The iconic M16 marked America’s departure from its .30 caliber tradition and helped usher in a new era of small arms for the nations of the West. Dubbed the “poodle shooter” by critics, the M16 would turn out to be one of the most effective military rifles the world has ever seen, and it is still soldiering on today with many nations across the globe in one form or another.

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The full transcript …

– Hey guys, this is Alex C. with TFB TV, and what we have at the range today is possibly my favorite M16 variant of all time.

That’s just gonna be the classic A1.

I’m a simple man, and this is pretty much the first really fieldable M16 that we had.

There were some early, experimental versions to get thrown out there, but this was the one issued en masse.

This is the on that’s iconic, with that nice triangular hand guard, and this is just a pleasure to shoot.

Even Nathaniel F., our resident AR-15 aficionado, says this is the most fun one he’s ever shot.

So without much further ado, let’s give it a go.

(rapid-fire shots) Ah, that’s so controllable.

I mean these guns are just so endearing.

I know that the three-round burst guns are fun, as well.

But, there’s just something a little more alluring about having full-auto versus burst.

– Alright, so now I’ve got an opportunity to get behind the M16 A1.

Like Alex, this is my favorite M16 variant.

Or really, my favorite machine gun to shoot.

I love this thing.

It’s really controllable, really light, and it reminds me, a lot, of my time with the A2 in the army.

I’m gonna take a couple shots on the semi and shoot our TV down there.

(two shots) Feels like just about any AR-15 out there.

So now full-auto.

(rapid-fire shots) That is super controllable.

It just kind of sits on target as long as you’ve got your body in the right position.

I love it.

If you haven’t had the chance to shoot one, please find somebody that has one.

(rapid-fire shots) – Oooh That’s what you get for not leaning all the way forward.

I forgot that these kick, but not very much.

(rapid-fire shots) – God, that’s fun.

(rapid-fire shots) – Alright guys, normally this is where we’d tell you something about the intricacies of this gun.

But realistically it’s just like your AR-15 you have at home.

– Yeah – It’s got a selector switch on it that makes it fire more than one round per trigger pull and some retro furniture.

Other than that, the operating method is the exact same, it’s direct impingement.

This is just an AR-15 at its core.

They were termed AR-15s before the military designated them the M16.

I would normally take it apart and show you some things, but I don’t really…

– You guys can do that.

– Yeah, you guys could probably do it faster and better than we can, realistically.

– But a couple notes about the A1 designation.

They changed birdcage flash hider and a couple of other things.

But the difference between this gun and what you have at home, is we don’t have a brass deflector, the forward assist is a little bit different.

– It’s called a teardrop forward assist.

– Yes, you can see that right here.

– The A1 stock is a little shorter.

– It is.

– Versus the A2.

It’s got different pistol grip, as well.

– I’ve heard some people remark that they like this better for shooting with body armor on, some military guys.

Obviously you’ve got your triangular hand guard, it gets pretty warm.

You can see where we’re in our matte operator gloves.

Also, the webbing underneath the front takedown pin is not there.

There were some issue, I believe, with them breaking.

– Also, it’s worth noting, this is a later full fence lower.

Some of them had slab side, some of them had half fences.

This is in the nine million and up serial number range.

So it’s a high serial number gun.

– Yep – So yeah, we’re gonna keep on shooting it, there’s no reason not to.

(rapid-fire shots) – There’s a reason I like shooting this gun more than the AK-47 on full auto.

I was able to go ahead and hold it on-target without any issue at all.

I could see what was going on.

If I wanted to transition between targets while firing, it’s something I can do.

Whereas the AK-47 really kind of knocks me around and everything kind of goes blurry.

A lot like when I shot the AR-10.

But, like you can see, it is super controllable, very handy, very good rifle.

– Alright guys, our range day has actually been interrupted.

It looks like a lot of Viet Cong have actually showed up down range for some reason.

So I’m gonna see if I can use a traditional C-clamp grip and sweep the targets.

(rapid-fire shots) That was more satisfying than it should have been, because every round was perfectly horizontal and basically if I would’ve had enough rounds I could have cut all the boards in half.

So, it was fun and I learned something.

– Alright, some of our viewers are gonna say this probably isn’t the most tactical AR-15 in the world.

Doesn’t have any cool rails or glass-breaking things or anything like that, but let’s see how tactical I can be with it.

(rapid-fire shots) Eat your heart out, Chris Costa.

– Normally in the video this is where we do an accuracy test.

However, it is an AR-15 M16.

This one does, however, have a 1 in 12 twist barrel.

I can attest to the fact that I’ve shot, we’ve shot this a gazillion times.

– Yeah – We’ve taken it to the range so many times.

It typically groups about 1 1/2 to 2 inches at a hundred yards with decent M193 Ball ammo.

It would take a long time to prove that, but I guess you’ll have to take our word for it.

– Yeah, I mean…

– It’s an AR-15 – It’s an AR-15 – It’s as capable as you are.

They are phenomenal, I think I can say without much dispute the iron sights are better for long-range shooting than AK-47 iron sights.

– Yeah – The AK operators union might disagree, I don’t know, but for us personally this is kind of where it’s at.

We really like the…

– Yeah, I like the Americanized peep sights a lot.

– So, yeah.

– The last time we took this one out to the range I think you spent about an hour in semi-auto pointing at a, what was it, a 6 inch plate at two hundred yards, something like that? – Yeah – There was rarely a miss.

– We take it to semi-auto only ranges and we just enjoy plinking steel.

– Yeah, I mean I like that gun so much that I went out and I bought one of the kits that were on the market recently.

And I’m waiting on my lower from noh-decks.

– So there you go, there’s your accuracy test guys.

I can post a picture of a group I’ve shot with it right here.

Patrick can cut that in, I guess.

– I’m gonna put it over there.

– Oh, ok.

This right here is the accuracy test that…

– Maybe I’ll put it over here.

– Oh, ok.

Anyways, that’ll do.

(Patrick laughs) (rapid-fire shots) I think with enough of these you could free the hell out of just about any nation.

Well…

– Alright guys, so we just got back from the range.

It was pretty hot out there, so we figured we’d close the video out inside, where there’s air conditioning.

So, what did you think of the M16 A1? I know I like it.

– You know, we take it out every time we go shooting almost.

Today we put three hundred rounds through it, it ran great.

Like it always does.

A properly maintained M16, AR-15 will run forever.

Especially a nice, factory-built one.

The M16 A1 is no exception.

It’s accurate, it’s reliable, it’s fun.

And there’s not much negative I could say about it.

– No, it’s awesome and I think last time you took this out we were out at my gun club.

You spent a couple hours plinking away at a little steel target and rarely missed.

The sights on it are good, it’s accurate…

– Downright just fun gun to shoot.

– Yeah, we even take this thing out and shoot it at semi-auto only ranges because it’s that much fun.

– Yeah, all in all I think hopefully you enjoyed our M16 A1 video and we’d like to thank our ammunition sponsor, Ventura Munitions.

– And I’d like to go ahead and thank Grizzly Targets for providing the support for our channel.

– If you like what you saw today, like and subscribe.

We’d really appreciate your subscription.

This is Alex C. with TFB TV, thanks for watching.