Top 10 Infantry Rifles of All Time

americanrifleman ^

[BuffaloJack]

For 6 months I carried an M14 that always worked, then they took it away and gave me an M16 that jammed in fire fights.

[SpaceBar]

First came the rock.

[Gay State Conservative]

I never served in,or near,combat so the only experience I've ever had with a weapon of war was BCT (1969).We were the last cycle at Fort Knox to qualify with the M-14 and the first to qualify with the M-16.I liked the M-14 better and scored "Expert" with it but only scored "Marksman" with the M-16.

A Marine I know...who was in Hue during the Tet Offensive...has told me about the many problems of the M-16.

[Vaquero]

Of course it worked. The m-14 bring an updated Garand. The m -16 would have worked too if the politicians would have allowed it to be put out the way Stoner designed it. But they had contracts with Olin who made ball powder that was filthy and gummed up the works. Had they used DuPont as indicated by Stoner there would have been no jams. So they eventually chromed the chambers and installed that little round pusher button to overcome the powder problem.

Politics

[Bruiser 10]

I carried an M16, CAR15, M3, a Thompson, an M79, and an M14.

The M14 was my hands-down favorite.

[C19fan]

The 1886 French Lebel should have made the list. It was the first rifle to use smokeless powder and fire a smaller caliber bullet. It was the daddy of the Mauser and Lee-Enfield.

[theirjustdue]

Carried the M-14 for 13 months in VN. Many hundreds of rounds during countless firefights. Packed with mud, rinsed in rice paddies and never a jam or miss-fire. Saved my life and I loved that rifle.

[LouAvul]

that little round pusher button

Forward assist.

[Yo-Yo]

For 6 months I carried an M14 that always worked, then they took it away and gave me an M16 that jammed in fire fights.

And stuck with it for 55 years. The M16/M4 must really be a piece of crap for it to have lasted that long.

[Chainmail]

Couldn't agree more: the M16 was an obscenity when we got them: tore the case heads off the fired cartridge and then stuffed a fresh cartridge into was was left in the chamber. Marines that carried them had to carry an assembled cleaning rod full time to try knock that mess out of the chamber during firefights. Damn thing was fragile too.

I kept my M-14, thanks to some awfully permissive leaders and stayed alive.

[Chainmail]

"And stuck with it for 55 years. The M16/M4 must really be a piece of crap for it to have lasted that long."

Or the Army is just stubbornly sticking with it because we have so many and a mountain of 5.56 ammo in stockpiles.

We're just lucky that we haven't been involved in a major war against a first-line combatant during that period.

[AppyPappy]

“Did the M-16 have a 3 round burst fire option?”
“In a sense, yes”

[Chainmail]

Yes: “3 only”.

[snoringbear]

The original M-16 had full auto and semi-auto. The 3 round burst feature came later.

[\/\/ayne]

Basic Training we were training with original M16s, yes they jammed a lot - especially with blanks. But I liked the brand new M16A2 issued when I got to my unit. In a sense the training was pretty good because we HAD to keep our rifles maintained to get off a few shots.

[Dusty Road]

M-16 served me well from 69-72. As long as I did my part it did it’s, light, quick, sleek and accurate. I could carry twice as much ammo as somebody hauling around the M-14 and even grab some extra grenades.

[Dusty Road]

M-16 was full auto.

[wbarmy]

I cannot understand the non-inclusion of the Mosin-Nagant. This list is heavy on European and American favorites, but the Mosin-Nagant probably had more to do with real shifts in geo-political power.

http://7.62x54r.net/MosinID/MosinHumor.htm

[rlmorel]

"That comes Later!"