10-08-2013, 11:57 PM
I've been reading through The Black Rifle Volume I again, and I find the cartridge development fascinating, especially how one of the engineers concluded that the .223 Remington was pushing pressures way too high to achieve the advertised 3300fps MV. He also suggested that they look at the .25 Remington case for the AR15, but it would likely have killed the AR15 in its infancy, which was the goal of most of the engineers and managers in Army Ordnance Department.
They really hated MacNamara's "Whiz Kids" ordering them around in an unprecedented take-over of US Military Small Arms development, testing, evaluation, and fielding. If you haven't read the detailed history of the AR15, I can't recommend it enough. It's absolutely a page-turner.
One of the other conclusions of this engineer with Army Ordnance was that if they has stuck with the original 62gr or 68gr projectiles with a more pointed ogive and longer boat tail, they wouldn't need to use the 55gr bullet at such high velocity to perforate the steel helmet at 500yds, as the higher BC pill would have retained energy better for that task, while being launched at a lower velocity and pressure.
They really hated MacNamara's "Whiz Kids" ordering them around in an unprecedented take-over of US Military Small Arms development, testing, evaluation, and fielding. If you haven't read the detailed history of the AR15, I can't recommend it enough. It's absolutely a page-turner.
One of the other conclusions of this engineer with Army Ordnance was that if they has stuck with the original 62gr or 68gr projectiles with a more pointed ogive and longer boat tail, they wouldn't need to use the 55gr bullet at such high velocity to perforate the steel helmet at 500yds, as the higher BC pill would have retained energy better for that task, while being launched at a lower velocity and pressure.