Originally posted by Jenrick
My question is WHY the "common fighting man" felt so strongly about transitioning to the .223. The whole "poodle shooter" "varmint" cartridge thing.
Regarding the "
varmint cartridge thing", what else would you expect soldiers to think about being used as guinea pigs to test a .224" round in combat for the first time? 5.56x45 was first issued to regular combat troops in 1965 and at that time, a "varmint cartridge" was pretty much defined as anything in .22 caliber.
Lets look at a couple of the more popular .224 rounds that had preceeded .223/5.56, the .222 Remington and the .220 Swift. The .222 is slower than 5.56x45 and the .220 is a good bit faster and more powerful.
Both of those cartridges were designed, intended, loaded and marketed as VARMINT cartridges.
The bullets they used were very lightly constructed and designed to fragment instantly on contact.
Hunters that tried the high velocity .22's on large game generally had poor results, mostly because the bullets weren't designed for hunting, they blew up too fast and didn't penetrate well enough for consistent killing power.
THAT'S why a lot of troops considered the 5.56x45 a varmint cartridge.
As for the "poodle shooter" moniker, that's because
JEFF COOPER SAID SO!