I fully understand 5.56 NATO (corrected from 5.62)

[Chas.]

Went to the range today to shoot my favorite caliber - .45-70. This is not the first time I've drawn these conclusions, but the first time I've posted them. After shooting about 10 rounds, my barrel was so hot I couldn't hold my hand on it. After 20 rounds, I think you could have lit a cigarette on it and I let it cool. In addition, 100-200 rounds is HEAVY, when you carry it a while. I only had to tote it from the parking lot and couldn't imagine carrying it all day. Soldiers of the late 1800s were much the man. 5.56 certainly makes a lot more sense.

[Terry Murbach]

5.62 NATO ????

[243dave]

I think you mean 7.62 or 5.56 NATO. Either one without a doubt would be easier to carry than 45-70. The thing about about the light rounds is that just means the soldier carries more of them so the load is not lighter. The soldiers today carry more weight than ever. Body armour, night vision, and communication equipment is stuff the soldiers of old didn't have to pack.

[Chas.]

Sorry, I've corrected the OP. I don't think in metric very well.

[AJMD429]

Nothin' wrong with 5.56/.223 - it's kind of the ".32-20 of bottleneck rounds" - light weight ammo, light recoil, very accurate, and powerful enough to do much of what needs doing.

It happened that circumstances gave us funny-looking 'plastic' semiauto rifles about the same time the .223 blossomed, but there are blued-steel-and-wood ones like Ruger's Mini-14 that is hard to criticize vs. the M-1A so many of us revere. Again, the cartridge shouldn't be blamed for the funny-looking guns they make for it, nor for the 'wounding the enemy is better than killing him' strategy the military came out with that goes along with having an easier-for-the-novice-to-learn low-recoil round.

Yeah, in a real "battle", a soldier who knows how to use a .308 would have some edge vs. a .223, and with a bear after me instead of a coyote, I'm sure I'd want a .444 or .45-70, instead of a .32-20, but for most stuff, the .223's and .32-20's of the world do just fine.