Hey guys. Been a while since I've been here. Work ain't like it used to be, I actually have to spend most of my time working these days!

Anyways... was watching "We Were Soldiers" last night and got to thinking about the reliability of my '02 Bushmaster 20" A2. Have fired around 1,000 rounds of Winchester White Box and Q3131A through it now and have had not a single problem, jam, hiccup, or misfire. I have ten 30 round Parsons and Okay mags for it and have not had any problems with any of those. With my 1911 pistols and other weapons I am familiar with them enough to clear any malfunction in short order, I believe even in the middle of a firefight. I am not so sure about my ability to do that with my AR. What kind of things could I practice with my Bushy to be able to handle a malfunction if it ever happened? I am not too worried about such a scenario because this thing has been SO flawless thus far. But I know that I should at least be able to take care of any malf quickly.

Also, I noticed in that movie (We Were Soldiers) that many of the M-16's in there had the new round handguards on them. Was that a stupid oversight on the movie maker's part, or did they in fact that those handguards at the start of the Vietnam conflict?  

I think a basic clear and rechamber drill would be good to learn..whack rack and tap drill, or whatever it's called.  To make sure the mag is in place, the round is fully chambered, and that a bad round is ejected and new round in place.  

I do recall that at the start of the VN conflict, most of the guy s went in-country with M14's...not with AR's...they came later.  The earier ones all had tri-angle hand guards.  The round guards were later.  In fact, my brother humped a BAR for a while, and another buddy actually used a model 1928 Thompson (It had the bolt handle on top, not the side like the later MIAI)in his helicopter duties.  Some other gys with more recent experience than me will surely fill you in on essential drills.

edited by greco for idiotic spelling mistacs.

I spent 8 years in the US Army Infantry and served with M16A1s and A2s. While I own several AR15s today and appreciate their qualities, the one feature I dislike about this weapon is its inability to digest sand. Low crawl through about 50 yards of wet grainy sand and water with your head in the mud and with your rifle in low crawl carry; if sand and water get on the rifle and in the magazine, even with the dust cover closed, you will eventually get a malfunction unless you have managed to keep the weapon out of the sand - this can be almost inmpossible depending on the obstacles you cross. You can practice all you need then. Most civilians won't want to do that with their rifles, for obvious reasons, but in our case, it was either submerge ourselves and our rifles in muddy, sandy water, or get cut to pieces by barbed wire, so there was no choice. A clean, well lubricated AR15 should not malfunction. A gritty, well lubricated AR15 will most likely malfunction.

Most soldiers don't have time to strip and clean their bolt carrier group and receiver in the few seconds from when they emerge from the muddy trench to when their opposing force begins shooting at them and they must fire back.....at least I didn't.

it turns into a case of: - Fire - manually rack the charging handle - hit the forward assist - fire - manually rack the charging handle - hit the forward assist.....and so on. You'd be surprised how fast you can do that when you have to.

Thanks for the responses guys.

Troy, I will have to watch the flick again. I have had the DVD for a while, but just pulled it out again last night because I hadn't had my blood & guts footage in quite a while. I would assume that between Hal Moore and any other consultants, that the film would be pretty accurate. But I would SWEAR that I saw the same round handguards that are on my Bushy, on some of those guns. And I think they were all the A1 profiles -- don't remember seeing any M4-looking things in there. Will have to watch it closer this weekend.

You are looking for:

S-Safety on/Slap the bottom of the Magizine
P-Pull the Charging Handle
O-Observe the Chamber for obstruction,
 ie;stuck round
R-Release the charging handle
T-Tap the forward assist
S-Shoot

Just learn and remember SPORTS, similar to Tap and Rack with your semiauto pistol.

With both of us being into ARs, me and my dad watched very closely when we watched that movie for improperly configured M16s.  We didn't see any.  They all seemed to be the original M16 pattern with three-prong flash hiders.  

You know I really like that movie.  It has the ups and downs followed by a final triumph that make for a great war movie.  They don't go out of there way to make the NVA look good either.  

I think it's much better then Blackhawk Down, as it has much less made up crap and fictionalized events replacing equally exciting real ones.  

The must have had a pretty good advisor because they even had the occasional SKS, bolt action rifle, etc. amongst the NVA troops.  They also put in the ragtag collection of arms at the NVA base which is very realistic.  You can see every form of LMG and rifle, they even had an MG34, which I've seen in a few pics of captured weapons from Vietnam.  Many movie makers overlook that sort of thing simply because they know most people won't notice.  

This is a drill we practice with our department M4's. It seems to work well for 90% of the malfunctions we have with them. We took this from Bill Jeans.

FTEject and Double Feed Clearing.
Set this up by locking the bolt to the rear. Insert a loaded magazine. Have a buddy put an expended cartridge into the ejection port. Close the bolt so that a live round is stripped from the magazine and the expended cartridge both jam up the rifle.
1. Push / Pull the magazine to insure that it is seated properly.
2. Rack and Roll. (Left hand operates the charging handle while the rifle is rolled/snapped quickly so that the ejection port is facing the ground)
This usually will clear the problem, if not:
3. Move laterally to cover.
4. Lock the bolt to the rear.
5. Rip the mag out of the rifle.
6. Insert 2 fingers into the bottom of the mag well and sweep it.
7. Rack the bolt 3 times.
8. Load the rifle with a fresh magazine.
9. Chamber a round and shoot.

I like SPORTS as well. We just found that a Double feed is more common with the carbines and adjusted our training.