Originally Posted by
Skyyr
To be fair, the wear caused by basic training is more reflected by the test in this thread, and is unlike high round-count tests for reliability.
In basic, you carry your rifle a lot and shoot it little. In basic, you're so overwhelmed by just keeping up with the tasks at hand that your rifle is an afterthought, and it gets treated like an afterthought. Dropping it, banging the stock and muzzles into doorways, falling onto your rifle (by accident) muzzle-first into the ground, etc. Wash, rinse, and repeat for the next group of recruits... for the next 30+ years.
Most basic training rifles make the one in the test look like museum piece. That said, they are maintained by an armorer, so they still typically run at 100%.