General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Common Murder Weapons and Their Alternate Uses [View all]wercal
(1,370 posts)The M-16 was originally capable of fully automatic fire.
Then the M-16A2 came out, with several improvements...and no fully automatic fire. It was changed to 3 round burst.
The M16A3 came out at the same time as the A2, for special units, with fully automatic fire.
The M4 that is now issued also uses burst, instead of fully automatic. And, similar to the M16A3, the M4A1 has fully automatic fire, and is used by special units.
The use of burst fire is for more than just ammo conservation. In the 1980's, I was part of a test. We were asked to unload a magazine at a target, using an M16 in fully automatic mode....and then with an M16A2 in burst mode. Then we looked at our accuracy. The results were stunning - the burst mode greatly increased accuracy.