M16 is automatic and single?

[7empest]

I was always under the impression that the M16 used in Vietnam was only burst and single fire.

[Big Duke]

when i was in the Army we swtiched over from the A1 to the A2 and it was specifically told us that it was to conserve ammo because even though you could fire three round bursts with full auto most grunts, in the minds of the armed forces think tank, wasted ammo - necessitating the change to three round burst.

[Gunfreak]

Originally posted by Sgt Elias:

Where do you people get all this bad information. The XM16, M16, M16A1 of the Vietnam period was a select fire weapon with semi automatic, and full automatic mode, there was no burst model, no full auto only, it was a SELECT FIRE weapon from the original design. Post Vietnam, meaning AFTER, the M16A2 model had the 3 round burst mode.

Even a simple wiki look reveals.......

The M16 rifle, officially designated Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16, is a United States military adaptation of the Armalite AR-15 rifle.[8][9][10][n 1] The original M16 was a select-fire, 5.56×45mm rifle with a 20-round magazine.

The M16A2 fires the improved 5.56×45mm NATO (M855/SS109) cartridge and has a new adjustable rear sight, case deflector, heavy barrel, improved handguard, pistol grip and buttstock, as well as a semi-auto and three-round burst only fire selector.

Nobody claim its full auto only. The question wa which models had full and which had bursts. Semi auto and safety is a given those are standard on all models. So we only need to mention what us different
Hence full auto and burst fire.

[IRDCAM]

BAck in the day unless you were the squad automatic rifleman firing on automatic could be a Article 15 offense, disobeying a direct order, as you were ordered not to fire full auto.

Like stated ammunition conservation was the prime reason, you humped what you had, and there was no convienient 'ammo pile' out there for you. And resupply unless dire emergency in the bush was every three days.

'Light Infantry, too Light to fight, too heavy to run."

[Doge]

Originally posted by Trve Kvlt:

The real reason is so grunts don't dump their mag on full auto into the first thing they see (or thought they saw), like a lot did in vietnam.

Yeah I said to conserve ammo.

I will quote myself.

Originally posted by Veronica Wick 27:

It was to conserve ammo and to know how many bullets you have left so you do not die with an empty magazine.

Is easier to do the math in your head -3 -3 -3 -3 = 12 bullets used so you know you have 6 left.

[A.P Kult]

Originally posted by Veronica Wick 27:

I will quote myself.

Originally posted by Veronica Wick 27:

It was to conserve ammo and to know how many bullets you have left so you do not die with an empty magazine.

Is easier to do the math in your head -3 -3 -3 -3 = 12 bullets used so you know you have 6 left.

It's the ammo counting part that that doesn't make sense. Trust me, you don't keep count of how many times you've pulled the trigger in combat, even with 3 rounds burst. And it's not really about running into an enemy with an empty mag (although it helps preventing it I guess), but the Army trying to reduce wasted ammunition in the field because of the strain it puts on the supply chain (also bullets aren't cheap when you need them by the millions).

[GRU-Vy]

Like others have mentioned its to conserve ammo. Read some stat years ago that said it took an average of 15000 rounds to kill one enemy in vietnam. Shooting is contagious, if one guy starts everyone starts. Ive used an actual vietnam era m16 (triangular hand guard, 3 prong flash hider) in full auto. At 50 yards you might hit a target 50% of ammo spent in full auto. Imagine trees and other ♥♥♥♥ in the way though. Not to mention the gas produced can make your eyes water. Im left handed and wore glasses and this was quite noticable, ive shot plenty of rifles but the gas thing was very very noticable on the m16. So yeah, single shot yes and full auto no unless clearing a building.

[Zeno]

Originally posted by Jiu Jits you:

Like others have mentioned its to conserve ammo. Read some stat years ago that said it took an average of 15000 rounds to kill one enemy in vietnam. Shooting is contagious, if one guy starts everyone starts. Ive used an actual vietnam era m16 (triangular hand guard, 3 prong flash hider) in full auto. At 50 yards you might hit a target 50% of ammo spent in full auto. Imagine trees and other ♥♥♥♥ in the way though. Not to mention the gas produced can make your eyes water. Im left handed and wore glasses and this was quite noticable, ive shot plenty of rifles but the gas thing was very very noticable on the m16. So yeah, single shot yes and full auto no unless clearing a building.

It was and still is quite common to operate all kinds of weapons in full-auto mode, but then rather tapping the trigger to create bursts rather than keeping your finger down and spraying all over the place.

Sure, some weapons nowadays have a burst mode, but this wasn't the case back then. I can imagine vietcong and americans to tap the trigger to create a burst rather than keeping it on single fire all the time.