Okay, I'll start off.

Friend of mine was a sergeant of the armory for a military unit, not to be disclosed.

he got me in the backdoor because I liked to work on small arms.  I like soldiers, they keep my country safe, and I love working with small arms.  He and I got along famously and had a few interesting adventures.  What I am about to relate is but the most meager of them.

Hands me a flat new FN M16.  Literally out of the box.  Columbia South Carolina USA assembled in.  yeah swell!!

What you think? he asks.  Uhhhhhh

"I don't know, what should I think?"

"Shake it."

So I did.  Barrel rattled in the receiver.

I then sighted down the rifle, the barrel sort of slumped over as I laid the front sight on a distant object.

'Yep, nothings too good for our boys in the forces," says he to me.

Your comments or related experiences?


Agincourt (holder of many weird tales of ordnance)

How could you spread apocryphal tales about the great FN?
Everything they make is perfect.

Mine goes through too much ammo.  [:D]

That FN sounds like a real problem.  How does the saying go? "Remember your gear was made by the lowest bidder."

Broken forward assist after only 660 rounds.

How about the one my friend owns that kicks out a case, it bounces off the deflector, then bounces off the handguard, back into the still open-but-closing bolt and creates a jam!

This happens just like clockwork!

Wierdest that stands out in my mind was the poor chap who came in complaining about how he had a primer blowout and manage to work it's way right into the gas key opening when it was ejected from the case head.


NOW THAT IS WIERD!   Not to mention it's a hard mofo to get out of there!


Would make you just go, "SON OF A BITCH!" while muttering several other curse words after having shouted that out loud.

uglygun, where did you encounter that problem.
Im asking cause, that EXACT thing happened to an AR15 we had at our shop. We were fixing it and didn´t spot that it was a primer in there, couldn´t even imagine it would be a primer. We drilled it out with a small drill head.

Also had this happen to a buddy of mine ... we were just at the start of a long range practice day siting in at 220 yds and his AR jams.  He was working on a new load and these were running just too hot.  Sure enough the primer went right into the key and the gas tube rammed it home.

Although his AR practice was abruptly ended for the day he was able to later repair it with no damage done.  He removed the key from the carrier, machined a small manifold block to match up to the key and a hydrolic line - a little pressure and presto.  

Ryan