Smith &
Wesson M&P15T
(.223 Remington)
Ever since "the black rifle" made it's apperance in
Vietnam, it has intrigued the American public. Not only was it
effective, with its small but extremely high velocity round,
it had a very unique and modern look to it. The fact that both
it and the ammunition it used were lighter than the M14 did
not go unnoticed either.
But like every major advancement in military technologies, it
was not without problems or controversy. Touted by some as a
weapon that never needed cleaning, along with a few design
inadequacies in both the rifle and the choice of loading for
the ammunition, once made a general issue service weapon, it pretty
quickly lost its mystique and instead gained a reputation for
being terribly unreliable, especially under pressure. Chrome
plating certain parts, improvements to some of the aspects of
operation such as the addition of the forward assist, better
education of the soldiers it was issued to, experience, and
time all helped to improve the reputation of the rifle until
it finaly rose to the position of being billed as perhaps one
of the best small arms to come out of the 20th century.
The .223 Remington Cartridge
One of the problems that the M16 had to contend with was a
lack of stopping power (both real and perceived.) The way the
problem is typically laid out to me in conversations is that
it stems from at least two different issues.
The first of these issues was with the rifle itself. Initially,
rifles issued to U.S. troops were given a 1:12 twist. At this
rate of rotation, a 55 grain bullet will stabilize at standard
temperature and pressure but as the temperature drops towards
freezing and the air density increases, the bullet does not
have enough rotational force to remain stable. This also
applies if someone's firing through brush or in heavy rain and
the round has to deal with that impact. Consequently,
the bullet may well be tumbling by the time it hits the target
and simply will not do as much damage as it should. For various
reasons, including this stability problem, the twist was
changed over time. Currently, these rifles operate with a 1:7
twist and fire either a 55 grain (M193 ball) or 61.7 grain
bullet with a steel penetrator (M855 ball). These changes
significantly improved the effectiveness of the M16. Most
commercial manufacturers recognize that the majority of
civilian use will center around the 55 grain bullet but that
both lighter and heavier rounds will be used, depending on
application, and thus often split the difference, using a 1:9
twist. (Long-range target shooters often choose to outfit
their rifles with barrels with a twist even faster than 1:7.)
With the changes in the rifle along with improvements in the
assembly of the cartridge itself, the stability problem is a
thing of the past but from that
rose the oppinion that the .223 just isn't a powerful enough
round and this is the second problem that is typically
illustrated; that the round doesn't cause enough shock and
trauma to the enemy, to put them down under all
conditions. There is concern that it just doesn't have enough
knock down power.
You could rightly ask, "Well, what the heck
does that mean?" I've seen people try to explain
this in various ways, some of which didn't make a whole lot of
sense, and often left people more confused than they were to
begin with. Here's the way I look at it.
"Knockdown force" to me is basically impulse
force, or the rate at which energy is delivered into the
target. For "knockdown" power, the faster the
better. If done over a longer period of time, the target is
less likely to be physically pushed over. This is one of the
things, for example, a hollow point bullet is intended to
accomplish, increasing the surface area that initially
contacts the target and making energy transfer more
efficient. Nevermind expansion, not all hollow points are
intended to expand. A larger round traveling slower may have more
knock down power than a smaller round traveling faster because
just like a hollow point, the greater surface area may result
in a more efficient energy transfer. This is pretty well the
same argument of the .45 ACP and the 9mm round.
The next question is penetration. I ran across an old article
by John Schaefer in an issue
of Rifle magazine from January of
1988 on the topic of 5.56 ammunition where he stated that NATO
requirements were that the M855 61.7 gr round was required to
reliably penetrate 10 gauge 1010 steel out at distances of no
less than 570 meters. M193 will not do this, M855 will.
The ideal is to have good penetration with substantial initial
force. Most of the time this is accomplished with a larger,
heavier bullet but that means a larger, heavier rifle, heavier
ammunition, and significantly more felt recoil. Being able to
get away from this is one of the merits of the .223 over the
previously standard .308 Winchester (aka 7.62 x 51 NATO) used
in the M14.
In a short to medium range hit, say 50-200 yards, either of
the M193 or M855 rounds is most likely to go straight on
through the person it hits. Remember, though, that in combat
this is not a bad thing and here is where "knockdown
power" is at odds with other forces. This carries the
wound channel completely through the target and makes it more
likely to cause damage to a major organ resulting in a lethal
hit. In normal combat conditions, against lightly armored troops,
typical rounds would do just fine. The problem comes in when
there is armor present or when the enemy you are facing may be
wearing thick clothing and likely also be amped up on
stimulants, pain killers, or adrenaline, if not all
three. (Such as in Somalia and Iraq or Afghanistan.)
When dealing with a person who has all kinds of
chemicals in their system, the damage may simply not be severe
enough to cause the target to immediately drop. Instead, even
after being hit two or three times, they
may have just enough left in them to kill one or even several
soldiers before they finaly expire. But in the case of a long
range hit (greater than 400 yards, a range which soldiers in
Iraq and particuarly Afghanistan have actually been forced to
engage at many times) there is also the perception that,
especially in winter, against someone wearing thick clothing,
the round may not penetrate sufficiently to cause serious
damage. This is exacerbated when the round fired was from a
carbine and therefore is not propelled to quite the same
speed, significantly impacting it's long range effectiveness.
A heavier round would do better here but then you get into
problems with over penetration at close distances which places
at risk whoever or whatever might happen to be behind the
person you just hit. Too often these days, that person is
likely to be a civilian, perhaps hunkered down with their
family in the building across the street and these days, it is
politically unacceptable for civilians to get caught in the
cross fire. The 5.56mm round is less likely to do serious damage
after exiting so that is one argument most deffinitely in its
favor.
So the case against the .223 Remington is put forth and
continues day by day. In response to this, in 2004 Remington
introduced the 6.8 SPC. Many have forwarded that they would
like this round to be adopted in place of the .223. I take no
position on this issue except to say that in the interests of
ensuring that our troops have the best equipment with which to
do their jobs, it is worth exploring alternatives. It must be
remembered though that one obstacle to the adoption of any
different cartridge is NATO acceptance of the round, which
would be necessary in order to allow our troops to use it
regardless of where they are or who they're fighting with.
But if you feel like experimenting, a number of manufacturers
are producing AR15 and M4 type rifles chambered for this
round. Heck, even Ruger's Mini-14 has a chambering for it.
Gun Details
Since the M16 is a fully automatic rifle, the machine gun ban
enacted in 1986 prevents sale to the public. That did nothing
to reduce the public interest, though. Instead, what is
manufactured today is a semi-automatic version of this rifle
that had already been quite popular among civilians,
the rifle originally designated the AR15. Since the first
rifles were sold to the public, there has been a veritable
explosion of manufaturers producing their own variants. All of
these are termed "AR" rifles and from there the term
"AR15" has become as much an identification of a category of
rifles as it is a specific rifle, much as with the 1911
pistols. Oh, and no, the
"AR" does not stand for "Assault Rifle"
and is not a military designation. It actually stands for
ArmaLite, the developer of the rifle and is the model number
they assigned to this product.
The author found the Troy battle sights quick and effective
against the hordes of charging grapefruit. There were no
survivors.
In recent years, the recognition that much of modern combat
operations are occuring within urban areas has led to the
desire for shorter weapons. This has led to the adoption of
the shorter barreled M4 carbine, often seen with a telescoping
stock to boot, and increased interest in the more unique
"bull pup" rifles that are becomong ever more
popular.
With it's 16 inch barrel, the Smith & Wesson M&P15T is
in the M4 category but since it is a semi-auto is generally
termed simply as a short barreled AR15. I do not find this
classification incorrect, especially given the modular design
of the platform. The rifle operates with a direct impingment
gas system, utilizes a chrome lined barrel, gas key and
receiver, has folding front and rear Troy battle sights,
adjustable for windage and elevation, and is equipped with a
bird cage style flash supresser and a free floating Troy
four-sized modular forend. It is designed principly for law
enforcement but makes an excellent competition or sporting
arm for appropriate sized game. With the ever increasing
number of chamberings available, the AR15 can handle pretty
well anything in North America and is becoming an ever more
popular hunting rifle, where semi-automatic rifles are legal
for use in hunting.
Like every AR styled rifle, this one is easily accessed for
cleaning through the unseating of a single pin at the back of
the receiver. Similarly, through unseating of a forward pin,
the lower and upper receivers can be separated and paired up
with other compatible units. It is the modular aspect of the
AR that has really been its defining feature, in my oppinion.
This is demonstrated most directly by the relatively recent
adoption of the picatiny rail system. Albeit not exactly a new
development, the adoption of a set of standard rail dimensions
and the preference for rails to be used as mounting platforms
instead of traditional bases has allowed manufactures to
pretty well bury us in do-dads—some of pretty dubious
utility—with which to equip our rifles. Add to that the fact
that the modularity of the weapon itself allows it to be
relatively quickly altered with a different stock, new
trigger, longer or shorter barrel, and even a change of
caliber, and you have a pretty versatile weapon, suited for a
great deal of applications.
Add-ons
One thing that was lacking with my rifle were the curved rail
covers that are present in the illustration on the
manufacturer's website. Instead, what was with my rifle was a
set of three rubber covers that get pressed over the
rails. These do not provide any shape to grip but merely
provide a barrier between the shooter's hand and the heat of
the rail. Personally, I'm a bit disappointed by this and would
rather have seen the expected rail covers.
Another item I am displeased with is the factory magazine. Oh,
it does the job well enough, inserting with ease and
locking up reliably. Through all my tests, it seemed to feed
without noticable difficulty. What I find objectionable is that
it has all the looks of a $5 after-market magazine made of
stamped and folded sheet metal as quickly and cheaply as
possible with no real eye to quality. Concensus is that if you
want your AR to work reliably, pay attention to your
magazines. Watch what brands you get and take care of
them. Since I wanted extra
magazines anyway, I jumped over to Magpul's website and
ordered up a pair of their P Mags. These came to me
complete with a removable cover and look much more appropriate
to this rifle and are lighter to boot. Insertion was easy
and lockup positive. Feeding was reliable through all my
tests. All this with a very competitive price. In my oppinion,
this is really what should be shipped standard with the rifle
(in fact, Ruger did exactly that with their new SR-556.)
If this product is geared towards law enforcment, can
anyone justify not providing the best equipment there is?
Other accessories I ordered for this rifle include a verticle
foregrip, two slings, a detachable forward swivel, and the
obligatory scope. To me, the vertical grip allows a somewhat
more positive grip and more control over the rifle, not to
mention keeping my hands off that hot rail.
Finaly, this rifle screams for a good scope. Wanting to add to
my stores anyway, I decided to go ahead and splurge somewhat
on this one and procured a Leupold Mark AR 3-9x40mm with mil
dot reticle and equipped it with with a pair of Warne quick
release rings and Leupold's Alumina flip-back lense
covers. This scope provides a very bright picture and while it
has a fixed focus (set out to 150 yards), the mil dot under
maximum magnification provides an excellent means of
ranging. Being built with the .223 Remington in mind, the
elevation adjustment has two reference scales on it. The lower
of the two which has the larger numbers, is minutes of arc
above zero. The upper scale is pre-calibrated for a 55 gr
round and is in hundreds of yards (100 yards being zero
minutes.) That means that for a .223, range adjustment can be
made quickly and easily but this also allows you to utilize
this scope with other rifles as well without any head
scratching. Of course, zero elevation depends on how far
forward the scope is mounted and how tall your mounts are so
you'll have to send some rounds downrange to figure out how
much adjustment you'll need to make. But don't worry about the
dial indicating the wrong range. Once you dial it in, loosen
three small set screws and you can rotate the dial without
changing the adjustment and put the zero mark back where it
belongs.
This is the first Leupold scope I have purchased. Previously,
I wanted to avoid spending a great deal on accessories and
instead concentrate on checking items off from my wish list. However,
in this case, that just wouldn't do. This is a good rifle that
called for a scope capable of matching it. After a bit of
research followed by some price comparison and bargain
hunting, I had my scope. On close examination, much to my
horror, I had received a scope which should never have passed
inspection. At the edge of the field of view was a piece of
lint or something similar. But not to fear, one very brief
call to Leupold's customer service line and the scope was back
in their hands for evaluation, no questions asked. Two weeks
later, it was back in my hands, defect free. I give Leupold
high marks for their service in this instance even though the
return shipment was UPS ground instead of overnight. (When you
pay that much for the scope plus accessories, you would think
that customer service would be able to use faster shipping. At
least they paid the bill for both directions.) Fortunately,
this did not impact my schedule and really is minor in the
grand scheme of things.
One thing about scopes, though, is that with close quarters
operations a slightly different setup is indicated. In my
oppinion, while the battle sights are adequate for most open
field scenarios, in building clearing or similar operations
you need something faster and which will be visible under very
low light. Not having the budget remaining to
shell out for a holographic sight, and considering that to be
too much anyway, I'll probably opt for something a bit more
practical and pick up a basic low or non-magnifying 5 or 7 MOA
red dot sight. For those of you who have not used a dot sight,
it's as simple as simple gets: your shot goes wherever you put
the illuminated dot. Dots come in different sizes and many
scopes allow you to select from different sizes or even to
change from a dot to other types of reticles. You should
remember though that because the dot has to be big enough to see
clearly and easily, accuracy degrades ever faster as you go
beyond 25 yards. Once you approach 100 yards, you probably
want to reach for something else, especially if your first
shot absolutely has to count.
Type: |
Semi-Automatic Rifle |
Caliber: |
5.56mm |
Capacity: |
30 round detachable magazine |
Barrel Length: |
16 in. |
Twist: |
1:9 |
Overall Length: |
32 in. (stock collapsed) |
Weight: |
6.85 lb. w/o magazine |
Sights: |
Folding Adjustable Aperture |
Finish: |
Black Annodized |
MSRP: |
$1,888 |
Slings
The two slings I chose two examine were Blue Force's Vickers and the
Spec-Ops Mamba slings. Both of these have received pretty good
reviews in magazine articles and on various forums. Like
everything though, there are naysayers. Just goes to show that
you can't satisfy everyone no matter how hard you try.
When it comes to features, rapid
adjustment, quick position change, and control over the
sling's tail seemed to be the biggest points of contention,
next to the number of points of contact. There is much debate
over whether a single, two, or three point sling is
best. Ultimately, it pretty well boils down to personal
preference and what your application is.
The Vickers sling is the classic two point rifle sling. It is
designed to carry the rifle, act as a shooting aid, and still
allow full range of motion. This sling is not quite as quick
as some of the others, nor is it quite as long but then it
doesn't have a tail hanging loose or a keeper wandering all
over the place either. Lets also not forget
that a longer sling is usually a heavier sling, adding to the
overall weight of the rifle. Yeah, it's only a couple of ounces
but it all adds up if you're carrying it for hours at a time.
All in all, I'm very happy with this sling and consider that
it alone will do pretty well everything I'm likely to need
with this rifle.
The Mamba is a bit different. Spec-Ops formaly names this
"T.H.E. Mamba" which stands for Tactical Holds
Everything and they mean it. The Mamba is
intended to be essentially a sling system. By using the pieces
independantly or together, it can function as a either a one,
two, or three point sling. Versitility is the word of the day
here. Included with the sling were diagrams showing how it can
be applied on anything from a rifle, to a tactical shotgun,
to an AR15, or an M4. There really isn't a long gun that it
can't fit on as long as there is a means of attachment. For some
applications, what they term as an adaptor kit may be
necessary though. This is basically just a couple of extra
pieces to help in odd attachments. Flexibility comes at a
price, though. The additional pieces, loops, and attachment
points make it a bulkier and more complicated sling than the
Vickers.
Now I'll be honest, I've never used a three point sling
before. I bought the Mamba after doing a good bit of searching
and seeing it appear several times in reviews and getting good
feedback in the various forums. For me, this sling falls
into the category of, "It seemed like a good idea at the
time..." After working with it for a while, I found it
wanting. First, I'm not a guy who often has to read
instructions in order to figure something out. (I do, but
that's mainly to make sure I see all the options.) With this
sling, there was considerable head scratching going on just to
figure out how they intended it to connect to the
rifle—and that was after examining the
instructions. The next chore was adjustment. It can be made
shorter pretty easily but adjusting it longer requires two
hands in order to take tension off the slide. There is also
the question of length. The traversing strap is supposed
to be held fairly tightly against the rifle but the strap is
so long in this case that it's hard to do that and have the
loop for the shoulder sling in any reasonable position. While
it accomplishes the job of retention well enough, I just feel
that it can be a bit more flexible.
Performance
With the rifle fully outfitted, it was finaly time to take
it down to the range and give it a workout over the course
of a few sessions. Here's a tip: when you take a new gun or
rifle out for a break-in, go to the range unaccompanied. It
was my intention to start out slow and carefully until the
barrel was thoroughly run in. That lasted about 20
rounds. After that point, we started having too much fun and
let me tell you, one thing I can say with certainty is that
just as with most other ARs, that barrel gets hot pretty
darned fast. Instead of the systematic work out I had
intended, the primary chore for the day became trying to keep
the rifle from smoking. Gonna have to remember that when next
it comes time to gather some friends and head out to the
desert to punish some soup cans and overripe fruit.
AR rifles can and do perform every bit as good as bolt guns in
competition.
As I did with my Ruger Mini-14, I decided I really wanted to
see what this rifle could do. To that end, I grabbed several
different factory loads, trying to get a variety of
different bullet designs and weights within what the budget
would allow. With some loadings running three times the cost
of generic target rounds, it doesn't take many of them to
break the bank. One thing I noticed right off was that this
rifle was not going to be one to throw cartridges far and
wide. The ejection seemed to be consistant, almost straight
out to the side, and, standing, only tossed the cartridges
about four feet. Only every once in a while did a cartridge
hit the brass deflector. Makes it a lot easier to collect your
brass for reloading when you're done.
One of the advantages of the .223 is that there is minimal
recoil when compared to the .308 that it replaced. That makes
handling of almost any AR much easier than the earlier M14
rifle. The Smith & Wesson is no exception. Even with the
Troy folding sights, it was pretty easy to get good groups out
at 50 yards. Slap a scope on it and at 100 yards overall,
groups averaged 1.9 inches with two loads coming in at just
over an inch. More than one load had four rounds in a nice
tight group with the fifth off to one side, clearly indicating
that this rifle is capable of some pretty impressive groups in
better hands.
I'm somewhat of an impatient person at times so there was more
than likely a few rushed shots. This rifle could also probably
benefit from a competition trigger. Nonetheless, the M&P
acquitted itself well. If the stats listed here are any
indication, more control on my part would likely bring the
average group size to under 1.5 inches with more than one load
coming in under an inch. Not bad at all for an off-the-shelf
rifle.
Fiocchi V-Max HVB
|
40 | 3372 | 21.8 |
1010 | 1.6 |
Remington UMC JHP
|
45 | 3287 | 19.1 |
1079 | 1.8 |
Winchester JHP
|
45 | 3187 | 45.4 |
1014 | 2.5 |
Black Hills V-MAX
|
50 | 3019 | 41.0 |
1102 | 1.9 |
Remington JHP
|
50 | 3187 | 45.4 |
1014 | 2.3 |
Winchester Ballistic Silvertip
|
50 | 3070 | 39.1 |
1046 | 1.7 |
American Eagle XM193
|
55 | 3107 | 27.7 |
1179 | 2.4 |
Federal XM193F
|
55 | 3117 | 24.4 |
1186 | 1.1 |
Remington Acutip-V
|
55 | 3000 | 34.6 |
1099 | 1.1 |
Remington PSP
|
55 | 2938 | 23.1 |
1054 | 1.9 |
Winchester FMJ
|
55 | 3035 | 33.0 |
1125 | 2.4 |
Groups were best of two 5 shot patterns at 100 yards
from a sandbag rest.
Velocity measurements were the average of 5 rounds at 15
feet from the rifle's muzzle and were taken separately.
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Even the birds support the second ammendment!
I do not know how heavier weight rounds perform in this rifle
since a pending schedule change forced me to conduct my testing
before I was able to obtain these. (Not to mention the
scarcity arising from the ammo drought.) Eventually, I intend
to get this rifle back out to the range and see if I can't
shave some of the distance off the spreads listed. From what I
saw during my evaluation, this rifle is telling me that it
wants to do better. I can't want to be able to have the chance
to let it.
On a side note, there are those I know who's friends say they
practically live at the range. Well, that may not exactly be
true but when I sat down at my bench for the break-in session,
I did find that there really are those who live at the
range. Craddled in the supports for the shelter above the
benches, just behind where I was sitting, I observed an
active, occupied bird's nest and a mother carefully tending to
her young. I'm not sure if this is exactly the best place to
build a nest but one thing is sure, with all that firepower
around, no one is gonna threaten her kids!
Last Words
The M16 has now been in service for over 40 years. Few weapons
survive that long as general service arms. But with the
advancements that have been made over the history of the M16
and the success of the overall design, it's been a hard rifle
to out class. In this age, though, battlefield requirements
have changed. So is the M16 still the ideal weapon for today?
While any good military is always looking for better weapons
with which to equip its soldiers, I think the best statement
on that score was was made by 1st Sargeant Raymond Poore, a US
Army drill instructor, during an interview as part of a recent
television documentary on the M16 and potential successors who
stated, "To me, if we can use the M16 for a while longer
until they get a much better model, I'll be just as
happy." That sounds like a satisfied customer to me.
As the civilian AR series of rifles, this design has become a
mainstay in competition, target shooting, plinking, and
varminting. The natural development of the civilian sporting
arms industry seems to invariably be an outgrowth of military
technology. With the versatility that the AR platform affords
us, it's future seems bright indeed.
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