Shooters will find a chuckle in that he wanted to chamber it in what would be today probably a 6.5 or 7 mm to “take advantage of superior ballistics”. His request was denied by no other than Gen. MacArthur himself as head of Logistics and in so doing used what is probably the first use of the phrase “politically incorrect” as the US had warehouses full of .30-06 ammo.
***as the US had warehouses full of .30-06 ammo.***
Same reason the Krag was slow to be adopted and issued in the Spanish-American war.. Warehouses full of 45-70 Black powder ammo.
So our troops armed with single shot Springfield rifles went up against 5 shot Mauser armed Spanish.
One of the great rifle designs of history ...