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A comment was recently made about how the new board format could promote serious, long-debated posts about technical issues. That brought to mind the .223 cartridge issue which has recently become very relevant for me with LE arms sales. I'd like to throw out a few thoughts for comment in no particular order or symmetry:
1. .222 rem was invented for benchrest shooting and adopted by 'we, people' for killing small creatures. It is still respected as the perfect halfway performance between .22 rimfire and loud barrel-burners like 22-250 and 220 Swift.
2. Germany taught the old world many things about weapons in WW2, one of which was that modern military tactics do not require 1,000yd rifle performance. The NATO adoption of 7.62x51 in 1953 was, therefore, a huge tactical mistake.
3. Correcting this mistake caused a move too far in the other direction to 5.56x45, a bigger mistake that NATO has been compensating for ever-since.
4. The problems with 5.56 ammo for military use are long and documented and not on my list of comments to make here. The one advantage that has recently become relevant is the round is capable of penetrating body armour better than most other commonly-encountered LE ammo.
5. This has led to LE agencies adopting 5.56 'SMGs' such as the HK53, SIG552, 11.5" M16 etc. which, be definition, cannot be termed as rifles or carbines.
6. While all this has been going on, sportsmen have benefited by the huge volume of .223 development and have been happily enjoying the .223 cartridge mainly for its primary intended purpose - killing small critters.
7. A small subset of target shooters have developed heavy-bullet loads for long(ish) range match shooting.
Now to the crux of my point for debate: Is there any point in sportsmen and vermin hunters spending time and effort developing .223 hunting loads for short-barreled hunting rifles with heavy bullets? Bearing in mind that the military can't use frangible ammo due to the Haig Convention Treaty and match shooters only punch holes in paper. What new directions can our small subset of hunters take this cartridge without necking it up or down? Can a 16" carbine firing 70gr V-max or other frangible ammo do anything that existing 55gr ammo can't?
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jugallette
1. .222 rem was invented for benchrest shooting and adopted by 'we, people' for killing small creatures. It is still respected as the perfect halfway performance between .22 rimfire and loud barrel-burners like 22-250 and 220 Swift.
2. Germany taught the old world many things about weapons in WW2, one of which was that modern military tactics do not require 1,000yd rifle performance. The NATO adoption of 7.62x51 in 1953 was, therefore, a huge tactical mistake.
3. Correcting this mistake caused a move too far in the other direction to 5.56x45, a bigger mistake that NATO has been compensating for ever-since.
4. The problems with 5.56 ammo for military use are long and documented and not on my list of comments to make here. The one advantage that has recently become relevant is the round is capable of penetrating body armour better than most other commonly-encountered LE ammo.
5. This has led to LE agencies adopting 5.56 'SMGs' such as the HK53, SIG552, 11.5" M16 etc. which, be definition, cannot be termed as rifles or carbines.
6. While all this has been going on, sportsmen have benefited by the huge volume of .223 development and have been happily enjoying the .223 cartridge mainly for its primary intended purpose - killing small critters.
7. A small subset of target shooters have developed heavy-bullet loads for long(ish) range match shooting.
Now to the crux of my point for debate: Is there any point in sportsmen and vermin hunters spending time and effort developing .223 hunting loads for short-barreled hunting rifles with heavy bullets? Bearing in mind that the military can't use frangible ammo due to the Haig Convention Treaty and match shooters only punch holes in paper. What new directions can our small subset of hunters take this cartridge without necking it up or down? Can a 16" carbine firing 70gr V-max or other frangible ammo do anything that existing 55gr ammo can't?
________
jugallette