I've Said This Too!

I just hadn't said it well, or fired near so many rounds to prove it.

Vuurwapen Blog Brings You Another Dead Link

and

Defense Review

Both articles confirmed something I had figured out on my own, the AR is already a piston system. The bolt carrier is a spigot piston. Those articles also show that the "shits where it eats" people should really shut up now. I clean my rifles after every trip to the range more out of a concern for corrosion than carbon because I don't get to shoot as often as I'd like.

In my experience with M16's in the Army, they jammed when using blanks. I never had a single failure with live ammunition. However, that doesn't say much since, as a tank crewman, I didn't shoot the M16 much. One qualification on an M16A1 in OSUT and two quals with my line unit with the M16A2 don't make me an authority, but I did shoot expert!

I noticed that both articles mention that they discarded magazine failures when considering the reliability. I think that is a very telling portion of this debate. I would be fascinated by a study that sees how the AR magazine affects the reliability of other guns.

When I got my first AR15 I still had a Daewoo DR200. I discovered that the AR mags I had on hand worked happily in the DR200 but would mis-feed the third from the last round with the AR. Replacing the black follower with orange Magpul cured the problem in my AR, but there was no issue in the Daewoo. I have always found that very odd.