Cosmoline
Member
Armchair commandos love to talk about the 5.56 round being for varmints and no good for humans at range. real trigger pullers know better.
The physics are the physics. At extended range the 5.56 delivers a blow comparable to a .32 ACP and loses all of its "explosive" force on tissue. This isn't a question of braggadocio from armchiars, it's just reality. When you use a 5.56 you're trading off some power for less weight and recoil. That's just the way it is. Whether that tradeoff is worth it, I don't know. But it's certainly something to consider. To rigidly maintain that the 5.56 is "good enough" because soldiers use it really isn't an effective argument. Soldiers have to use it. The question is whether we should be buying them something better. That's our responsibility. And if they're undergunned it's our fault.
Personally I don't think that "something better" is the 7.62 NATO. That's a fine round for sniper rifles but as I'm discovering with the M1a, it's much more weight to tote per round. And our guys are already carrying loads equal to a Himalayan mountaineer. It also requires a heavier platform with a longer barrel or you start losing the advantages it gives you in the first place. It's fundamentally a battle rifle cartridge not an assault rifle round.
I think a better solution is in the 6.5-7mm range with an 18" or so barrel. There you find a "magic spot" in the ballistics which give you increased long and short range killing power without as much of a weight increase. And you can use the existing platforms as a base. But good luck coming up with the funding for millions of new uppers and a phasing out of the 5.56 after all these decades. It could have and probably should have been done right after 9/11, but it's a decade too late now. The budgets were blown looking in vain for some new do-all uber-high-tech OICW and similar efforts. Now that the axe is in full swing in DC the only way it could be done is some kind of independent voluntary funding mechanism. And it would likely be a cold day in a hot place before the DOD took hat in hand and begged the taxpayers directly for better rifles.
So, basically, I hope folks like the 5.56 ;-)
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