Immediate action drill rewritten for M4A1
The Army has changed the immediate action drill for the M4A1 after a soldier found a malfunction in a converted M4A1 from an M4 carbine according to Military.com;
“The operator pulled the trigger with the selector switch between the semi and auto detents (outside of detent). The weapon did not fire when the operator pulled the trigger and instead fired when the selector was moved further,” according to the messages.
No one was injured in the incident. U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command, or TACOM, issued Safety of Use messages in March and April to address the issue.
So, now the IAD reads;
TACOM has modified the traditional immediate action drill known as SPORTS to C-SPORTS, if the weapon does not fire when the trigger is pulled, message 18-005 states.
1. Confirm that the selector is set to semi, auto or burst.
2. Slap upward on the magazine to make sure it is properly seated.
3. Pull the charging handle completely to the rear and hold.
4. Observe for ejection of case or cartridge, and ensure the cartridge or case is ejected and the chamber is clear.
5. Release the charging handle to feed a new round.
6. Tap the forward assist to ensure the bolt is closed.
7. Squeeze the trigger; the weapon should fire.
Thanks to Stephen for the link.
Category: Army News
Love this Pro-tip, because my AR military assault rifle is “just like” the M4. According to ‘some’ veterans who have actually fam-fired an A4 at some point.
8. “Do not insert in mouth or rectum”.
Nor point at foot.
except Swafford..or whatever his name is…he can perform step 8 as much as he desires.
In fact, I propose that such people as the “veterans against gun rights” and “veterans too timid to live as adults” types be hereafter known as “Task Step 8s”
“Aim barrel end toward Enemy.” *OOPS!*, that’s Navy and Air Farce!
Who ever wrote that IAD has either met a private or worked on a helpdesk.
“Sergeant, my weapon won’t fire.”
“Try taking it off safe…”
Yup. The most critical part of any weapon system is the nut behind the butt plate.
The department that wrote that is a floor under me….there’s A LOT of vets working the weapons directorate….glad to see our org making a difference
This is the most retarded shit I have seen in a while.
Why do you have to confirm the fire selector is on fire?
The only reason to do SPORTS is for the weapon to malfunction, meaning it was already on fire.
Yef. Reading is fundamental. If the selector switch is not positively set to SEMI of BURST, it will not fire. If the selector switch is not positively engaged in a firing setting, it will act just like a malfunction. IF you pull the trigger and the hammer does not fall, it’s highly likely your weapon is either in SAFE or is NOT POSITIVELY ENGAGED IN A FIRING MODE. It ain’t rocket science, son. Now. On to bigger and better things. Is your half of the dayroom shining?
Huh? Why only half?
Usually you guys make me clean the whole Company footprint.
There’s competition for your job.
The video that went out with this shows the soldier move the selector part way with his thumb and pull the trigger and it does not fire (of course)
Then with his hand well away from the trigger finished moving the selector to fire and it goes off (again no finger on the trigger but it fired)
That’s a problem if you don’t know it can do that
Confirming that the safety is set to one of its 3 “fire” positions is a good idea because it could have been moved since it was last set to a position between two of those settings. Like by bumping/dragging it against your other individual equipment (or another object) while conducting individual movement, for example.
No, in theory that’s not supposed to happen. But reality often differs from theory.
I would imagine that wearing “combat gloves” just adds another layer of potential failure.
I wore cheap-assed gardening gloves with rubberized palms, but mostly because I had to perform “hands on” searches of some folks nasty asses.
During movement or resting the weapon and hand on support the selector switch can get moved to a position off fire. In the case where it was in between and the trigger was pulled the rifle fired after the selector was moved to fire. (IE the weapon fired with no finger on the trigger only the selector switch was moved.)
So that should be C-SPORTS now.
Doesn’t “(c)onfirm(ing) that the selector is set to semi, auto or burst” imply moving the slector switch which would cause it to fire,or rather misfire?
That is one way to do it.
I saw a picture online of an M4 with a piece of blue masking tape above the selector bearing “This means BANG, dumbass!” in Sharpie ink. At the time I thought it was a joke, but now I see I was wrong.
Yeah, for Marines…
Pew
A cousin of mine engraved that on one of his 80% lowers.
“The weapon did not fire when the operator pulled the trigger and instead fired when the selector was moved further,”
The second part of this is the biggest issue. In some instances, taking the weapon off of safe and moving it past fire causes the weapon to fire on its own. I believe there have already been a couple of injuries and near-misses because of this. This isn’t a dumb-ass private issue, but actually a legitimate safety issue.
Makes sense to me. If you move from SAFE and think you’re ready to fire and you pull the trigger and nothing whatsoever happens, your first thought is that the weapon is still on SAFE. So, you move the selector and a round makes an exit from the barrel. That’s an “Oh shit!” moment if there ever was one.
OK. If I see an M4A1 wandering around the neighborhood, all appropriate precautions will be noted.
Mainly, will continue to advocate that all weapons be pointed down range and that they all be treated as if loaded/ready to fire even when everyone knows that they are not.
Aw shit I left my AR home alone…
Oh, my! No telling what sort of havoc it will create without your close supervision!!
Having weapon pointed in a safe direction is no longer requirement Sports.
This was only about 10% of the 4A1. A very small number weapons in the military inventory.
That’s still about 15 defunct weapons in an infantry company, but yeah, rule #1 should always apply.
Not quite that many. Mostly it was a SOF/ super soldier issue weapon until recently. Not all infantry units have them. I am not sure what the current amount converted is but it is nowhere near 100%.
Also I am reading it was just ones converted by a certain unnamed contractor.
Will a civilian AR-15 do that if the safety is between safe and fire? Not fire, then fire if the safety is moved to fire? Or is this only an issue with M4/M16 weapons? Just curious
Only one way to find out 😉
And no good reason to do so.
Actually, I’d say there’s a VERY good reason to do exactly that – with an expended casing or inert training round, of course. (You’d need one of those in the chamber to know for sure that it would behave that way with a full chamber, and probably at least one inert round in the mag – some weapon designs behave differently with an empty mag or chamber.) I’d really like to know if a weapon I owned behaved that way BEFORE I found out the hard way that it did.
Like I said above: no, in theory something like that (e.g., a weapon with safety set between fire and safe with one in the chamber) is not supposed to happen. But reality is often different than theory.
Fair enough.
If I had not lost mine during the last divorce, I would check them.
“civilian AR-15”
My M15 Armalite does not do that.
My M400 Sig does not do that.
I checked both. Strong detents.
Yup. I also have a SIG M400.
Never had that happen to me.
“Forward assist”
Yeah, just keep hitting it.
“Yeah, just keep hitting it”.
Thus spake IDC SARC
BAM! For the win!
Funny, I seem to go SEMI-FULL-BURST as well 😉
Have you seen a doctor about that? He might have a pill that’ll help with it.
A little help for a retired zoomie please. “2. Slap upward on the magazine to make sure it is properly seated.” I remember the small arms instructors telling us we weren’t John Wayne and the easiest way to jam an M-16 was to slap the magazine. They explained slapping it could cause a round to kinda-sorta get chambered but not all the way and we’d have to recharge the weapon, safety the weapon, ground the weapon, and find the round that was ejected. This was a moot point when Jimmy Carter had us use .22LR; the fool things were guaranteed to jam at least twice per magazine. Thank you.
If the mag feedlips are bent outward, the slap COULD cause a round to pop out of the mag and into the upper receiver. When the bolt is released, it strips out a new round and tries to chamber both rounds. The laws of physics say that 2 objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time. So, instant double-feed jam.
In the Marines (because we need things simplified!) SPORTS (an acronym we WERE introduced to) was shortened to TAP-RACK-BANG!
The concept and the execution is basically the same. Tap the magazine from the bottom, rack the charging handle and sight in and squeeze the trigger.
In answer to your comment, I think we are talking about two situations. I think your instructor was talking about slapping the magazine in when loading the rifle. If the bolt carrier group is retracted, then the top rounds in the magazine could, potentially, pop free and cause problems.
In the case of a malfunction, the bolt carrier is going to be, to some degree, forward. Tapping the magazine ensures it is properly inserted and could potentially help straighten out any issues in the magazine. Racking the slide will typically clear the jam.
Thank you for the replies. I look back at the few times, outside of training, I had to carry a weapon and am grateful it was the S&W M-15 .38 revolver. Simple point and click.
One thing I didn’t understand about revolvers was why did the bad guys throw the pistol at Superman after all of the bullets bounced off his chest?
So what they are saying is (in Sailor Speak) is make sure you put the motherfucker in the sonavabitch, so you can make proper bang-bang.
MENU Army Times News Pay & Benefits Flashpoints Pentagon & Congress Off Duty Education & Transition Veterans Military Honor News Flashpoints Pay & Benefits Off Duty Spouses Home HQ Education & Transition Veterans Military Honor Opinion Special Projects Videos Photo Galleries Early Bird Brief Newsletters Military Brandview © 2018 Sightline Media Group Your Army This malfunction has the Army inspecting its M4s and M16s By: Todd South 3 hours ago The Army is investigating why some of its M4A1s are firing while the selector switch is between SEMI and AUTO without pulling the trigger. (Army) The Army is investigating after an unintentional firing of an M4A1 carbine while its selector switch was moved between “semi” and “auto.” The problem has affected at least 881 carbines, and it requires adding a function check on all converted M4A1s and modifying shooter immediate action drills. The U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command sent out its first safety message on March 26, noting the selector switch firing. “The M4A1 was charged and the weapon’s selector was positioned between ‘semi’ and ‘auto.’ When the weapon’s trigger was pulled, the weapon did not fire. When the selector was then moved into either ’semi’ or ’auto,’ the weapon fired without a trigger pull.” The malfunction was found on three weapons during on-site testing at Fort Knox, Kentucky. Then, a second message, sent out on April 16, noted that the malfunction issue “is now believed to go beyond just the M4A1 PIP [product improvement program] weapons. A new order expanded weapons testing to M16 series rifles. The second message also noted that 881 M4A1 carbines exhibited the unintended discharge problem. There were no fatalities nor injuries reported with that or subsequent malfunctions when the carbines were tested, according to the messages. The probability of a fatality was listed as “remote” due, in part, to the fact that the weapon would have to be off “safe” to fire. The M4A1s in question had been converted from the M4 carbine product improvement program. The Army has converted 259,000 M4s to M4A1s in the past three years. Some M4A1s are… Read more »
Had anyone else never heard the term “detent”? See what happens when you come to TAH? You learn shit!
Jeebus…just tap/rack/reassess