The Army's new rifle

[Ninurta]

One of the things that hasn't been touched on much regarding the M7 platform is that damned boondoggle of an optic... the XM157...

Before i get into my rant, I'm reminded of a quote often attributed to John Glenn, "As I hurtled through space, one thought kept crossing my mind - every part of this rocket was supplied by the lowest bidder."

Parts will fail, shit will happen, and smartphones have made us stupid. So what happens when we hand a magical, does all the math for you, optic to the actual current crop of warfighters? Well... They don't like it, and the short-term reason? Apparently, it fails. A lot. A quote from the following article;

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025...oblem.html

"The XM7 with mounted XM157 demonstrated a low probability of completing one 72-hour wartime mission without incurring a critical failure," the Operational Test and Evaluation report adds.

That's as of February of this year. But that just the appetizer for today's, completely unhinged, rant.

Now, 20+ years ago, on my first deployment, I was issued an M68, the "Comp M2" version... The one that required special batteries... the Comp M4 (AA batteries) was after my time, but I digress... It was phenomenal. 4 MOA dot. I only ever shut the thing off to swap batteries when I could get them... and while it's supposed to be a close range optic, technically called a CCO or Close Combat Optic, me and the boys could accurately "suppress, at the very least," out to 400 - 500 yards with it quite effectively. But there's a trick to it... First thing we had to do was divorce ourselves from the 25/300 zero of the irons. And yes, I referring to the 8/3 and 8/3+1 for all you Salty Bastards out there.... We ran a "36 yard" zero for the dot itself, and it worked, beautifully out to about 300 yards without any kind of holdover... But the best part? There was never any need for a hold-under.... Because, yes, with a 25/300 zero? The 5.56 is still climbing out to about 175-200 yards, the the tune of a dinner plate or the old Pizza Hut Personal Pan Pizzas back when "Book-it" was still a thing. Gahds, say that 5 five time fast...

Now here's where the math gets fun.. If 4 MOA is a (roughly) 4 inch circle at 100 yards, an 8 inch circle at 200 yards, a 12 inch circle at 300 yards, etc.. when thinking purely from a conical perspective, how much holdover do you actually need to hit a target (roughly) center-mass at 400 yards, if the rifle you are using fires a bullet that inherently drops roughly 20 to 24 inches between 300 and 400 yards, assuming the rifle would hit about 4 inches low at 300 yards?

That's right... adjust your aim from roughly center-mass to centering your dot on the shoulders of your target. THAT'S LITERALLY IT. It is so simple that it requires almost no thought. Oh! While I'm at it... Want to know how far away your target is at a glance? You have a device to measure with... A 4 MOA dot. If your humanoid target is facing you, and his, her, they's, them's shoulders are broader than the dot? Guess what? They can be assumed to be closer than 400 yards away. Why? Because the average width of an adult male's shoulders are between 16 and 20 inches, and an adult female's shoulders average between 14-18 inches.... if we average that together.... That gives us, a mean average of 16 inches... Or 4 MOA at 400 yards....

Now, ask someone that has become reliant on technology to figure how to aim if their Ti-83 equivalent graphing calculator of a scope fails them....

I do apologize for my 'tism... I really do. I just have a hatred for unnecessary bullshit for the sake of "progress"....

Also according to that article, the Army is paying around $11,655.27 EACH for those miracles of modern technology... for a geegaw that's prone to failure when the rifles ought to be coming with perfectly useable irons.

I've never been a big fan of gadgetry when my life depends on it. When I got this AR, I did "Buck Rogers" the damned thing up, added a 4 MOA red-dot, laser, and flashlight to it. In the end, the only thing that survived was the flashlight. The red dot sight was co-sighted with the irons, because I didn't trust it all that much, and as it turned out, that mistrust was justified - one day it worked, and the next day it didn't. No sparks or fizzles, no dinging it around, it just stopped working like it was out of juice or something. Changed the batteries, still nothing. So I took it off the rifle and threw it in a box, because who needs the extra weight for... nothing?

Same with the laser. One day it worked, and the next it just didn't work any more, with no fanfare. Battery change didn't make it start back up, either. So I took it off, too.

The rifle came with a milspec front sight (on an "F" base) and a plastic Magpul flip-up rear sight for"backup" sights. I took that plastic rear sight off and threw it in a box, too - not fond of plastic sights.

I replaced them with a carry handle that had irons built in. Those still work. The flashlight still works. I don't reckon I really need any more geegaws than that, and the rifle is now about a pound lighter than it was when it was all overloaded with useless gegaws. A pound don't sound like much, but it's pretty important if you're going to lug the thing around all day and all night.

The rifle also came with a 30 round all-plastic Magpul GenM2 magazine. Chucked that in the box, too. It had all plastic feed lips, which did not inspire confidence in me. All through the history of magazine fed weapons, the single largest factor in failures to feed has been distorted feed lips on the magazine, and I didn't care to find out what happens to plastic feed lips when the rifle gets hotter than the hinges of hell. I got a big box full of Lancer 30 round magazines, which have a plastic body sure enough, but steel feed lips, and a few MWG (Bulgarian made - brought to you by the makers of the famous "Circle 10" AK magazines) 40 round magazines, also with steel feed lips.

I did get 3 gen-yoo-wine Colt 40 round all steel magazines - at least the floor plates are stamped Colt, with the Colt logo - but they're not worth a bottle of warm piss. The followers have a bad habit of sticking inside the magazine bodies, with bad results. They were made by National in California, so I reckon I shouldn't have expected any better from them. They're nowhere near the quality of the all steel 40-rounders I had back in the day.

I don't care how "tacticool" the rifle LOOKS - I want it to WORK when I need it to work, every time.

There is a reason the K.I.S.S. principle was invented. When everything else fails, K.I.S.S. still works.

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