M16A4

The Colt M16A4 is a lightweight, shoulder-fired, magazine-fed, gas-operated, air-cooled, assault rifle chambered for the 5.56x45mm NATO cartridge, and is the current standard issue rifle of the United States Marine Corps and some United States Army units. It is the current iteration Eugene Stoner's original design, preceded by the -A3, A-2, and -A1 variations. The M16A4 rifle differs from the M16A2 in that it has a MIL-STD-1913 Picatinny rail under the removable carrying handle which allows different types of optics to be mounted on the top of the receiver, as well as a thicker barrel. There are also Picatinny rails mounted on the handguard to allow lasers, flashlights, foregrips. The M16A4 is capable of semi-automatic and three-round burst fire. The US military purchases M16A4s from Colt and FN Manufacturing with most M16s in recent orders being made by FN. In addition, M16 receivers for sniper variants and special purpose weapons have been procured from ArmaLite and Knight's Armament Company. The M16A4 is light and accurate, but requires frequent cleaning, partially because it is susceptible to dirt, but also because its internal mechanism lacks a piston; the gases strike the bolt of the rifle directly. This method of operation results in a lighter, simpler rifle, but causes fouling issues as carbon is blown into the chamber of the weapon.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
In singleplayer, the M16A4 can only be picked up during War Pig. It is dropped occasionally (sometimes with the M203) by dead Marines, and always uses iron sights. The M16A4 in singleplayer has a fully automatic firing mode though in reality the A4 variant features only three-round burst fire (but it is possible to modify one to fire fully automatically either with a lower receiver that accommodates full-auto or a little clever machining). It is also used by Lt. Vasquez.

In multiplayer, the M16A4 is available at level 1 and fires in three-round bursts. It can be fitted with a Silencer, Red Dot Sight, ACOG Scope, and M203. It is also fairly similar to the M4 Carbine, as it has the same appearance, the same iron sights, and they also share ammo with each other, as well as with the G36C, however, the M16 has noticably higher damage than the M4.

Using
It is often recommended to use this weapon from a distance as it is not considered effective in close quarters combat. When fired from the hip while moving the M16A4 is wildly inaccurate. And unlike most other semi-automatics like the G3 or pistols, which can be fired as quickly as the user can pull the trigger, the M16A4 has a forced delay between bursts. This delay effectively lowers the rate of fire in terms of adjusting aim meaning that at close range if the first burst misses the user will be dead before getting off a second burst. However, Steady Aim shrinks the hip fire reticle to sizes comparable to SMGs making the weapon fairly accurate from the hip even while moving. Thus, even at close range a Steady Aimed, Stopping Powered M16A4 user can be very effective if they can land the first, often deadly, burst.

The M16A4 is exceptionally powerful because all the bullets in the three rounds have a damage of 30-40 each meaning most of the kills will be one hit or two hit kills. When used with Stopping Power, the M16 is able to kill in one burst at any range provided that all three shots hit the target (only two are needed at medium and close range) and the target is not behind a wall or using Juggernaut.

Double Tap decreases the delay between the firing of each of the three bullets in a single burst and decreases the amount of time between bursts. With Double Tap, all of the bullets fired in a single burst are now fired at almost the exact same time. This can be somewhat useful in many situations, as there is a higher chance of all three bullets hitting the target and the shorter time between bursts makes the weapon more effective in CQB. However, Stopping Power is still considerably better, except in Hardcore modes.

The M16A4 is widely considered to be one of the best guns in the game due to its power, accuracy (due to tiny recoil and no red dot sway), quick reload, relatively quiet report and mobility. This makes it popular to use, but is also frowned upon by some players due to the ease of achieving kills without putting much effort in, which is also the reason people use it. Some also choose to avoid it because of Juggernaut users.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Nintendo DS)
The DS variant of the M16A4 is quite different compared to the one in the console games. It fires in automatic mode (possibly similar to the M4A1), but it has a slow rate of fire. However, it does more damage per shot to compensate for this. Also, it is only available with an sight in single player.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
The weapon has returned in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. It behaves similarly to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare with some small differences. It is now unlocked at level 40 in multiplayer. Its reload animation is now identical to that of the M4A1 Carbine. To make it look more modernized, a Picatinny Rail has been placed on the carrying handle, and has a synthetic handguard with RIS Rails at the end. The rear sight aperture has been made thinner than the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare version, making using the iron sights much easier. The time between bursts has been increased from 0.2 seconds to 0.28 seconds. Also, it takes noticeably longer to aim down the sight with the Modern Warfare 2 version. The M16A4 is much less prevalent in Modern Warfare 2 Multiplayer due to it's higher level unlock, slower rate of fire and the general increase in killing speed of all other weapons.

The FAMAS is similar to the M16A4. The FAMAS fires faster per burst, has an increased delay of 0.32 seconds between bursts and has no recoil while unmagnified.

It is recommended to have FMJ as the gun has a high penetration rate and the Red Dot Sight. Using Bling with this gun along with a Heartbeat Sensor and Silencer is also very effective. While holding the gun at the hip, the Heartbeat Sensor appears just slightly to the left and below the center of the screen which makes it very easy to see. Unfortunately, while reloading grenades into the Grenade Launcher, the Heartbeat Sensor covers the entire middle of the screen.

In single player, the M16A4 is seen in both American and Task Force 141 missions, although the FAMAS is much more predominant. It fires in bursts in both singleplayer and multiplayer, unlike its Call of Duty 4 counterpart.

Weapon Attachments

 * Grenade Launcher
 * Shotgun
 * Red Dot Sight
 * EOTech Holographic Weapon Sight
 * Silencer
 * Heartbeat Sensor
 * ACOG Scope
 * Thermal Scope
 * FMJ
 * Extended Mags

Trivia
In MW2, when looking at the right side of the M16 in either third person or when dropped, there is no forward assist. But all other components to the right side of the receiver remain.
 * The words "BLUE4" (a reference to BluFor, the opposite of OpFor, which is applied to all NATO forces) and "Property of U.S. Government, Caliber 5.55x45mm NATO, M4A1 Carbine" in bold blue letters is visible on the side of the M16A4. The M16 fires 5.56x45mm NATO cartridges (5.55 is likely a typo) and the M4 Carbine was derived from the M16 series.
 * Individual bursts fire as fast as the P90 and M249 SAW, making it an unusually fast-firing Assault Rifle.
 * In Call of Duty 4, the M16 had its own reloading animation. In Modern Warfare 2, its reloading animation is the same as the M4A1.
 * In multiplayer, if you attach the grenade launcher to the M16A4, the heat shield turns into the one that was used for mounting the M203 onto M16A2s. This is unnecessary, as the M5 RAS used on the M16A4 is just as capable of mounting the M203. This does not necessarily indicate that it turns into an M16A2, since it is one part that is very easy to swap out, and it still has the A4's removable carrying handle. In Modern Warfare 2, this feature is removed.
 * In single player, if you enable the "Infinite Ammo" cheat and pick up a M16A4 with the M203, the full-automatic rate of fire of the grenade launcher is very, very fast and greatly surpasses that of the M4A1. Curiously, the M203 on the M4 Carbine and the GP-25 on the AK-47 have much slower full-automatic rates of fire, about the same as the W1200.
 * The M16A4, FAMAS, and the M93 Raffica are the only guns in the Call of Duty series that are capable of firing in bursts.
 * The in-game model depicted the M16A4 having A4 upper receiver, but has an A1 lower receiver, which explains why the weapon can go full-auto in single player.
 * In Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (DS), the M16 has an Red Dot Sight in single player, instead of an iron sight in multiplayer.
 * When an M203 is attached the forward iron sight changes size.
 * In Call of Duty 4 DS, even though the M16 fires fully automatic for the player, allies fire it in a three-round burst. This is the same with most weapons, even those used by enemies.
 * In Modern Warfare 2, the side of the M16A4 says, 'Made By Infinity, Tool For Victory, U.S. No Refund'.
 * In Call of Duty 4, the entire right side of the M16 has no texture as shown when you spin on the highest sensitivity.
 * In Modern Warfare 2, the M16 is completely missing the upper receiver on the right.
 * The M16A4 has a detachable carrying handle, so that is why when you add an attachment onto it, the carrying handle disappears.
 * In Call of Duty 4, a Fully Automatic Version of the M16 can be found on the level 'War Pig'.
 * In the level War Pig (level), anytime you switch your secondary weapon with an M16A4 Grenadier, the amount of grenades increases, however, if you switch either your M4A1 Grenadier or the M16A4 Grenadier with the non-grenadier version, you will lose a significant amount of grenades.
 * Also, note that the Iron Sight in both games are in position for long range aiming, a feature from the early M16A1's iron sight, which can be flipped up and down to compensate from lack of windage setting in the early M16 variants.
 * In Modern Warfare 2, online, you can see an R.I.S. rail attatched to the carrying handle which is pointless because it is just removed to accomodate a sight.
 * The M16A4 is not used by the US Army Rangers since they are slowly replacing their aging M4s for the newer SCAR series. The M16A4, however, is used by some infantry units in the U.S. Army as well as the Marine Corps, as the A2 model was completely phased out.
 * In the Modern Warfare 2 level "Of Their Own Accord", an M16A4 w/ Red Dot Sight can be found in the bunker in the beginning and dropped by soldiers in the 'killzone'.
 * In most of the Single Player Missions where you'd use the M4A4 with the attachments, players mistake this as a fully automatic M16A4 were in fact the M16A4 has only 2 Firing Modes "Semi" and "Burst". Also why you see the M4A1 Carbine stamped into the receiver as mentioned above.
 * The iron sight on the M16A4 in COD4 limits your peripheral vision and the front sight is slightly higher up than in COD:MW2
 * In MW2, if you make your sensitivity to 10, and you spin right, there are no barrel covers for the right side of the rail. You can sometimes notice this even without 10 sensitivity.
 * On Military Channel's Top Ten Rifles, the M16 held position #2, just behind the Russian AK-47.