[Joe Brower]

As I understand it, the malfunctions of the first M16s fielded in Vietnam were due to a last-minute, foolish change in the powder used in the M193 ammo, and lack of chrome-lined bores. That, and telling the troops that it didn't need cleaning. All of which were fixed rather quickly, although this should have been done right off the bat.

I ran over 2,000 rounds through mine on a three-day romp in the Florida Everglades -- rain and mud and lots of it. I didn't clean it -- just applied LSA to the BCG about every 500 rounds. Zero malfunctions.

Of course, I wasn't in any firefights, thankfully, but I did run about 300 rounds through it in about ten minutes just for the hell of it as we were leaving, and while the handguards got too hot to hold, it ran everything; no jams.

[tumblindice]

http://www.smallarmsreview.com/display.article.cfm?idarticles=1735
The Army and Marines thought the M-16 was some kind of Buck Rogers freak.
When it first came out they didn’t even have cleaning kits. The article discusses the powder problem.
Good old Colt: state of the art mil spec, circa 1963.