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Here is the article about the the Comparison Of Ak47 VS M16 from <ANSWERS> ...take ur time to take a look le ... <br /><br />Reliability<br />The AK-47 has always enjoyed a reputation of reliability. It is gas operated, using the gas from the barrel to push a piston against the bolt, operating the action. The gas tube is fairly large and is visible above the barrel. The AK-47 is often built with generous tolerances, allowing it to function easily in a dirty environment. The M16, though, had reliability issues in its initial deployment. The direct impingement gas system used by the M16 is similar to normal gas operation but with a few differences. Gas from the barrel is used to cycle the action but lacks the piston, so the gas alone impinges upon the bolt carrier. This allowed a number of parts normally used with a piston gas system to be removed, making it more stable and thus accurate. But the design allows residue to be blown into the receiver as well as quickly accumulating carbon buildup within the gas port channel, negatively affecting reliability. The tube was also smaller and thus easier to clog. The original M16 of the Vietnam era fared poorly in the humid, dirty environment of the Vietnamese jungle, and would also face problems in the sandy environments of the Middle East. However, the use of cleaner powders in the ammunition and the replacement of some components fixed many of the reliability issues. Part of the problem was that the M16 was perhaps too optimistically billed as self-cleaning, and cleaning kits were not issued. The design is inherently less reliable, due to the variety to springs and small parts in the M16 as well as the precision with which the parts are assembled within the rifle.. However, the modern variants of the M16 are considered by many to be a great improvement over the original. Even today with American troops abroad in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, it is standard operating procedure to strip and clean the M16/M4 carbine three times a day whether it was discharged or not, attesting to standard modern military procedure. This is not as difficult as it may sound, since the weapon is designed to be field stripped easily (a soldier can do it in under ten seconds). The use of proper chroming in the rifle, as well as the correct powder type, has removed almost all of the reliability issues of the Vietnam-era weapon, whose infamous reliability problems were due almost entirely to early production errors and an arbitrary decision by military brass to use a cartridge that the rifle had not been designed to fire (the M16 was originally designed to fire 7.62x51mm NATO ammo as the AR 10; only after being redesigned for 5.56 NATO did problems surface).<br /><br /> |
