- Joined
- Nov 21, 2022
OK I want to see the sources on those studies. The very first original M16 as fielded by the first army to ever use it, the US Army infantry was true select fire in the southern indochina conflict AKA Vietnam war. Within 20 years they kept almost exactly the same rifle and removed the full auto select fire option replacing it for the 3 round burst. Just previous to that was the M14 it was was also select fire and it lasted shorter in US military infantry use than any rifle in history. Field report formed from studies were that basic infantry would hear twig snap somewhere and magdump into the brush despite their CO telling the entire squad "only shoot what you can ID, keep the rifle in semi." Full Auto in a real full power .30 caliber cartridge like 7.62 nato, 30.06 8mmm Mauser even if you are a big 300lb dude shooting prone you are going to have so much trouble sending anything after that 3 round near your intended target. original M16's no optics were just shy of 7.5lbs compared to the M60 which was around 20lbs or so. It was nice and heavy designed for sustained full auto for 500 rounds, simply not enough metal to deal with the heat in early full auto M16's. IMHO moral is always going to be compromised in equipment and command. In WW2 The Germans thought the 1911 was superior to the Luger, some of the GI's assumed the luger was more accurate and 9mm being far better for repeating fire. The grass is always greener. Bringing a bolt action gun to a gas operated fight was dumber than sand, especially when they knew how effective the MG34 could be.
The SBR in 9mm FA will always have use for law enforcement or security detail. IMHO The beauty of 9mm is it's not going to over penetrate and you can simply drill someone in FA 25 rounds of anything .32 acp or larger they are almost guaranteed to die within 2 seconds, Gordan Ingram knew that, based half his designs on that idea. It's either the MP5 or the M60 FA in actual combat in the standard issue assault rifle makes no sense to me.
