Sure the M16A1 I had in Basic required a lot (and I mean a lot) of babying to keep it firing, but the A2 I had at all of my permanent duty stations worked fantastic, no matter how much I abused it. The M249s that I used worked great, when belt fed, but heaven forbid you stuck a magazine in the side of it! I was lucky to get off 2 rounds before it jammed.
I bought a Springfield M1A based it’s reputation for reliability even when thrown in mud, dirt and run over.
I have purposely not cleaned it for my own testing purposes for the last 8 months.
No problem and I have used So. African and Russian surplus, just because they are dirty and oily.
No problems and I have put National Match in. They are great but at $2.50 per round I don’t need that kind of accuracy.
I will thouroghly clean it for Christmas but, I am pretty confident in its reliability and performance.
Interesting. Granted I was USAF and we almost never carried weapons unless you were security forces or deployed to a combat zone, but every year when I qualified, I had no issues with the m16. I am sure it was not the best gun, my sec forces friends all had their favorites.