Maybe you should Have RikWriter over to take a look at it. After all he has been busting my chops over the last few weeks on how great the AR series rifles are.
RikWriter wrote
“Grunt...umm, hate to inform you, but hit rates were no higher in battle with the Garand or the M14. In fact, with those weapons, fewer soldiers actually fired their weapons in combat. People seem to assume that prior to going to the 223, our soldiers were all crack shots who would snipe the enemy at a thousand yards. Sorry, no. The vast majority of combat encounters in every war for which data is available occurred at less than 200 yards.”
Gee where to start your statement is like comparing apples and oranges.
1. Prior to 1890 and the invention of smokeless powder it was damn hard to find a mass produced rifle that would shoot accurately past 200 yards. It was a limitation of the technology, powder, and shooter. So lets throw out any data prior to 1890.
2. Since most armies tended to shoot only to 200yards/meters prior to 1900 it had some influence on the training of the units that fought in the early wars of the 1900s.
3. Were have most of all these engagements that the 200 meter crew like to quote fought? If we take out central Europe, it seriously weakens the argument of the 200 meter rule.
4. Before the Army and Marines changed the training tactics used to teach shooting in the early 1960s the best rate for aimed fire from friendly troops (soldiers actively shooting to kill) was in the 25% to 40% range (There were some units that exceeded this but they were usually composed of veteran fighters). After the battle of Gettysburg there were rifles found (not just a few) that had charge after charge rammed on top of each other. One rifle was found to have been loaded 7 times without firing. Prior to the Vietnam war, their was a lot of evidence produced that showed that US soldiers would fire their guns but not point them at an enemy intending to kill them. (the barrier to not kill was not broken in the bulk of those men especially those not battle hardened)
The simple fact is most battles have been fought in areas were getting a shot past 200 meters is not normal (not the Kansas Plains, the flat expanse of Russia, or the desert).
Most armies don’t train their soldiers to shoot farther than that (its only been the last 100 years or so that it has been a realistic possibility)
The simple truth is anyone who makes the 200 meter argument and fails to take into account all these other influences is using junk science. It’s the old that’s the way we have always done it and that’s the way we are going to do it in the future rule
If one reads some of the action reports of the small unit actions of the first US Units sent to Korea to slow down the North Korean advance (the first few “task forces” read speed bump) You will find cases of US soldiers armed with BAR’s , M-1 Garands and M1919 machineguns holding fire until the enemy closed from the 800- 1000 yard range until they were in the 200 – 250 yard range. Why? It’s a horde coming at you, the rifle will reach that far, If you miss your selected target you are bound to hit another one farther back. The only thing that might explain it is the thought never occurred to these soldiers to open up that far out and use the extra killing zone because they hadn’t been trained to.
So RikWriter in answer to your post, the Higher hit rates of the M-16 are a tribute to the change in rifle training adopted by the US Military in the early to mid 1960s not a change in the rifle. If you also check the facts from the Marine Corps you will find that during the late 60s the marines stopped stressing marksmanship and as a result they saw their hit rate go down and the ammunition expenditure rate go up. They then reinstated their emphasis on marksmanship and the trend again reversed its self.
The simple fact is that in a street fight the guy with the assault rifle will probably win. Here the size of the weapon, its volume of fire, and the amount of ammunition come in to play. In a wide open area the guy with the 98K will probably win as he will get 3-5 free shots before you even get him in range.
[This message has been edited by Alan B (edited March 21, 2000).]
