Why US Army Hates Their Standard-Issue Rifle

The US military has serious beef with this gun, so why do they keep on using it? Check out today's epic new video to find out which gun the US Army wants to throw in a dumpster and never use again!

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[chrisgross]

I've never had a problem with the m4. The issue was the magazines, when the army started getting the mags with the anti tilt followers the issue was solved.

[tpraty]

I liked the M4 and most problems I've seen were due to old mags and poor maintenance, not attachments.

[djbeezy]

I have fired the M4 thousands of times. On ranges and in combat and never once had an issue.

[Misfitk]

No, a lot of times it’s the mags, the army doesn’t change out their mags or springs in mags. Do that and it would reduce a good amount of problems

[vcgfcmd]

There are a lot of inaccuracies in this video. The M16 has a 20” barrel, not 16” as mentioned. It also has a rifle-length gas system and a riffle buffer. The M4 uses a carbine-length gas system. Also starting with the M16A2 (we are now up to M16A4) the carry handle iron sight is removable to create the “flat top”. Loading 31 rounds into a magazine is difficult and would require extreme efforts. As someone else mentioned the initial magazine problems were the result of the anti-tilt follower. Additionally the M4 feed ramps are an improvement over the original M16 and solved a lot of feeding issues. Optics have no bearing on the function of the guns action, however they can make it more difficult to operate the standard charging handle. This might have been what you were referring to. Your videos are usually very accurate, this is a bit disappointing to see so many errors.

[HEYitzMEtheKING]

The H&K rifle you referred to is currently working it's way into being the standard for rifle platoons. It is called the M-27.

[satelliterider]

I spent 5 years total deployed. I was a basic 11b and I have been I'm some small engagements it never jammed, and it was reliable. You just have to keep it clean and make sure the magazines are also clean. It's that easy. P.S. om not claiming to be Rambo or any kind of tough guy, just giving my input

[SlightIyVicious]

The barrel on the M-16 is 20", not 16". Most AR-15s on the current civilian market have a barrel length of 16.5" which is probably what the writers were originally thinking. Easy mistake to make if you're not really into guns, but even a simple Google check would have cleared that up.

[jake]

"The M4 is known to jam repeatedly in sandy or muddy environments."

* Ian and Karl from InRange sand and mud testing have arrived *

[williampagonis]

8 years in, never heard anyone say they hate their rifle.

[stevecurry]

Retired US NAVY SEAL 12 years served! Carried my MK 12 and used many an M4, never let me down in a firefight!!!

[tanberetO]

The U.S. Army doesn't hate the M-4. So much false information, the M-16 has a 20" barrel not 16". I fired 10's of thousands of rounds out of M-4's never had an issue that wasn't my fault.

[erichirst]

Ok, I love this channel and the content, but there is a lot of straight up incorrect info. First of all M16 has a 20 inch barrel and fixed iron sights also known as the carry handle. Second the issues you mentioned were actually attributed to poor maintenance by both the army and the soldier using it. You have to realize the army is going to do everything in its power to save money, one way is to have tolerances that lead to parts being worn but still within spec. Like a buffer spring, civilian would replace that when it gets sluggish and worn, army will say until it starts failing it’s still good. Another big issue was the magazines, army spent a ton of money fixing that problem. Also the burst mechanism was known to cause negligent discharges if the weapon ran empty cycle. All this info can be found in article and tests the army has published, also there is a YouTube channel called small arms solutions, the guy can reference the material and articles and tests in regards to knowing the Ar15/M4/M16 family of rifles. You guys have always created great videos that had a wealth of knowledge but this video is definitely one of the worst as far as knowledge goes.

[acolt]

This channel constantly screws up anything firearm related..But they can’t help themselves.

[Ben-wrju]

You Know Your Early When Theres 14 Views With 87 Likes

[ffdtower]

The amount of misinformation in this video is staggering

[wheel]

Sorry, the M-16 is a 20” barrel. Civilian AR’s use a 16” barrel so that they aren’t categorized as an SBR.

[kobet]

One of the reasons the M4 failed in the battle of Wanat is because the M4 wasn’t designed to go cyclic for a long period of time, thus causing the gas tube to fail and the barrel to sag

[MrJdebest]

What I've read about the M16 in the mid 60s in Vietnam was that the rifle was horrendous. Issues with chamber rust, ball powder fouling. But 3 or 4 years later these issues were fixed. That's 50 years ago.

[robbabcock_]

Infographics rocks but I think you dropped the ball on this one. There were some problems as with any weapons system. First off, some of the worst issues were early firefights where soldiers were running many mags through on full auto; no air-cooled gun can survive this. The AK-47 will often see the barrel detach at the gas block or trunion at around 900 rounds full auto. In tests the AR will often survive more than this, with the gas tube usually detaching from the gas block. The HK416 is awesome but if we're being realistic, it's not a vast improvement. Especially once the faulty bolts were replaced that were breaking on FA. This was a relatively small amount and has been corrected for many years. The HK416 also weighs several pounds more than an M4!

I was never a soldier but from work and everyday life I've talked with hundreds of recent veterans and while they had a few common gripes about the gun the vast majority of them found the M4 to be pretty reliable. As others have mentioned, the newest mags with the correct anti-tilt follower fixed most of the problems. Each time the US Army decides to change the issue ammo there tend to be problems until the mags are tweaked for the new bullet profile.