>>>Tom,
>>>
>>>Apparently the cartridge tumbles on the M-16 which causes a tremendous amount of damage inside the body.
>>>
>>>
>>
>>An urban legend. The barrel has rifling which gives the bullet a rotational axis, creating more stability in flight. It doesn't tumble, it may wobble a little though.
>
>While it is stable in flight, the bullet does tend to tumble on impact, more so than others. I believe this was intentional on the original designer's part, and results from the relatively high velocity the small bullet retains at combat ranges.

That's simply deflection. A bullet's flight path may exhibit anomolies known as yaw, where the base of the bullet moves from side to side causing a less than optimal flight path. Even so, that is not the intent of the designer. A straight line between two points . . . .

Then the objective is to deliver maximum energy to the target, not to tumble in some unknown direction.