Just Dicking About
on 12/08/2010 at 01:06 PM
HUH?????????????????????????????????
As I said, I think the British .303 is one of my favorite general purpose firearms.. I don’t know the specs of it, but I prefer it to my Bro in law’s 30 ought 6 for range or close up.
Bill
Interesting. Your proposed cartridge is barely a step behind the venerable 6.5x55 Swedish Mauser cartridge. Just for a giggle, check the SD of the 6.5mm 140 gr match slug. At 2600 fps, it’s trajectory is basically the same as the 7.62 NATO and recoil is modest. Penetration is just plain awesome.
Exactly my point Doc. Had Stoner made his design just a hair bigger, then moving to any standard cartridge would have been a snap. 2.5” OAL instead of 2.25”
Yes, I know, he made that AR10 .308 variant. Nice gun, but like Goldilocks and the porridge, it was just a little too big.
The 6.5 Swede is one of the best military cartridges ever made IMHO. It’s even better when you look at the internal specs - it runs at much lower pressure than modern ammo, which is far kinder to the rifle itself. Less stress and less heat mean longer parts life.
The 140 and 160 RN 6.5mm bullets will shoot through anything. SD is way over .3, which is incredible. That’s one reason that this little cartridge is still used to hunt moose with.
Unfortunately, to chamber those slugs you need a really long throat, which lowers the performance of more normal size bullets.PS - .303 Brit vs .30-06: performance is virtually identical. .303 has a slightly fatter bullet by .003”, .30-06 usually has more bullet sizes to choose from. Depending on how hot you load them (the SMLE is NOT a magnum strength rifle) velocities overlap 80%. Want to have fun? Dig up the specs on the .30-40 and compare to the .303. The two are so alike in size, shape, specs that it’s scary. The only real improvement that the .30-03 brought was the rimless design, and then the .30-06 with a lighter pointy bullet. Once horses left the battlefield there was no longer a need for the 220RN bullet, but for hunting big critters that’s the kind you want in any of these 3 cartridges.
PPS - more fun: Read the story of the 6mm Lee Navy, the great-grandfather of assault rifle cartridges. 80 years ahead of it’s time. And here is some more, with pics. Yes, it’s the same Mr. Lee, the “L” in SMLE.
