I found this video sometime last year but recently came across it again, a man named Chris Bartocci goes into detail about what was real and what was a myth about the M16 in Vietnam.
One of the things that stuck out to me was at 11:35, where he comments on how downloading 20 round magazines to 18 rounds because of "bad springs" was a myth and mainly just had to do with the simple design quirk of the M16 family of rifles where if the bolt is in the forward position trying to seat a fully loaded magazine can be difficult. Something that still happens with modern fully loaded 30 round mags(which is why people typically either only seat a full mag after they've locked the bolt back or download their mags to 29 or 28 rounds even today).
It also stuck out to me, and part of why I'm posting this here, because 18 rounds is currently the capacity of the M16A1 in RS2 because of the idea of the 20 round mags having "bad springs." The creator of this video also has done years of research on the M16 so I find it interesting his view on this is counter to AMG/TWI's findings on this specific subject.
One of the things that stuck out to me was at 11:35, where he comments on how downloading 20 round magazines to 18 rounds because of "bad springs" was a myth and mainly just had to do with the simple design quirk of the M16 family of rifles where if the bolt is in the forward position trying to seat a fully loaded magazine can be difficult. Something that still happens with modern fully loaded 30 round mags(which is why people typically either only seat a full mag after they've locked the bolt back or download their mags to 29 or 28 rounds even today).
It also stuck out to me, and part of why I'm posting this here, because 18 rounds is currently the capacity of the M16A1 in RS2 because of the idea of the 20 round mags having "bad springs." The creator of this video also has done years of research on the M16 so I find it interesting his view on this is counter to AMG/TWI's findings on this specific subject.