Re: Time for the HK 416?
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: apache kid</div><div class="ubbcode-body">In the meantime the bad guys are using AK's and never have a malf.
Never clean their worn out weapons and never have problems with magazines.
The M4/M16 "sacred cow" is 50 year old technology that should have never been.
You never saw these M4/M16 high maintenance complications with the M1 or M14.
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I never had a jam in a gunfight, using M4 carbines for 3 years in Iraq.
I also was issued an M14 in 2004-2005- it was alright- I never had a jam with it either, but it was heavy, and it did have a really thin barrel that lost accuracy noticeably after the first 5-6 rounds fired. If you let it cool for a few minutes, accuracy would come right back. I had a tool kit for it- a flash hider castle nut wrench a gas cylinder holding tool, and a gas cylinder nut wrench. You don't need tools for an AR.
The M14's fatal flaw, is the steel reciever which is just a giant waste of weight that could be used on the barrel. That's why the LMT MWS is the go to gun for coalition forces these days- the weight saved with an aluminum receiver gives the rifleman a free heavy barrel instead of a pencil thin piece of garbage.
<span style="font-weight: bold">The M14/std pencil barrel/Sage EBR stock/BMT scope mount weighs a pound more than the LMT MWS with its heavier barrel.- you don't need a scope mount on the MWS-it's built into the top of the reciever. </span>
That's an extra pound for a lower performance system without a floated barrel. When they replaced the M14 with the M16, they made a good decision.
The M14 magazine weighs ~4 ounces more than a Magpul P-mag for the MWS, so here you save another 1.25lbs in a typical basic load of 5 20 round mags.