Off the processes for a while
I really, really really like how you can push one pin out and have a look right down into the action of an AR, and see that all the bits are where they are supposed to be, and working the way they’re supposed to. I like how you don’t need any tool other than a fingernail to take the bolt apart.
I like how you could conceivably have a selection of uppers fitted for different calibers and uses and just stick the one you want on the rifle that day.
I like how the geek world has flooded the market with all manner of different accessories and parts so you can customize these suckers in about any way you could imagine.
Yes, there are many ideas “Borrowed” from other firearms, but this is the culmination- mechanically, anyway- of about all the best all of them had to offer.
I’m still a traditionalist, and will always be. I like the wood stock on my M1 Carbine. I love the way the K31 feels in my hands. I prefer shooting the double and the leverguns to almost anything.
But I know something well made when I see it.
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My two objections to the M-16/AR-15/M-4 and all the various M4geries – They have a gas tube instead of a gas piston, and the 5.56 is a poodle-shooting round that they expect me to use to kill humans.
So the gun shits where it eats, and you gotta shoot someone five times before they go down, especially when they’re hopped up on goofballs the way our current enemy is.
But the machining processes, the simplicity of maintaining the gun, yep, it’s genius. If I could find an M4gery with a larger caliber and a piston instead of a gas tube, I’d snap it up. If I had the money, because I’m willing to bet that sucker would be expensive.
I’m pretty sure you can get nice wood stocks, pistol grips and hand guards for the AR, if you want to go traditional.
Ed: The comment went to spam and I had to retrieve it, dammit. If you post something and don’t see it or it goes to spam email me so I can retrieve it. Stupid filter let that spam through for two weeks and is now deleting coments from my friends. What crap.
Also: I hope to be lucky enough never to have to engage in any fighting, period.
All the things I want to shoot are best shot with something that begins with at least a 4, better if it’s a 5, and a 6 wouldn’t be unwelcome at all.
I would never for a minute consider shooting a human if there were any other options.
Options like, for instance, biting out his jugular. Or crushing his eyes with my thumbs and then kicking hard enough to cause fatal internal bleeding.
Shooting someone is so… impersonal.
Ed,
I have had this same discussion many times and pretty much summed it up like you do, except I don’t have as much detailed knowledge about piston vs. tube.
I didn’t know about the problems with piston versions, and thought most of those came with a different style bolt.
Modern AR platform rifles and their ammo (in general) are worlds apart from those first batches thrown into the jungles of SE Asia suffering from those commonly reported, real or imagined failings, which now should be looked upon as mythic lore rather than valuable criteria for important decisions about rifle choices.
Ragin’ Dave, there are larger caliber versions, Remington has a .243, there is the AR-10 variety in .308, and multiple 6mm-ish calibers among others.
You’re not going to win bench rest competitions with any of them, but consistent sub-MOA performance is a reasonable expectation for many of these rifles.
Despite 40 years of data demonstrating the effectiveness of killing real people in war with a 5.56mm round, we STILL get people clamoring to bring back the M-14. Also, the 5.56mm does not kill by punching holes with its sectional density (excepting head shots). The primary killing mechanism is fragmentation of the round in soft tissue.
The primary cause of M16/M-4 stoppage in the field is lack of lubrication. weapons that are lubed with proper spec lubricants don’t jam no matter how much they shit where they eat.
The second cause of stoppages in the field is magazine problems. Problem 1: keeping 6 magazines in the body armor. Take the body armor off 3 times a day and toss it into a corner on a concrete floor. Eventually, the “ears” on top of the magazine become deformed and change the feed channel for loading the next round. problem 2: Same magazines, loaded 24-7 in the vest, collecting dust, grit and occasional moisture accumulate debris that chokes the feeding of ammo. Troops in peacetime don’t learn about cleaning their ammo because they only use new-out-of-the-box ammo and they use it all in the same day. Troops in combat don’t learn it because they blame their stopages on folklore about the AR design.
I am all for our enemies using adrenaline before combat. It will help them bleed out faster when hit. It might be worth it for US govt to supply it to them. While we are at it, we could taint it so that those who survive combat suffer from permanent ED.
I like the fact that I can assemble, from parts, an AR15 lower receiver with no special tools. All I really need are a hammer, needle-nose pliers and a set of metal punches.
While we are at it, we could taint it so that those who survive combat suffer from permanent ED.
Something else they can blame on their wimmen.
So, am I to understand from the ARgument offered above that kinetic energy expended in the target means nothing?
The AR is, in its later versions, a well-built midrange carbine. The modularity is legendary. Why then do we seem to face enemies armed with AKs mostly, and have so much trouble with those enemies on the battlefield?
Could it be at least partly due to their rifles being superior in some way, perhaps the effectiveness of their ammo?
In my salad days shooting competitive rifle in college, I shot an Anschutz rifle. Finest target rifle in existence then, but I would never take it into battle.
Its never just about the weapon, AR fanboyz.
AR fanboyz.
This isn’t about the cartridge or it’s efficiency in battle; it’s about what a nice design the rifle is. As I have said before, I hope never to ever have to go into battle except with a critter that needs something actually big to kill it. if this thread turns into a “poodle shooter” debate I’mna knock some heads.
I don’t get it rivrdog.
Are you saying that in any single instance the Japanese had better small arms than we did in WWII? Or the Italians? Perhaps the sword was better than the fighting knife. Maybe.
We have trouble with our enemies on the battle field because they have firearms and are trying to kill us. Well, and that they care more for their dinner than they do about collateral damage.
hey! NO cartridge wars. This thread- in fact ALL of them, are about the construction of the AR, and NOT about it’s effectiveness as a combat round. You wanna have that discussion, foine, do it elsewhere.
Sorry sir.
I for one never get around to using the easily swapped upper feature of an AR15. All of the uppers I assemble seem to grow lowers soon after I finish them.
An AR lower is such an easy thing to put together from base components, I just can’t help but slap one together to make a lonely upper receiver into a complete rifle.
See, that’s how they get you. You make a spare upper, and then you think, ‘Shit, for only X, I can have a whole nother gun!