Sunday, July 22, 2012

SEAL Sniper and the .223

The latest American Rifleman had a story about SEAL Sniper  Chris Kyle, who has a book out.

In the story he has a detail that would make Jeff Cooper smile down from gunnie heaven. 

"Several times he shot insurgents at close range with 5.56mm rounds and they did not halt. causing him to question the cartridge's effectiveness."

A HA!  Poodle Shooter round!  Well, with the .30 carbine round, the lack of effect was blamed on the Chinese heavy winter clothing. Or bad marksmanship.  Which I can understand.  But niether would apply to a SEAL sniper in Fallujah Iraq.  So what gives this time.  Because it's not like a 5.56 doesn't hurt a lot.


"The ineffectiveness may have been caused by drugs."  Oh.  Well.  Heroine junkies.  Based on needle tracks and spoons and black tar heroine found around town. 

So, his favorite round must have been the 7.62, right?  Hey!  That's mine too!  What?  Oh.  Yeah.  He likes .300 Win Mag, and .338 Lapua.   

What round for rampaging former Minnesota Governor?

4 comments:

Old NFO said...

Bigger IS better! :-)

Bob said...

Drugs have often used to allow warriors to fight on even after being shot; Boxers and Moros being just two of the warrior groups that fought while drugged.

RJIII said...

He said at close range. The 5.56 FMJ needs to lose velocity before it starts to tumble, thats why most states won't let you hunt with FMJ rounds. I think once the enemy breaks the Geneva Convention rules we ought to light 'em up with hollowpoints and soft points. It'll stop 'em.

Angus McThag said...

M855 is not really an FMJ. Not with the mild steel core. It was developed to fit a perceived need for a round that could counter the expected increased use by the Soviets of body armor. M193 was and is better on unarmored targets.

And M855 needs more velocity drop than M193 did for that tumble as well. I wonder if the muzzle velocity from a 14.5" barrel is slow enough as compares to a 20" barrel that tumbling happens right away. The SEALs weren't complaining about the R653's they had prior to the universal adoption of the M4.

If we hadn't changed the rifling to 1:7 I'd say issue M193 for use in places where we're not likely to encounter body armor.