Post by John Wilson on Jun 6, 2013 9:13:13 GMT -5
Well, I've come back to this thread, hat in hand, to eat my words.
For years I was a general badmouther of all things M16 / AR15. I was wrong.
I never had much respect for the M16 / AR15 platform because of my previous (limited) experience with them. The first M16 I ever shot was during qualification and it was the typical boot-camp M16 with more miles on it than Pamela Anderson. Like the .mil Beretta (which I also hate) you could hold the weapon up and shake it to see if you had put all the parts back inside. Anything that didn't rattle was obviously missing. Every time I squeezed the trigger I was sure the BCG was going to come through the side of the buffer tube and puncture the side of my skull.
The M16s I shot after the first one were about the same. A1, A2. What I have to admit is that they were surprisingly accurate, even if every fifth round required a good slap to the forward assist to get the bolt into battery.
Well- back to the point. After shooting a good bit with AR15s recently I have come to realize that I was wrong. There just isn't much not to like. A decent AR in good condition is a joy to shoot. Also, after doing a good bit of repair work to a Mini-14 this past week, I have to say that Eugene Stoner was a damned genius when it came to gun design. While the Mini-14 takes three hands at times to get the bolt and operating rod apart / back together, the AR requires zero tools and a bright 9-year old could field strip one and put it back together after being shown how.
I was wrong. ARs pretty much rock. Points to Tom Nelson. He tried to tell me that in this thread and I was too hardheaded to listen.
For years I was a general badmouther of all things M16 / AR15. I was wrong.
I never had much respect for the M16 / AR15 platform because of my previous (limited) experience with them. The first M16 I ever shot was during qualification and it was the typical boot-camp M16 with more miles on it than Pamela Anderson. Like the .mil Beretta (which I also hate) you could hold the weapon up and shake it to see if you had put all the parts back inside. Anything that didn't rattle was obviously missing. Every time I squeezed the trigger I was sure the BCG was going to come through the side of the buffer tube and puncture the side of my skull.
The M16s I shot after the first one were about the same. A1, A2. What I have to admit is that they were surprisingly accurate, even if every fifth round required a good slap to the forward assist to get the bolt into battery.
Well- back to the point. After shooting a good bit with AR15s recently I have come to realize that I was wrong. There just isn't much not to like. A decent AR in good condition is a joy to shoot. Also, after doing a good bit of repair work to a Mini-14 this past week, I have to say that Eugene Stoner was a damned genius when it came to gun design. While the Mini-14 takes three hands at times to get the bolt and operating rod apart / back together, the AR requires zero tools and a bright 9-year old could field strip one and put it back together after being shown how.
I was wrong. ARs pretty much rock. Points to Tom Nelson. He tried to tell me that in this thread and I was too hardheaded to listen.
