|
Quoted:
The true M4 is the military full auto carbine made by Colt Defense. Civilian clones are known as M4gerys.
AR15 is technically a model of rifle made by Colt for LE and private citizens. It comes in many different configurations. In common usage though, "AR15" is used to describe just about any rifle even loosely based on Eugene Stoner's original Armalite rifle. ETA: The M16 is the military's selective-fire battle rifle based on the Stoner design. It is typically a 20" barreled rifle. The "M4" designation is a continuance of the Army's carbine numbering system. It started with the M1 carbine of world war II fame, and was followed by its M2 and M3 selective fire brethren. M4 was simply the next available number in the series. Anyway that is why it's a different designation than the rifle. It's officially considered a carbine. A real M4 is three round burst - only M4A1s are full auto. The M4A1 also has a heavier 'SOCOM' profile barrel, though recent testing has the military wanting to shift to this style barrel for all carbines. The AR-15, to me, encompasses all rifles patterned after Eugene Stoner's design, not just those made by Colt, but includes both those used in the military and by civilians. However, Colt is the currently the only manufacturer of the M4 carbines. |
AR Sponsor