06-02-2011, 05:14 AM
Stan, the Japanese 6.5mm Type 38 certainly did not suffer from "inadequate terminal performance"; I have a 1920s book which refers to it as being noted for inflicting unexpectedly severe wounds and I have also read a WW2 US Army medic's report which says the same thing. The weight distribution of the bullet promoted rapid yaw on impact and apparently it also often fragmented at short range.
The reason that the Japanese started to develop 7.7mm guns and ammunition in the late 1920s was for MGs, as you indicate - but in those days indirect MG fire was seen as being a normal tactic with sights adjustable to well over 2,000 metres. At such ranges, a bigger bullet is certainly useful (other things being equal) both for ballistic reasons and for tracer performance. Other countries also introduced powerful new 8mm rounds in the interwar period, primarily if not solely for MGs (e.g. Swedish, Solothurn and Breda rounds).
The Japanese used the 7.7mm calibre in MGs for about a decade before introducing it in rifles, which I suspect they may have done to simplify logistics (some of the new European 8mm MG rounds were introduced in rifles for the same reason - in at least one case 8mm rifles were only issued to MG units). And of course in those days of bolt-action rifles, recoil and ammo weight were a lot less significant than they are in modern automatic rifles.
If I was responsible for designing a new family of small arms around any single cartridge/loading which has seen significant military service, then I would pick the 6.5mm Type 38 without hesitation: its performance characteristics put it leagues ahead of anything else. We should be able to do even better now, though, since we can get the same performance from a smaller case.
The reason that the Japanese started to develop 7.7mm guns and ammunition in the late 1920s was for MGs, as you indicate - but in those days indirect MG fire was seen as being a normal tactic with sights adjustable to well over 2,000 metres. At such ranges, a bigger bullet is certainly useful (other things being equal) both for ballistic reasons and for tracer performance. Other countries also introduced powerful new 8mm rounds in the interwar period, primarily if not solely for MGs (e.g. Swedish, Solothurn and Breda rounds).
The Japanese used the 7.7mm calibre in MGs for about a decade before introducing it in rifles, which I suspect they may have done to simplify logistics (some of the new European 8mm MG rounds were introduced in rifles for the same reason - in at least one case 8mm rifles were only issued to MG units). And of course in those days of bolt-action rifles, recoil and ammo weight were a lot less significant than they are in modern automatic rifles.
If I was responsible for designing a new family of small arms around any single cartridge/loading which has seen significant military service, then I would pick the 6.5mm Type 38 without hesitation: its performance characteristics put it leagues ahead of anything else. We should be able to do even better now, though, since we can get the same performance from a smaller case.