PDA

View Full Version : Speaking of "High-Powered Rifles"! ....



gunnyg
10-07-02, 10:56 AM
A 5.56mm Cartridge Issue Update From MILINET
by Dick G
Dick G (Login Dick Gaines)
Forum Owner

MAJUSMCRET@aol.com | This is Spam | Add to Address Book
Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2002 05:53:23 EDT
Subject:

MILINET: A 5.56mm Cartridge Issue Update From MILINET


7 October 2002

MILINET: A 5.56mm Cartridge Issue Update From MILINET

NOTE: In July, I notified MILINET subscribers that I was submitting two articles on the 5.56mm cartridge issue for publication:

1) "It's the Cartridge, Stupid, Not the Rifle," to The Naval Institute Proceedings.

2) "The Last Big Lie of the Vietnam War," to the Marine Corps Gazette

The first was published in the August issue of Proceedings; and, by a letter dated 23 September 2002, I was notified that the Gazette Editorial Board voted not to accept number two for publication.

Here below is the article rejected by the Gazette with the addition to END NOTES #12 of the following: <<See also, Treglia, USMC, Capt Philip J., "Force Reconnaissance Missions," Marine Corps Gazette, October 2002 ; under 'learning points' based on his Afghanistan experience, Capt Treglia reports, ". . . the 5.56mm round will not put a man to the ground with two shots to the chest.">>

=========================================


The Last Big Lie of the Vietnam War

Maj. Anthony F. Milavic, USMC (Ret.)



At a Vietnam Special Forces base during 1964, I watched a U. S. soldier fire 15 rounds of .223 caliber ammunition into a tethered goat from an AR-15 rifle; moments after the last round hit, the goat fell over. Looking at the dead goat, I saw many little bullet entry-holes on one side; and when we turned him over, I saw many little bullet exit-holes on the other side. Over time, those observations were confirmed and reconfirmed revealing that the stories we were told on the lethality of the .223 caliber cartridge were fabrications. Those false reports drove the adoption of the .223 caliber cartridge as the 5.56mm NATO cartridge and, ever since, Americans have been sent to war with a cartridge deficient in combat lethality.

The book Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden, illuminates that deficiency and the lethality necessary for warriors in combat. The author describes a soldier by the name of Sgt. Randall Shuhart who elected to carry the 7.62mm M-14 into the urban battlefield of Somalia in 1993 rather than the 5.56mm CAR-15 (M-16-variant). With the wisdom of a combat veteran, this warrior tells us what level of bullet lethality a soldier needs in combatâ??one-round knockdown power:

â??His rifle may have been heavier and comparatively awkward and delivered a mean
recoil, but it damn sure knocked a man down with one bullet, and in combat, one
shot was all you got. You shoot a guy, you want to see him go down; you don't want
to be guessing for the next five hours whether you hit him, or whether he's still
waiting for you in the weeds.â??1


How did we get from military cartridges with proven one-round knockdown power such as the 30-06 and 7.62mm to the 5.56mm? The journey started with the term â??tumbling.â?? This term â??tumblingâ?? has been associated with the .223/5.56mm cartridge since early in its marketing as a potential military cartridge and continues to be used by many to this day. The very word, tumbling, prompts images of a bullet traveling end over end through the human body in 360-degree loops: In reality, it does not. Dr. Martin L. Fackler, Col., USA (Ret.) served as a surgeon in Vietnam during 1968 and, subsequently, pursued the research of terminal ballistics by observing the effects of bullets fired into blocks of ballistic gelatin. In â??Wounding patterns for military rifle bullets,â?? he reports that â??allâ?? non-deforming pointed bullets â??yawâ?? 180 degrees shortly after penetrating flesh, then continue on to exit base-forward; i.e., heaviest end forward. The .223/5.56mm full metal jacket projectile acts in the same manner with a very precise exception. If this round impacts flesh at 2,700 feet per second or more, it will â??yawâ?? to 90-degrees, and then fragment at its weakened serrated band (cannelure) into two or more pieces. These fragments traveling in different directions cause an internal wound cavity. Conversely, should these projectiles impact bone or the flesh of appendages, they will probably yaw less due to the shorter distance traveled through flesh. The term â??tumbleâ?? was apparently derived from this yaw action and, as suggested by the following, was chosen in lieu of the word yaw because it would â??sellâ?? better.2

The book, The Black Rifle, M16 Retrospective by Edward C. Ezell and R........

(too long)
CONTINUED....
http://www.network54.com/Forum/message?forumid=135069&messageid=1033992468