[12Gauge687]

Sadly, the M16A2 is not really full auto anymore. On auto it fires three-round auto bursts as I recall. A Navy guy informed me the M14 he fired during practice on board his ship was semi-auto. It may be an accuracy thing.

[bitterohiogunclinger]

Well, as much fun as the A1 version is, it’s really impractical to fire more than a few rounds in a burst. My entire years ammo budget could go down range very quickly. Sadly, I haven’t been able to have any fun for a while since the moron son of the owner of our private range caused it to be shut down. I’m still looking to buy some land cheap.

[rjsimmon]

Sadly, the M16A2 is not really full auto anymore. On auto it fires three-round auto bursts as I recall. A Navy guy informed me the M14 he fired during practice on board his ship was semi-auto. It may be an accuracy thing.

It is not for sake of accuracy that the three round burst and semi-auto only has been put into place. It was done to reduce ammo wasted in the 'pray and spray' mode of close quarter combat.

[SJSAMPLE]

The M-14 was never even marginally useful in the full auto position. It went through a mag quickly the hit probability after the second round was extremely low.

The three-round burst of the M-16A2 is remarkably accurate.

I once OIC’s a qualification range and an Army Specialist accidentally rotated his switch to burst. He put all three zero-ing rounds in the center of the target at 25 meters. that’s less than an inch grouping.

Not everybody can do that, but the M-16 is much more controllable.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

"Sadly, the M16A2 is not really full auto anymore. On auto it fires three-round auto bursts as I recall."

This was an improvement over the A1. To make the A2, the military conducted studies and found that during Viet Nam there was no fire discipline while using the M-16 A1. People were getting into firefights having their adreneline pumping and fire off a whole magazine of 30 rounds in about 5 seconds. With the three round burst, people were able to put out much more sustained and accurate fire.

The rear adjustment for windage was upgraded. The cylyndrical handguards were more ergonomically friendly, providing better grip and the barrel is heavier and flash supressor was improved. Overall, the M-16 A2 is a much better rifle than the M-16 A1. This comes from someone who started out on the A1.