I Try To Get Out And He Keeps Pulling Me Back In

My favorite snob has posted his opinion about what makes the best combat rifle.

His opinion has been influenced by a person he mentions in his post.

This person is a former Marine and is currently in the final stages of becoming an emergency medicine doctor.

Those two things do not make him an expert in firearms or cartridge design. But he sure talks like he is! He just lurves his 6.5 Grendel. He's also good at copy-paste from the opinions of the designer of the Grendel. It's better than anything else out there, especially 6.8x43mm which is just 7.62x39 made to work in an AR. He still believes that Remington is the driving force behind the round.

Um, no, 6.8 is not ballistically identical to 7.62x39mm in any current loading intended for a SAAMI Spec 2 chamber and using 1:11 rifling. Remington insisted on a chamber that was more appropriate for a bolt action than an AR and 1:10 rifling was specced because it came off a table for bore/bullet weight. It should be noted that the company that made the 6.8mm rifles for the SOCOM troops that used it, Barrett, specced their chamber almost identically to the spec 2 chamber. As an added bonus, the designers of the 6.8 were aware of the 6.5 Grendel and they discarded it in favor of developing their own round after first testing all of the alternative rounds available at the time! But you can't tell them that! His Holiness Bill Alexander issued forth the perfect round and it is Good. And patented. And expensive. And not for license.

6.8x43mm SPC was developed specifically to surpass the 7.62x39mm and also be superior to the M855 and mk 77 rounds at all ranges. On paper, the 6.5 surpasses the 6.8 at everything. In the real world you would be hard pressed to tell them apart inside of 600 yards. And there's damn little data out past 600 yards. What I do know is my 6.8 shoots a 3/4" group at 100 yards. At 200 yards, the front sight is larger than a man.

This leads the 6.5 types to start in about scopes. Then they start talking about impressive magnifications. Um, weren't we talking about combat just a second ago? An assault rifle with a 4-12x50mm scope? OK, drop it from 12 feet or so. Is it still zeroed? You are aware of the special care that snipers take in keeping their rifle from getting knocked about, aren't you? The Marines do seem to have a problem accepting that one cannot make a rifle both a sniper rifle and an assault rifle.

It drives them insane that anyone can be happy with 6.8x43mm SPC.

It really bothers them that it's combat tested. Barrett is still making them for the Special Ops guys.