The Army needs to discard the 5.56. I remember when they introduced it. Too many Urban Commandos couldn’t qualify with a man’s cartridge, the 7.62x51.
I have probably fired as many 7.62x39, 7.62x51, and 5.56 as anyone on here. The AK is a fine short range rifle, but isn’t in the same class as an AR in accuracy. The real question is, would you rather carry an 8 pound rifle with 200 rounds of ammo, or a 10 pound M14 with 70? In my quite humble opinion, the M14 is an overweight, clumsy handling rifle that shoots a fine cartridge. There is also a good reason why they don’t issue full auto weapons and it isn’t the machine gun ban. I have fired full auto rifles in 7.62, and it is a glorious uncontrollable waste of ammunition suitable only for cover fire.
The military used many 7.62 AR10’s in the middle east, as a longer range option. In other words, I’d rather have 200 rounds of ammo, a 5.56, and body armor for the same weight of a M14, 70 rounds and no armor, thank you!
I have a military quality AR that has had approx 4000 rounds, mostly my handloads through it, 0 malfunctions, it will keep all its shots in a 2.5 inch group at 200 yards. My AK is a custom, and a nice rifle, it is in my bedroom as we speak along with 6-30’s. It has had the same number (roughly) of rounds though it and no malfunctions. It will shoot the same group at 100 yards as the AR at 200. Current models are not the original Viet Nam era M16’s so forget about those horror stories.
I also have a habit of shooting and hunting in Africa with a .416 Rigby which I think qualifies as a man’s cartridge.
“Too many Urban Commandos couldn’t qualify with a man’s cartridge, the 7.62x51.”
Maybe I should have gone into the Marine corps instead of the Navy. We got one trip to the firing range at San Diego, forty practice rounds in a Garand 30.06 and then forty rounds to qualify at 200 yards with iron sights. I was less than a month past my 18th birthday and I was one of four or five out of sixty men who qualified. I had never fired a rifle bigger than .22 rimfire before that and only bolt action. The last 16 rounds were rapid fire prone, I put 15 of 16 in the bull’s eye and had plenty of my allotted time left to shake my head and wonder how I managed to do it. Must have been an angel on my shoulder because I remember feeling as nervous as you could ever imagine the whole time. When the instructor told me how many seconds I was allowed for that last 16 rounds it sounded impossible but I don’t think I used even half of that time. I never had a chance to fire a weapon again during my hitch though, it was all technical from there on, no fun stuff.