06-27-2013, 06:53 AM
LRRPF52 Wrote:The funny thing is if they had kept the .222 Remington case and just blown the shoulder forward without increasing the case length any, we could have had a case that would support much longer ogive projectiles, and there would be no need to single-load bullets like the 75gr A-MAX, 80gr Berger, 90gr VLD. Imagine a 90gr high BC pill in the SAW and DM carbines that beats most .308 target pills, and an armor-piercing construction would be a lot better than .30 bore because of sectional density.
The basis of the case for adopting a .22 cal rifle was the combat studies which showed that nearly all small-arms fights took place within 300 yards. Within that range they thought light bullets fired at a high velocity would be fine, as they would maximise the hit probability while halving weight. They then seemed to lose confidence in this and started to demand longer-range performance, but it doesn't seem to have occurred to them that in that case, maybe a small .22 wasn't the best starting point.