(10-17-2025, 07:57 AM)727Sky Wrote: Current Chinese manufacturing of military essential's .. They can out produce almost anything from any country; yet a turd with a new paint job is still a turd.
That worries me a bit. Three critical pieces of my kit were all made in China - all of them magazine pouches. One holds 3 - 32 round magazines for my sidearm that look like Sten gun magazines because of their length, one holds 2 - 20 round magazines for the same, and one holds 12 AR magazines, but that one will accommodate the 40 - round magazines as well as the 30 - round magazines due to adjustable flap covers.
They've worked well so far, but the "adjustment" for the larger capacity magazines involved velcro on the back of the flaps and the back of the inside of the mag pouches. That gives me pause for thought, and now the fact that they are Chinese made also gives me pause for further though. Might see if I can find an old surplus SMG pouch for the 32 round pistol mags, but I can't think of any solution for the other two pouches that ain't Chinese made.
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In the matter of the Ordinance Corps and the early M-16, I don't mind having a forward assist on my AR's. I insist on it, really, because only the Air Force retained the AR pattern rifles without it. I've never had to use it, but it's nice to know it's there if I ever need to.
The bolt forward assist was part of the package that converted M-16's to M16A1's. The Ordnance folks required it to "fix" a problem they caused. They insisted on a propellant in the cartridges that shot dirty, and gunked up the insides of M-16's with fouling, which sometimes built up so heavily that the bolt would not go into battery without some assistance. Without an external reciprocal bolt handle to hammer the bolt forward with, the bolt forward assist was a necessary thing in those days. If there was no way to force the bolt forward, a fouled M-16 became just an expensive club because it would not fire any more, and that cost American soldier's lives.
Back in the day, they used to train folks to slap that bolt forward assist as a matter of course during reloads, just like training to slap upward on the bottom of the magazine after a reload to make sure it was properly seated. The magazine slap was sometimes necessary, but I don't think the forward assist slap ever was, unless you let your weapon get all gunked up through lack of cleaning or shooting dirty ammo in the early days. The fine folks at Ordinance finally got the memo, and they changed the propellant powder in 5.56 rounds to a cleaner-burning one.
The other major improvement between M-16's and M16A1's was the flash suppressor. Early M16's has an open-ended, 3 prong flash suppressor. The prongs kept getting caught on vines and twigs and shit in the jungle, so that necessitated closing the end of the flash suppressor with a "ring", creating the "bird cage" flash suppressor of the M16A1.
M16A1 flash suppressors had 6 slots in them, so a further improvement on the concept was closing one of the slots and making sure that closed slot was at the bottom, so that it didn't kick up so much dust and leaves and crap when firing from the prone. That was the flash suppressor for the M16A2, and is the same one used on the M-4 to this day. That current flash suppressor also tends to act like a compensator to push the muzzle back downward during full-auto fire, reducing muzzle climb. Gas exits from the slots on top, pushing downward on the un-slotted solid bottom part of the flash suppressor.
I have an old M16A1 flash suppressor that I've mounted on a Ruger 10/22 - not because it needs one (it clearly doesn't - it's just a .22 LR, fer cryin' out loud!), but just because I could. Other useless crap I've mounted on that 10/22 just because I could include an illuminated reticle 3x9 range-finder (uses mil dots) scope, a flashlight, a laser, and an aftermarket stock (Choate's) that has a pistol grip and a solid, non-folding butt on it. Buck Rogers ought to be proud of me!
The third improvement that turned M-16's into M16A1's was an idea stolen from the Russian AK - the addition of a trap-doored compartment in the butt stock for carrying a cleaning kit, insuring that the means to clean a rifle was always with it.
No more gunked-up guns.
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“Trouble rather the tiger in his lair than the sage among his books. For to you kingdoms and their armies are things mighty and enduring, but to him they are but toys of the moment, to be overturned with the flick of a finger.”
― Gordon R. Dickson, Tactics of Mistake
― Gordon R. Dickson, Tactics of Mistake