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M4 Carbine Upgrades

tomahawk6

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The Army is moving quickly to upgrade 480,000 M4 to M4A1.Seems like the service isnt wasting money for a change.

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/did-the-us-army-just-build-117000-super-guns-18883

The US Army has now produced at least 117,000 battle-tested, upgraded M4A1 rifles engineered to more quickly identify, attack and destroy enemy targets with full auto-capability, consistent trigger-pull and a slightly heavier barrel, service officials said.

The service’s so-called M4 Product Improvement Program, or PIP, is a far-reaching initiative to upgrade the Army’s entire current inventory of M4 rifles into higher-tech, durable and more lethal M4A1 weapons, Army spokesman Pete Rowland, spokesman for PM Soldier Weapons, told Scout Warrior in an interview.

“The heavier barrel is more durable and has greater capacity to maintain accuracy and zero while withstanding the heat produced by high volumes of fire. New and upgraded M4A1s will also receive ambidextrous fire control,” an Army statement said.
 
tomahawk6 said:
The US Army has now produced at least 117,000 battle-tested, upgraded M4A1 rifles engineered to more quickly identify, attack and destroy enemy targets with full auto-capability, consistent trigger-pull and a slightly heavier barrel, service officials said.

How does full-auto, consistent trigger pull and a heavier barrel assist in quickly ID'ing targets?  ???
 
It doesn't...

It's a slightly upgraded rifle.  Slightly. 

 
Dimsum said:
...consistent trigger pull...
Possibly idiot question: as in "in place of a two-stage trigger pull," or "the old one wasn't predictable?"
 
Not an idiot question.  An extremely poorly worded article.

Having a slightly heavier barrel doesn't help you locate, track, or engage targets more quickly.  Can it help with accuracy slightly?  Yes.  Does it have benefits to rifle maintenance?  Yes.  But the article really seems pumped about some pretty minor upgrades. 


I'm confused also by the "consistent trigger pull" part.  Perhaps they are saying they will replace all of the trigger mechanisms, so there is consistency across the rifles, since I'm sure some of the rifles are older & more worn than others? 
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxwPEL8winI

This guy has a video that describes how the Semi, Full, and Burst triggers work.

Something he misses though is the fact that because of the ratcheting cam mechanism on the hammer, the first burst will be between 1-3 rounds.  It depends on where on the cam you are.

As a result of this cam, the sear interaction surface is different each time for each cam surface, so you have multiple different trigger surfaces, resulting in multiple trigger pull weights.

Switching to the Full Auto from the Burst removes the cam, and you now only have the hammer sear interacting with the trigger sear surface.

Hope that helps.

NS
 
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