The Myth of The Unreliable AR?

We’re all heard it. The AR is an unreliable hunk of aluminum that will jam every. single. time. its even remotely dirty, right? If its not squeaky clean, no specks of carbon, and HAS to have a gallon of lube to run, right?

Yep, we’ve all heard it.

So in my last carbine course I decided to take that myth to task. Run a well-built AR pistol through all of the drills I put the students through, with just a minimal coating of CLP, then at the end of the day bury the weapon in some thick Carolina river bottom mud.

We’ve had a fair amount of rain, making the trip back off the range interesting, but that’s another topic for another day. Point is, we’ve got some grimy, nasty, sticky river bottom mud that can permeate everything. So I dug some up:

And then I laid my PSA pistol down in the hole and buried the action.

Let it sit for a bit, pick it up, then empty the magazine:

All rounds fired, bolt locks to the rear, functioned flawlessly:

After that I ran the little carbine the rest of the weekend, no cleaning, no lube…..and no failures. Just to prove the point. The weapon works.

So what are the takeaways?

Need training? I can help with that.

 

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By Published On: February 26, 2020Categories: NC Scout, Weapons6 Comments on The Myth of The Unreliable AR?

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About the Author: NC Scout

NC Scout is the nom de guerre of a former Infantry Scout and Sergeant in one of the Army’s best Reconnaissance Units. He has combat tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He teaches a series of courses focusing on small unit skills rarely if ever taught anywhere else in the prepping and survival field, including his RTO Course which focuses on small unit communications. In his free time he is an avid hunter, bushcrafter, writer, long range shooter, prepper, amateur radio operator and Libertarian activist. He can be contacted at [email protected] or via his blog at brushbeater.wordpress.com .

6 Comments

  1. Mark Laughlin February 26, 2020 at 06:09

    While I don’t bury my AR in the muck, my BCM has been 100% even in the blowing dust of Wyoming…running dry lube.

    What is your view of the forward assist? It strikes me as a vestigial remnant of the early days when the platform did have some problems. I’ve never found cause to use it myself. When practicing with a random mix of dummy rounds, “Tap, rack, bang” is my automatic response…not forward assist.

    • NC Scout February 26, 2020 at 06:24

      BCM is great. My SPR is a Recce 16.

      The forward assist is good if the bolt doesn’t completely seat for some reason. “Tap rack bang” actually induces more failures. If you’re having a malfunction in the AR, about 90% of that is magazine related, so treat it like a magazine change. Drop the mag, rack the charging handle, insert new mag.

  2. Rucksack Rob February 26, 2020 at 22:02

    Yeah, we’ve all heard that cry of inferior AR vs. AK, blah, blah, blah. The only thing worse than a know-it-all, is a know-it-all who doesn’t know-it-all. I carried an AR/M4 of some form or another for 24 years (except of course, when I was humpin’ an M-60…lol) in every enviroment from the Arctic of Alaska to the Tropics of Thailand to the A-hole of Afghanistan. It has never failed me. I now own more than one…
    Thanks for the quick article.

    Fight the good fight!

  3. CK February 28, 2020 at 15:55

    I was thinking an 11.5″ barrel. Any major differences? Thanks.

    • NC Scout February 28, 2020 at 16:22

      That’s what I was using.

  4. Anonymous March 1, 2020 at 13:01

    5

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