What was the reason the West switched from 7.62 to 5.56 mm?

See now, I left the service just as my beloved FN was being phased out for those plastic thingy's, M-16.. so never got to fire a 5.56 on open range

So I never really delved into the hows and why's they did it..

Was it the popularity of the M-16 or was 5.56 better at doing damage and stopping power?

Because to my knowledge the most used firearm for such occassions is the AK-47.. cheap, plentiful, wears good and what I thought was good stopping power with 7.62..

Now one story I had heard was that the 5.56 was a more humane (???) round and therefor the Geneva Convention was endorsing it's use over the 7.62.

Gear weight must've stayed the same if you can carry more ammo with a smaller round, right?

It just didn't make sense..when you are shooting someone your trying to kill him, not wound him, yes?

Please bear in mind, I could've gone delving the net, but considering the plethora of gun enthusiasts on here I figured the answers would be faster
I'm looking at this from the concept of stopping power.

 

From what I know of it's history, I believe the 5.56 became the standard ammo for NATO members for one reason; yawing, fragmentation of the bullet inside the body on impact.

The 7.62 isn't very likely to break apart (because of it's size), so it tends to go straight through wherever it impacted on the body, which might actually be a disadvantage, depending on where it penetrated. With the 5.56, I think it was hoped that it's smaller design would cause it to fragment inside the opponent's body, turning into mini shrapnel and causing massive and hopefully, more fatal injuries than the ones you'd get from dropping a 7.62 into somebody.

 

Mainly for the the common ammo reason and the US would not change the M16s calibre. For the Brits it was also the urban use of 7.62 in Ulster where the bullet would not only go through the target but the brick wall behind and then the poor kid who was sitting eating dinner.

On a personal note, I missed the 7.62 and the SLR it had stopping power, it would go through that wall or tree whereas the 5.56 stops.
Range shooting there was little difference when I shot but I felt more confident with the SLR than the SA80, but it is a proper rifle and not an assault rifle.

 

Because of the "yaw" factor .

 

Seriously? You're pretending to have been in combat too? Who's next?

 

I have never said I was in combat. I said "in the service" for all you know I was washing dishes in the mess.

You are now just trolling
WHACK-A-TROLL!!

Thank you for making the list.

ANYWAY..

Yaw? really? Did not know that. I thought punching holes was better than making messes.. but if yaw it was.. now I know.

 

Seriously, drag your arse over here and find out. Making all your fuckwit statements from your false pedestal, whatever the fuck that means.

Again you make retarded statements that you can't back up and prove, you are just a fuckwit little rich boy troll, now kindly leave the room for the adults.

 

Patron - I think your on the right lines with your fragmentation theory......I was taught that the 5.56mm had a cavity in the tip which caused it to squash down on ipact with its target. this had the effect of seiously wounding rather than killing as the 7.62mm did. the advantage of wouning over killing is that if someone is wounded then, potentially a fit soldier will be left with the wounded man thus taking two enemies out of the battle. (if that makes any sense???)

Richie - I thought the SA80 was shit too but mainly because of the build quality. I think it was made of mecano and lego!!!!

 

True story: when they designed the first model of the SA80, they put the magazine catch in such a daft place that if you ran with it, the magazine fell out.

Perhaps this was a safety feature.

 

Nato chose to follow US lead on this and switch the firearms to match the US. It has a better penetration capability and previousely explained breaks up on impact.

However there is no comparison, AK has consistently been the best all around combat weapon. It is harder to use though in close quarters combat, that's why certain variations of AK have smaller calibre bullets, as the size of the gun gets smaller too.

 

Given the choice - and they get the choice - the SAS will use AKs rather than SA80s or equivalents.

Bigger bullet, and no matter how much fucking sand you shove in it it won't jam on you. If it breaks? You can probably fix it with a bit of metal you've bent off the back of the jeep.

 

As far as accuracy goes, the AK-47 is junk. the ballistics of the 7.62 X 39mm (the round the ak fires) are really not that good.

This round should not be confused with the 7.62 X 51mm NATO. This is the round that US M-14's fired as well as several other US and British weapons.

But getting back to the AK-47 and the 7.62 X 39mm round. The Russians have redesigned their AK's to fire the 5.45 X 39mm round.

This new Russian round is comparable to the 5.56 X 45mm NATO round.

 

the Ak is regarded as one of the most reliable weapons in the world tho which is why its so popular with the bad guys!!!!

 

The kind of ammo being used in Iraq and Afghanistan are not fragmentation.

They are using M855 62gr FMJ Penetrator rounds

 

Here are a few of the AK's I own. The bottom is not an AK, it's an Israeli Golani (it fires 5.56 X 45mm).

The two on top are milled receiver AK's. The reason why they are so popular is because they are cheap compared to an M-4.

 

Interesting - I didn't know that. Cheers.

 

Yeah the SA80 in its first incarnation was a pile of shit, but they gave it to HK to have a look at and they sorted all the major flaws out and now it is a decent enough weapon, I just prefer the SLR a real rifle.

As for the AK it is used world wide because there are so many of the damn things and they are simple to look after, but it's major failing is its accuracy which is poor over distance, and the safety catch cycles from safe through auto to single shot, fire it on auto and its accuracy drops, and after 3 rounds you are killing clouds. I would take a M16 over that and just keep it clean.

But then again I dislike small arms and hope to never touch one again.

 

Ah, good old HK.

HK could make a rubber duck accurate over 200 yards. A rubber duck with a floating bolt.

 

Yep, miracle workers the lousy fuckers. For months I kept hitting the wife in the ass, one quick adjustment by them and I was back in the front door.:excited: Quack fucking quack.

 

never used an M-16 and I left before HK got hold of the SA80 so I like the SLR too. Very glad that I don't need to use any of them now just like you.