Just asking those who came back from the war recently if they had any failures with their weapons in the field? How often did you clean them, exchange parts, exchange weapons etc.

Only reason I ask is because two friends came back, both had FTF's on occasion but like always at the wrong time. One friend who is coming back this Friday ended up with a purple heart because his weapon jammed. Said that many were carrying AK's for backup, mostly Marine, he was there for nearly two years. Just thought I'd ask.  

I've experienced both good and bad.  MY weapon has never jammed, but then, I'm good with keeping guns running.  I've had some problem with bad magazines, but always keep my piece clean., and know lots of folks who just didn't maintain their weapon and had tons of problems.  Folks who insisted on using CLP instead of dry lube had bunches of problems.

Quoted: I've experienced both good and bad.  MY weapon has never jammed, but then, I'm good with keeping guns running.  I've had some problem with bad magazines, but always keep my piece clean., and know lots of folks who just didn't maintain their weapon and had tons of problems.  Folks who insisted on using CLP instead of dry lube had bunches of problems.

Please elaborate on the dry lube and what you recommend for cleaning.

Thankfully, my job hasnt taken me to Iraq (closest I've been is Turkey), but some co-workers have returned with stories and I've had the chance to shoot the breeze with some military men that engage in both frontline and clandestine work.

And I have to say, there is lots of negative feedback on issue weapons. Mind you, the weapons in the field have seen hard times, abuse and live action worth thousands of rounds. Subject any weapon to enough abuse and it will fail regardless of who makes it.

My co-workers, though, have the same type of weapon (RRA or Bushmaster or something custom usually) in the same conditions and they never complained. Mind you, the company's guns ride in locked and padded cases, and are seldom fired in self defense. When the day is over for us we retire to a hotel usually. I'm sure if I lived in battle conditions 24/7 my gun would be guilty of a few quirks as well.

The one thing I would change about my weapon is the fouling, which is more of a potential problem than an actual problem. Mostly I carry a PDW anyway and it's concealed 90% of the time

Ive did not have any problems with my issue Colt M4 in Afghanistan. I dont know of anyone personaly who has nor have I heard any complaints on these weapons. I also observed the M4 in service with the New Zealand SAS with no trouble. Weapons do malfunction under harsh military service, and that includes the M14, etc. The only report Ive heard 3rd hand of a rifle malfunction was a FTF on an M4 during Operation Anaconda. Weapon carried by a troop of the 101st.  I have heard of a good many problems with the M9 pistol however. Not  so much jamming per se, but parts breakage.  I have a friend who is a Border Patrol certified Armorer. Once while shooting on the USBP range with him, I personally witnessed his issue Beretta .40 break. It was a well maintained firearm and was totally out of action-inoperable.  The USBP is extremely dissatisfied with their issue Beretta 40s.

I discussed weapon failures with my brother after he got back from Afghanistan and he echoed pretty much the same thing that MTRancher said.

He and his men had no issues with their M4's but they also knew how to properly maintain ther weapons.  

One thing he mentioned is that he thought Strike-Hold was great product and it worked great in the harsh envrionment they were in.

That is true. In Afghanistan, we went from below zero temperatures and snow to hot summers with pretty severe dust storms. The FTF incident in Anaconda took place in bitterly cold conditions so it could have been a lube issue.

We ended up in fairly good fight near Baghdad early one morning.  I shot maybe 3 and 1/2 mags down range.  On the third magazine I hit the bolt release and attempted to fire.  Looked down and noticed the bolt had only gone home half way.  The bolt was stoped by the round that was half way out the mag.  Oh crap!  I hit the bottom of the mag with my hand and the bolt goes home.  It was the only malfunction I ever had with an M16.   The only thing I ever did was wipe the internals down with a silicone cloth once a day.  Twice if needed.  Run a bore brush through  followed by dry patch.

I personally think it was sand in the magazines that caused most of our problems.  No matter what you do to clean the things.  I always had sand in them.  

Quoted: I personally think it was sand in the magazines that caused most of our problems.  No matter what you do to clean the things.  I always had sand in them.

Regarding mags, my brother also told me that instead of letting the mag drop free they now also manually strip the mag from the magwell.  They've mad manually stripping the mag permanently part of their combat/tactical reload protocol.  

Murphy was right "When in combat, drop free mags don't drop free.".  

I've been using the manual strip as part of my reloads for some time and my brothers experience just confirmed that it is a good practice to continue.

At one point, I had an problem retracting the bolt carrier assy. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't eject a loaded rond. I had to slam it on the butt stock and pull the charging handle at the same time to unload it.

I cleanded the piss out of it but it didn't help. I finally completely disassembled the upper, degreased everything, lubed it with Rem Oil, and reassebmled it. I think sand grit was lodged in between the carrier and the upper receiver and I just didn't get it clean enough. The problem never reoccured.

Yeah  MTRancher, the Border Partol isn't crazy about the decision to equip the Brigadier.  Thus, we are all (CBP) getting the new P2000 .40 H&K sometime in the future.  Currently I am issued the Glock 17 and love it.  To heck with the H&K but that decision was made well above my pay grade!  I do personally own a .45 USP which I like but this new P2000 looks like a H&K/Hi-Point Firearms bastard child.  

Quoted: He and his men had no issues with their M4's but they also knew how to properly maintain ther weapons.   One thing he mentioned is that he thought Strike-Hold was great product and it worked great in the harsh envrionment they were in.

Did he say what other products he used and how they compared to SH?

My M4 served me very well. If you take care of it, the weapon will take care of you he
Different units get various levels of maintenance support and standards for weapon maintenance, so it doesnt supprise me to hear  about reliability issues.

Quoted: Quoted: I personally think it was sand in the magazines that caused most of our problems.  No matter what you do to clean the things.  I always had sand in them.   Regarding mags, my brother also told me that instead of letting the mag drop free they now also manually strip the mag from the magwell.  They've mad manually stripping the mag permanently part of their combat/tactical reload protocol.   Murphy was right "When in combat, drop free mags don't drop free.".   I've been using the manual strip as part of my reloads for some time and my brothers experience just confirmed that it is a good practice to continue.

For a while when I was in, back in the 80's, the platoon sgt, and a squad leader, had been infantry in Vietnam.

Whenever we played war, those guys WOULD NOT let their magazines hit the ground, EVER.

It's an old lesson that keeps getting forgotten.

I had no issues with my M4 in Afghanistan, My LTs M4 however quit ejecting rounds during some range shooting outside the firebase.

It was a easy fix, replaced the extractor and all was well.

The M9 mags were an issue, appently the springs were giving out and after 2 or so rounds the follovers were stuck in the bottom of the mag.

The M9 needs to be relaced, crappy trigger, 9mm,mags fail etc.

Hopefully we will get the 1911 back

FREE

I used graphite (which I know was wrong for long term weapons health; graphite and most aluminum allows have an anode-cathode relationship) but for short term, graphite worked good.

We had some reworked bolts that were parkerized over heavy pitting from rust.  Some day I'm going to find the contractor that did that and beat the living crap out of him.  Of course, we turned those bolts back in and got new ones.

The M9 is a POS.  The mag problem killed us.  I ended up reworking a bunch of mags, (new springs, and stripping the oxidation/parkerizing from the interiors of them) to get them to work.  The moronic Army suggested not loading them completely.  Idiots!  If the problem is lack of spring tension, how does putting LESS rounds in the mag help?

I'm still P.O.d about it....

I'm hearing a lot of "mag failure due to crappy mags" in this thread.  One of the big debates about the demise of the Assault Weapon Ban was the toll that the ban had taken on domestic gun and gun parts manufacturers.  Without civilian sales to help temper the cash-flow, I think some of our suppliers suffered.   I think it was Adventure-line that almost went tits-up during the AWB, and DPMS helped bail them out.

Quoted: Quoted: He and his men had no issues with their M4's but they also knew how to properly maintain ther weapons.   One thing he mentioned is that he thought Strike-Hold was great product and it worked great in the harsh envrionment they were in. Did he say what other products he used and how they compared to SH?

IIRC, they were just using Breakfree or whatever issue CLP they had.  

They were told about SH from some other guys who were back from deployment and figured they would give it a try.

When they switched over to SH things started running better and they pretty much used SH exclusively while he was there.

I still need to give this stuff a try but I've been very satisfied with TW-25b so I haven't ordered any  SH yet.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: He and his men had no issues with their M4's but they also knew how to properly maintain ther weapons.   One thing he mentioned is that he thought Strike-Hold was great product and it worked great in the harsh envrionment they were in. Did he say what other products he used and how they compared to SH? IIRC, they were just using what Breakfree or whatever issue CLP they had.   They were told about SH from another some guys who were back from deployment and figured they would give it a try. When they switched over to SH things started running better and they pretty much used SH exclusively while he was there. I still need to give this stuff a try but I've been very satisfied with TW-25b so I haven't ordered any  SH yet.

Thanks for info.  I'm in the same boat as you regarding SH.  I'm waiting for a gun show vendor or someone local to start carrying it to give it a try.  The fact that it's a dry lube that doesn't attract dust is appealing, the fact that we have anecdotes from field users that it works as advertised is very appealing.