Vietnam War troops hated the M16 and dubbed it the "Mattel 16" because it felt more like a toy than a battle rifle. "We called it the Mattel 16 because it was made of plastic," said Marine veteran Jim Wodecki in the video below. "At that time it was a piece of garbage."
The M16 lacked a chrome-plated chamber, which allowed corrosion problems and contributed to case extraction failures (which was considered the most severe problem and required extreme measures to clear, such as inserting the cleaning rod down the barrel and knocking the spent cartridge out).
The ammunition that accompanied the rifles sent to Vietnam was incompatible with the M16 and was the principal cause of the failure to extract malfunctions. The result was the M16 often jammed, making the rifle “about as effective as a muzzleloader,” in the words of one officer.
The jungle humidity corroded the rifle's inner components (the manufacturer had decided against chrome-plating); the cheap gunpowder in the rounds fouled the chamber. The M16 often failed to eject spent cartridges, often jammed, making the rifle "about as effective as a muzzleloader, " in the words of one officer.
Although the M16 remained the weapon of choice for military forces around the world into the 21st century, by 2010 the U.S. Army had largely transitioned to the M4, a carbine based on the AR-15 platform, as its primary infantry weapon.
The standard U.S. military rifle (M-16) is substantially more destructive than its Russian counterpart (AK-47) when fired at short range into clay blocks, despite the fact that the AK-47 is of larger caliber and fires a much heavier bullet with a kinetic energy (muzzle) 25% greater when compared to the M-16.
No, they the M and M16 and M4 and all the other model numbers does not stand for military. It stands for model. Make sense. It makes plenty of sense.
The M4 carbine has been used for close quarters operations where the M16 would be too long and bulky to use effectively. It has been a compact, light, customizable, and accurate weapon. Like other firearms, failure to properly maintain the M4 can result in malfunctions.
lighter, and considerably more ammo could be carried for the same overall weight. For many veterans and other RKI's, there is little doubt that the compact, light, and fast-firing M16 was and is a better weapon for jungle combat than the longer, heavier, and barely controllable in full auto M14.
Owning a fully automatic M16 is legal for civilians, but the government paperwork required to acquire one takes more than a year, and the purchased M16 must have been manufactured prior to the 1986 ban.
On a side note, carrying a combat load of 7.62 isn't much fun, and doesn't offer the average infantryman nearly as much firepower as the same weight in 5.56 rounds. But that's not what makes the M14 so awful. It's the design itself – especially for the role it has been shoehorned into: the Designated Marskman Rifle.
The fact of the matter is, the M16 failed Vietnam warfighters, and Americans died because of it. How many lost their lives due to the rifle's early failings? Sadly, we'll never know—but we do know that the number was not insignificant.
SUMMARY. Vietnam War troops hated the M16 and dubbed it the “Mattel 16” because it felt more like a toy than a battle rifle.
The M16A2 and M16A4 are the rifle's most popular variants. Both were carried by American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, the M16 is being phased out and replaced by new weapons capable of firing more powerful and accurate ammunition.
M16. The M16 would become the standard service rifle for U.S. troops during the 1960s, seeing widespread use in Vietnam and largely replacing the M14. The weapon was in many ways revolutionary, though not without problems.
As mentioned earlier, the early AR-15s and M16s were used by many British infantry units during in the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation. The SBS would go on to fully adopt the rifles as their main assault rifle. The M16 would have sporadic use by non-SF troops during Operation Banner, Northern Ireland.
Although the M14 was phased out as the standard-issue rifle by 1970, M14 variants are still used by various branches of the U.S. military, as well as other armed forces, especially as a sniper rifle and as a designated marksman rifle (DMR), due to its accuracy and effectiveness at long range.
The M14 is a magazine-fed, gas-operated semi-automatic 7.62mm (. 30-caliber) rifle still used by the Navy SEALs. It deploys a 20-round magazine, and has an effective range well beyond 500 meters at a rate of 750 rounds per minute. Operated from the shoulder, it is designed primarily for semi-automatic fire.
A brief comparison between cartridges reveals that the M16's lighter, higher-velocity 5.56×45mm cartridge has much better range and accuracy than the AK-47's heavier 7.62×39mm cartridge.
The M4A1 carbine is the primary weapon used by SEAL operators. A shorter, more compact version of the M16A2 rifle, it was specially designed for U.S. Special Operations Forces.
The M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle (IAR) is a 5.56mm select-fire assault rifle, based on the HK416 by Heckler & Koch. It is used by the United States Marine Corps (USMC) and is intended to be issued to all infantry riflemen as well as automatic riflemen.
The M16 Assault Rifle is the standard-issue shoulder weapon in the U.S. military. Designed to fire small, high-velocity rounds (5.56 mm caliber vs. 7.62 mm), the weapon is relatively small and light, thereby significantly decreasing the overall load warfighters needed to carry.
The first-model M16 acquired a number of derogatory nicknames in Vietnam, including "the matte-black mouse gun" (due to its perceived lack of power) and the "Mattel death trap" (due to claims it resembled a toy).
The M16 had a higher rate of fire, 700-950 rpm compared to the 600 rpm of the AK-47, and most shooters — including those that have used the weapons in combat — have tended to agree that the M16 is the more accurate. A trade-off is that the accuracy and range don't equate to penetration.