[operation clinton cleanup]

If God had meant us to fire the 5.56 in combat, He would have made all our enemies, 2 feet tall, weighing 40 pounds.

Not that it matters, but what is the weight an individual soldier has to carry around of 5.56 vs. equal number of rounds of 7.62 ammo?

[mylife]

The .223 weighs less than half of what a .308 round weighs

[operation clinton cleanup]

I only ask because some bean counter probably determined they could carry more rounds of 5.56 ammo back when the M-16 was designed... and ammo resupply was harder to come by in the field.

[TXBSAFH]

Roughly 300 rounds of 5.56 mm to 180 of 7.62mm.

[EricT.]

Not that it matters, but what is the weight an individual soldier has to carry around of 5.56 vs. equal number of rounds of 7.62 ammo?

I think most grunts would happily hump a couple extra pounds if means having an effective weapon.

[Chode]

but it generally only takes ONE to put-em down... less is more 8^)

[RebelBanker]

Standard load of two full pouches and a full magazine in the rifle:
M-14 - 2 x 20-round mags per pouch and 1 in the piece = 100 rounds
M-16 - 3 x 30-round mags per pouch and 1 in the piece = 210 rounds

The lighter 5.56mm round was adopted for "spray and pray" jungle warfare where the ranges of the firefights was expected to be very close and volume of fire was more important than maximum range.

Also, a loaded M-14 weighs over 12 pounds, an M-16 about 7 1/2.