Myself I prefer the AK-47 for combat range, and a FN-FAL for longer distances.

They are both more reliable than the M-16/AR- 15.

I once had an AR-10, a .308 version of the AR-15.

It would frequently jam. Had a live round stuck in the chamber once. Had to send the damn thing to Armalite, it was still under warranty at the time.

It's ok if you're just target shooting, but not ok if your life depends on it.

I've heard many stories of the M-16 locking up in a similar way in Vietnam, dooming the soldier or Marine to death.

My own M-16 jammed up on me during combat training, and refused to fire no matter how many times I took it apart and cleaned it.

Good thing it was only training..

I have many different rifles that I have built. While the “stories” you may have heard and your own “Experiences” being what they are, I trust my AR platform rifles just fine. My current favorite is the .300AAC that I use for tactical training and home defense. Have put many many rounds through it and no issues what so ever. While I do own other non AR Rifles and trust their reliability, I will always prefer the AR platform as to date, the only times I ever had an issue, was when they were brand spanking new and had never been broken in. Like all things with super tight tolerances, lubrication is your friend.

If you built these like I have, you would know that things have come a long way. I trust all of my firearms with my life, except this one bolt action .22 which frankly is only really good for squirrels.

It really isn't very reassuring whem a firearm only goes "click" when you pull the trigger instead of "bang".

Ever wonder why they put a forward assist on the M16A1?

It isn't there just as an ornament. In my experience that didn't help either.

We WERE using blanks, so who knows, maybe it was bad ammo.

But I did have jamming problems with the AR10 using both 7.62 and .308.

And it's easy to say keep your rifle clean, but if you're crawling through sand good luck with that.