[BBell]

Whats with all the M-16's jamming? I've carried a few and fired them in a variety of adverse conditions and have never had this problem. Lousy weapons maintenence, not necesarily by the individual, is what I suspect. Or lousy magazines.

[ForGod'sSake]

Lousy weapons maintenence, not necesarily by the individual, is what I suspect. Or lousy magazines.

Bad cajones maybe? Like Mad Tom said, she had no business being there in the first place.

FGS

[KittyKares]

Whats with all the M-16's jamming?

I thought I once heard that those wild desert sandstorms wreaked havoc on the weapons.

[R. Scott]

Infantry soldiers are given the time to properly maintain their weapons. They are given ammunition for practice firing. The M-16 is their number one piece of equipment and they are not only allowed but encouraged to maintain it.
Support units are a different story. Jessica’s unit had as their number one piece of equipment a contact truck. The M-16 was just something they had to drag along.
In the support units I was in our M-16s were locked up in an arms room for a year at a time.
Once a year we drew our weapon for qualification at the range. Our “training ammo” consisted of nine rounds – to zero the sights. We did have a full time armorer charged with maintenance, but the individual soldier was not allowed access.
The only other time we had access was for field training exercises. We were issued the weapon, played in the woods and returned them to the arms room.
In this case I see the soldiers carrying their weapon into the desert. Sandstorms were prevalent at the time and undoubtedly fouled many of the weapons. Weapons maintenance was not the priority – vehicle maintenance was. Support Company Commanders in general put all resources into their primary job – supporting the combat troops. Self defense is way down the list of priorities and support troops pay when under fire.

[CMAC51]

>> Whats with all the M-16's jamming? I've carried a few and fired them in a variety of adverse conditions and have never had this problem. Lousy weapons maintenence, not necesarily by the individual, is what I suspect. Or lousy magazines. <<

It was reported earlier in many places that the support troops did not maintain there weapons in a combat ready fashion. This must be a lesson learned from this war. You carry a weapon because you need it. I better be ready when you do!

[JudgemAll]

Whats with all the M-16's jamming?

It depends on the ammo. The 223 is a bit small to actuate the AR15/M16. You need match ammo with good brass, higher powder loads, I think, if not the autoloading action wont work well. The 7.62 is so big, that is not a problem, apparently.

[bimbo]

Whats with all the M-16's jamming? I've carried a few and fired them in a variety of adverse conditions and have never had this problem. Lousy weapons maintenence, not necesarily by the individual, is what I suspect. Or lousy magazines.

I never had a problem either. IMHO, “M-16’s jamming” seems to be an acceptably convenient excuse for something.