The Armory

[bryan gibson]

he is correct...the M16s earlier issues were a lack of chromed barrel/chamber, which allows for fouling in such huimid/wet environs, and a congenital weakness in the butstock in the earlier designs, all since ably cured. The M4/M16 family is now a fine weapon, although its all relative- after all, it IS an assault rifle, and not a battlerifle. Therefore, accuracy is inheirent in its design- realistically, 3-5 hundred meters. There are superior shots who do better, but as a rule in the combat arena, this is about right.

Battlerifles (m14/G3/FN-FAL) are a completely different kettle of fish, and are another matter completely in such criteria.

And , yes, at least in MY experience ( there are those who likely disagree), while there are more accurate assault rifles, I know of very few that would dispute the AKs supremacy in reliablity and ruggednsss. Its virtue is that it IS adequate to the task ballistically, and IMHO, gimme a gun that ALWAYS works as opposed to a tempernetal accurate one every time.If the enemy is so far away I can't hit him with an assault rifle, I have no buisness shooting at him, any more than a carpenter drives screws with a hammer-it's a question of the tool.

 

[bromdenlong]

I read that the problem with the M16 in Vietnam was that the Army insisted in using the wrong gunpowder in the cartridges. I forget the name of the book I read, but it quoted the inventor of the AR15/M16, Eugene Stoner, extensively. Stoner told the Army repeatedly that the rifle would not work well at all with the powder that the Army wanted to use (I believe it was called ball powder). The Army had the M16 forced on it by SecDef Robert McNamara, after the Air Force bought a number of them and was impressed by them. the Army brass resented this, and ignored Stoner's warnings. Stoner's original weapon was extremely reliable, in field conditions, when shooting ammo loaded with the proper powder. Special Ops guys, SEALs or Green Berets, I forget which, who used Stoner's original design using the proper ammunition in the field, were quoted as saying that it worked very well.

At least that's what the book said. i am no expert on these things, but it seemed quite credible. It had the ring of truth to it.

Come to think of it, I believe the author used the pen name of Cincinnatus.

 

[SanDragon]

My M-16A1 was quite reliable. But I did so despise cleaning it.

 

[bryan gibson]

correct, it was an issue with ball powder, that plus the lack of chromed barrels- ball powder was notorious for fouling issues. Once they went to a cleaner burning "stick" powder, the problemn largely righted itself.

However, to the troop on the ground, this was not at all apparent, and the M16 suffered from its reputation for some time.

The early models had a host of issues, all largely addressed by 1970.The M16a1 and A2 models were the direct result of those modifications.

 

[Eric]

Don't forget that accuracy and reliability while important, are not the only thing to consider.
Example: the M-16 is a fine weapon I'm sure. But consider say the AK-100, Maybe not as accurate but designed to accept almost any standard light rounds.
Easy reload and restock of ammo could be very important to a traveler.

One more note. Make things interesting with a variety of ammunition. Everything covered in the T20 book and a few that aren't.

Explosive: add one extra damage dice.
Smart rounds: as stated above.
And if your really into it.

Teflon-coated depleted uranium: At least vehicle scale armor penetration.

 

[veltyen]

DU is generally a bad idea until medical technology beyond TL8 is available. Easy removal of cancerous nodules in the lungs is prety much a nessesity. Otherwise it is a great idea, depending on the requirements for contamination and cleanup on whatever environment you are in.

Teflon coating is probably not as useful as you might think, it would allow a slightly lower drag in the air increasing range (and accuracy) slightly, but otherwise would have little effect.

 

[Eric]

I was under the impression that depleted uranium Was no longer radio active. I could be wrong but that is what I was lead to believe.

 

[MR TEK]

DEPLEATED Uranium, is uranium that no longer has enough radioactivity to reach a critical mass in a small enough lump to be useful for weapons or power generation.

It will still be radioactive for the half-life of uranium, 30,000 years or so, just not weapons grade. As I understand it, original military doctrine was that no solder be allowed in a confined space with these rounds for more than 24 hours. Not sure if they are still radioactive enough to require dosimeters or not, but defiantly a known health risk from simple exposure.

Worse, when used as ammunition, when it penetrates metal, the outer later ignites and decays to a VERY unstable isotope of iodine that is easily inhaled and very deadly. There is a theory, unproven that radiation sickness from iodine decay from depleted uranium rounds IS Gulf war sickness. (Same illness appears in Yugoslavia, the only other place DU rounds ever used until Gulf-war II. There are also already large numbers of troops of all nationalities showing similar symptoms.

Sorry, if this tread continues, it is probably bound for the political forum, but those are the facts, what few facts are known about DU rounds.

Not My intention to be provocative, but I do know this particular subject can get very provocative, very fast.

Peace

Jim Roker.

 

[dancha]

Hey all:

Would someone explain the difference(s) between assault rifles and battle rifles?

Thanks,
Dan

 

[mike wightman]

An assault rifle is an fully automatic capable rifle that fires a "cut down" round, like the 5.56 round fired by the M16 et al.
A battle rifle is a semi-automatic or fully automatic capable rifle that fires a "full size" round, like the 7.62 round fired by the HK G3 or the FN FAL.

 

[TheBrain]

Originally posted by veltyen:

"Teflon coating is probably not as useful as you might think, it would allow a slightly lower drag in the air increasing range (and accuracy) slightly, but otherwise would have little effect."

Actually I think the teflon on most AP rounds is to protect the weapons barrel rifling from damage from the harder materials that armor-piercing rounds are made from.

 

[Straybow]

Small caliber rounds are too slow to ignite the DU. The 25mm gun on the Bradley is a case in point. The penetration is superior but the projectile only fragments without ignition.

The 30mm round fired from the A-10's GAU-8 has barely sufficient velocity to cause ignition of the DU. If it were fired at very long range (say, at a ship or other sufficiently large target) the rounds could drop below the critical speed.

Ignition of DU cannot alter radioactive decay rate. However, there will be a small quantity of Iodine produced by natural decay and trapped within the metallic lattice. This would be released upon combustion.

I-131 and like isotopes produce very specific thyroid cancers, and therefore are dismissed as a cause of the elusive Gulf War Syndrome.