Yesterday, on the American Heroes Channel, I watched a comparison of the “AK” and the “16”. Like we all knew, the early “16s” were a piece of guano, but with refinements, over the years, it came out quite well in the comparison. Personally, I had a “14” in Nam and really liked it, though much heavier. Steve Schlah “68”
Actually, Stoner was the one that started it all. As for powder problems, perhaps so but that wasn’t the only probably these weapons had. The tolerances were so tight that at one point in the history of the weapon all bolts were mic’ed and were not supposed to be interchanged with other lower receivers. That kind of weapon in the type of terrain it was used called for sometimes extraordinary care that shouldn’t have been necessary.
It sure didn’t make me a happy camper on one 11 day patrol that I alternated as point man and just before pickup, we had a mad minutes. The second round out caused a jam in my M203. Why? One of the primers got caught in the bolt locking mechanism and I couldn’t get it out. The same mission we fired off four LAWs and two were complete duds.
Charlie Company Vietnam 1966-1972 
Yesterday, on the American Heroes Channel, I watched a comparison of the “AK” and the “16”. Like we all knew, the early “16s” were a piece of guano, but with refinements, over the years, it came out quite well in the comparison. Personally, I had a “14” in Nam and really liked it, though much heavier. Steve Schlah “68”
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Actually, Stoner was the one that started it all. As for powder problems, perhaps so but that wasn’t the only probably these weapons had. The tolerances were so tight that at one point in the history of the weapon all bolts were mic’ed and were not supposed to be interchanged with other lower receivers. That kind of weapon in the type of terrain it was used called for sometimes extraordinary care that shouldn’t have been necessary.
It sure didn’t make me a happy camper on one 11 day patrol that I alternated as point man and just before pickup, we had a mad minutes. The second round out caused a jam in my M203. Why? One of the primers got caught in the bolt locking mechanism and I couldn’t get it out. The same mission we fired off four LAWs and two were complete duds.
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