(09-18-2024, 07:41 AM)727Sky Wrote: The Army's new XM-7 rifle which shoots bullets that cost somewhere between 12 to 15+ dollars per round is actually receiving good feed back from the troops. Good solid Optics and a bullet able to penetrate light armored vehicles and body armor seems to be a win win. Of course the positive feed back is mostly from approved blogs and articles.
Well that video was just too cute by half! I remember seeing the same claims made about the M16. For example, I recall seeing a demonstration where a cinder block wall was reduced to rubble using only a stock M16A1 and the old M193 ball ammo.
Damn near doubling the weight of your weapon while simultaneously halving the amount of ammo you can carry for it makes me think they might be trying to redefine the phrase "light infantry".
The weapon itself looks to me like it's just a beefed-up M4 (apparently beefed up to be able to handle this new "monster" round), so I don't really see any significant advantage there, either.
Also, I think it is a really bad mistake for the US to start sourcing it's primary weapons from foreign manufacturers - Sig-Sauer in this case. I can't think of any nation in the history of the world that has survived for long after it started relying on foreign sources to supply it's most basic war fighting needs. Never a good idea to put your life and survival in the hands of a potential adversary, no matter how friendly they might appear to be today.
The video mentions a 3 minute of angle group that the weapon is capable of, which to my way of thinking is pretty dismal for an out of the box weapon. My AR shoots 1 MOA - 3 times more accurate than this overweight beast of a weapon. My bolt action rifle shoots 1/2 MOA. To spread those groups out to 3 MOA is sad... just really sad.... It doesn't matter how many feet steel a bullet can pierce at a billion yards if you can't even hit that steel with the bullet.
The optic is ridonkulous. It appears to be designed to "idiot-proof" the aiming procedure, but what happens when your shit goes dead or just plain breaks, and no one got trained on or has possession of any real sights?
On the positive side, if the military decides to start wasting our tax dollars on this bludgeon of a rifle, then it ought to release several billion rounds of 5.56 ammo into the surplus market as this new 15 dollar a round crap starts filtering in to military procurement channels. No real down side there! Well, except for the poor soldiers that have to carry these bricks around all day...
Another plus is that if everyone thinks this round is going to turn their pretty armor into butter, then maybe more folks will stop wearing those turtle-shells and exponentially increase their own maneuverability.
BUT - the army can do what the hell ever it likes. Every day that goes by, I am more and more glad that I'll not have to deal with the blunders they make now.
No damned wonder they have such a hard-on to take away folks' AR's. They don't want civilians to be better armed than "the world's best military" after they get done painting it pink and sticking a rose up it's ass!
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