Military caliber change?
Colt is buying LWRC, a player in the 6.8 game. So, is a caliber switch in the future?
This after a piece that says the 5.56 sucks.
I’ve personally been contemplating getting into 300BLK just because I recently found a line on reasonably priced ammo for it. And I can use my eleventy billion magazines.
February 23rd, 2014 at 7:11 pm
Not in the current political environment. More likely, Colt wants into the piston game.
February 23rd, 2014 at 7:37 pm
Care to share the line for reasonably priced 300 blk?
February 23rd, 2014 at 9:28 pm
Colt is broadening its platform offering by purchasing LWRC. As I recall LWRC has been grabbing quite a bit of the foreign market through innovation.
It is far more economic for Colt to buy LWRC rather than spend 60 million on development and still be far behind… The choice is an obvious one to me.
Oh and there will be no caliber switch for the military.
Unless you guys think the caliber can effectively double the combat effectiveness of the AR platform. e.g. lighter load out,and better performance. (Lighter is automatically out because these rounds effectively weigh the same as the 7.62x 39 load out.) All that leaves is better performance and that alone is not enough.(There are literally a shit-ton of intermediate cartridges with better performance then the 5.56.)
February 23rd, 2014 at 9:34 pm
Would also love to know about the 300blackout. Sota arms has great prices on uppers, also palmetto state armory has some good deals on uppers.
February 23rd, 2014 at 9:40 pm
lwrc figured out pistons and then patented the pieces that make them work the way national militaries like them to . carrier tilt is bye bye with their tech, for instance.
also, lwrc has been kicking colt ass overseas. cleaning someone’s clock is one fast way to get bought out.
good on them.
oh…this has abskuteky zero to do with 6.8 or any other caliber swap. colt has no need to pay for that. it is the patents and national sales.
February 23rd, 2014 at 11:00 pm
Is that article on troops being warned about and modding their weapons the same one I read every year for ten years now or so? So not news.
February 24th, 2014 at 12:40 am
300BLK is easy peasy, all you need to change is the barrel, maybe the gas block/sight for diameter, maybe the flash hider. I rednecked one up from a $160 barrel and an old upper with a bad chamber.
(Re)loading is no problem either, off the shelf .308 bullets, appropriate powders & primers, if you’re at all ambitious you can form the brass from 5.56.
February 24th, 2014 at 10:40 am
The Marine Corps would probably support a caliber change, but they go for much longer range shooting with standard weapons. 6.5 Grendel would be a better compromise.
February 24th, 2014 at 11:15 am
If there is a caliber change at all, it is likely that an SBR 300blk will replace the MP5 and Mk18. I don’t see the 6.8 going anywhere as it would only make sense as a general issue cartridge, which isn’t in the cards or budget.
That article on the 5.56 is full of myths and bullshit; I wouldn’t take anything in there to heart.
February 24th, 2014 at 1:24 pm
I was impressed by the 300 BLK w/suppressor I shot a while back…right up until I moved to the farther target.
BBs out of a pistol have a flatter trajectory.
February 24th, 2014 at 2:56 pm
The Grendel will never be adopted, as it’s shoulder is too far back, and the feed pawl on the SAW doesn’t reliably grab it. The would have to be fully re-engineered to accommodate it.
But in the AR platform, it’s a gem.
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
February 24th, 2014 at 5:51 pm
Don;t count on ANY significant caliber change unless and until we are forced to replace our rifles, carbines, and LMGs wholesale, or a significant breakthrough makes replacing perfectly serviceable weapons the only smart move (such as if the LSAT progaram, either track, gets ready for full scale production AND they work out a more efficient projo [highly misunderstood is WHY they are restricting testing and R&D to M855 projos at M855 ballistics — it’s to keep the comparisons with the 5.56mm M855 family of weapons apples to apples]).
February 24th, 2014 at 6:46 pm
5.56 is a NATO caliber anyway, so though we’re the 800lb gorilla, we’re not the only ones involved.