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Old 05-28-2018, 12:12 PM
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BB57 BB57 is offline
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I was issued the M16A1 during my military service and I have to admit I despised it when I first saw it. I was raised among WWII father and uncles who were all M1 and/or M14 fans and regarded the M16 as a "poodle shooter".

However, it grew on me in the military as it was accurate and effective on people sized targets out to 350m. Reliability varied a lot. I was issued 3 in OCS alone, just because one had apparently bene used to open a crate and no longer had enough windage to bring the weapon to zero. The second would not eject reliably. But, once they figured out I could shoot (and shoot really well) they issued me a "good" one and it was incredibly reliable - I don't recall ever having a malfunction with it that was not dirt induced.

If you were crawling through sand, etc with it, even with the dust cover closed the first thing you'd want to do with it was pop the rear pin, pull out the bolt carrier and wipe off any crud and wipe or blow any sand, etc out of the upper receiver. Then it was good to go.

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About 12-15 years ago, I built semi-auto M16 and M16A1 clones using NDS lowers (back when they were in stock and did not have an 8-9 month wait) using an SP1 upper and an M16 A1 upper, both of which were being sold as surplus by the department when they switched to M4 uppers that were much more patrol car friendly.

Both of them will produce 1.5 MOA 5 shot groups with quality M193 ammo.



IMHO, this is a much more cost effective way to come up with an M16A1 clone, but unlike 12-15 years ago, correct parts are a lot harder to find.

Last edited by BB57; 05-28-2018 at 12:13 PM.
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