11-02-2018, 12:17 PM
LRRPF52 Wrote:There's a thread on that, which is a different program entirely.
On the SOCOM side, they set realistic goals for something that should have happened in the 1950s.
On the big fat mean pickle machine Army side, there is this fantasy about a 16" barreled carbine launching a 125gr solid 400fps faster than a 24" barreled .270 Winchester can with 63gr of powder and 65,000psi chamber pressure.
In the 50's and 60's and 70's and 80's and 90's, the various branches of the service were perfectly happy with the 30 caliber bullet. M-118 SB and LR could easily outshoot the capabilities of most school trained snipers. M-80 could outshoot the capabilities of the average trained rifleman. Sure, some of the problems with were due to all the bad things about a high recoiling cartridge and service grade rifles. Most was because in most parts of the world, a guy can't see much past 300 yards and if they did see a enemy, the enemy was probably moving and or partially hidden. A 6.5 mm cartridge wouldn't have been decisive. Money needed to be spent on things that were decisive given the Soviet threat. WWIII wouldn't have been decided because NATO could have been using a 6.5 / 08 instead of 7.62 NATO.
As for it being a fantasy about getting those velocities out of a 16 inch barreled carbine, why can't it happen? Why can't someone devise a system that can take the pressures and produce the velocities? Why can't someone develop a powder that produces the velocities without the pressures? Just because a .270 of today can't doesn't mean someone with a purpose can't develop something that is leap ahead and will make everything else obsolete overnight.
LR55