M-16: A Bureaucratic Horror Story

[url]https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1981/06/m-16-a-bureaucratic-horror-story/545153/[/url]

If you get bored and want to read about the development of the AR15 which is in the news these days and how it turned into the horrible M16 rifle this story is for you.

This is about the army ordinance people's **** up when they changed the beautiful working Armalite AR15 developed by Eugene Stoner into the M16 using a different twist rate of One turn for every twelve inches and ball power that burned hotter to get more pressure to up the exit velocity of the 5.56 bullet by 100 fps. That in turned made the rifle cycle too fast and it allowed the power to burn into the gas tube and screw up the rifle. The BCG was supposed to close off the gas port when the powder was burning. But the ball powder burned slower and longer and was still burning when the gas port opened, and thus hot dirty gases went into the gun's chamber causing it to clog up and jam more the original powder made by DuPont and sold to Colt and used in the AR15 rifles that were so reliable.

This is a lengthy article but an interesting read if you want to know what happened to the AR15 and how the M16 failed our military people in Vietnam. Get yourself a cup of coffee and clear your schedule and read the article.

The twist rate of the original AR15 designed by Eugene Stoner was 1:14. That is one turn for every fourteen inches. Normally with a lightweight bullet you want a slower twist rate of the grooves inside the barrel to stabilize the bullet in flight. With a heavier bullet you want a faster twist rate. For example, my Daniel Defense AR15 rifle has a twist rate of one turn per seven inches. My rifle ***** at shooting light weight fifty-five grain bullets but a heavier sixty-two grain bullet shoots much better and much more accurate.

Now I remember reading about submarine warfare in WWII and how the American sub captains were complaining about our torpedoes not working which was costing American Lives. It turns out that the idiots in the Bureau of Ordinance failed to test the torpedoes properly. When the captains aimed properly, and the torpedo hit the enemy ship head on as it should the detonator was crushed before the torpedo exploded and the hit was a dud. The torpedoes only exploded when they hit an enemy ship at an oblique angle. They didn't figure out what was wrong until the captains of our American Subs complained, and they did a test firing of the torpedoes against some vertical cliffs in the coastline. Divers went down and retrieved the torpedoes, and they examined the detonators and found the problem. Only then did the number of enemy ships sunk increase dramatically. For two years we were firing duds and getting counter attacked which caused the unnecessary deaths of many American sailors.

Our system of government has too many bureaucratic screw up that cost our military men and women their lives.