Whats the word on the new 6.8 GI round?

[murphydog]

Sorry, but this line of thinking goes back to when I was in ROTC, and the Cadre was instructing about the role of the Militia (both organized and unorganized).

Considering how much of a threat is currently at both the front and back doors, will the unorganized militia be available survive with the adoption and distribution of the 6.8 and it's corresponding hardware? Does the DoD plan to still maintain spares for the M16 family of arms, or will they be orphaned, just like the M1, M14, M1911, and the older bolt guns? Should the threat present itself in Middle America, will the Militia still be able to draw 5.56 and spare parts?

In many respects, this adoption can be leaving us at more of a disadvantage than many realize!

From what I read at the XM7’s introduction, the M4/M16 will still be issued to non-frontline troops. I think this is partly due to being able to supply the new rifles to everyone and maybe as a fallback measure if it fails.

 

[Claymore33]

We already had a great round in 6.5. During last 25 years there has been a big attempt to save money in the Military by buying off the shelf. Yet the Army had to go design a new caliber. Sounds like we are going backward.

 

[walnutred]

I think the real goal of the 6.8 is to issue a cartridge not readily converted to civilian rifles or reloadable by the peasants.

 

[LostintheOzone]

XM7 is a gas piston rifle. Not DI like an M16/M4. Most, if not all, of today's modern battle rifles are gas piston designs like the newer AK-74 and HK 416. Gas piston is a better rifle. Always has been. Garand, M1 carbine, M-14 were the front runners.

Charlie wasn't wearing body armor in the 60's. Times change.

 

[LVSteve]

XM7 is a gas piston rifle. Not DI like an M16/M4. Most, if not all, of today's modern battle rifles are gas piston designs like the newer AK-74 and HK 416. Gas piston is a better rifle. Always has been. Garand, M1 carbine, M-14 were the front runners.

Charlie wasn't wearing body armor in the 60's. Times change.

Something else that has changed is the small drone threat. There are multiple videos out there of individual soldiers being targeted by First Person Video (FPV) drones carrying explosive payloads. They are pretty ugly, and I've yet to see an example of a soldier attempting to shoot one down being successful. It is like being under continual artillery bombardment. The average grunt has fewer opportunities to use his rifle than in olden days.

 

[pharmer]

Hubba-hubba!, I'm ready for some cases of cheap "surplus" 5.56. Anything better than the current $.50+/rd. Joe

 

[hardluk1]

Since when has our military and government made smart purchase decisions on anything . Just one more way blow tax payers dollars .

 

[biku324]

All over Africa the rifle and round of choice is an AK-47 or variant and 7.62x39. It's because they are available, effective, cheap, rugged in all conditions, and ubiquitous. In the words of a SADF colonel, "No need for Gucci weapons here."

 

[LVSteve]

All over Africa the rifle and round of choice is an AK-47 or variant and 7.62x39. It's because they are available, effective, cheap, rugged in all conditions, and ubiquitous. In the words of a SADF colonel, "No need for Gucci weapons here."

Which is fine when your opponents rarely use body armor. There was a video in late 2022 of some Wagner guys testing a piece of captured body armor. Their AK-74s didn't touch it.

 

[LostintheOzone]

I dunno. I think the XM7 is a pretty good move on the militaries part. Spec Ops has been using HK-416 for awhile now. My only concern would be the 6.8 cartridge is unproven. But then the 5.56 Nato is known to have failed against body armor down range. The original 55 gr. bullet is too light. The military has tried to make it into something it isn't with M855 62 grn. green tip. Nice try to save a bunch of money but you failed. Lipstick on a pig. Now moving into the 21st century.

I reload and shoot .223. It kills steel plates at 300 yds just fine. Very accurate in a bolt rifle and one of the best varmint cartridges to come down the pike. 55 grn bullets, or lighter, was always the plan. Look in the Hornady manual if you don't believe me.

 

[David.Hylton]

Y'all sure are a sour lot.

The round is already available to the public as the 277 Fury. 135 grain bullet at 2700 FPS out of a 16" barrel - remember the .276 Pederson?(3000 fps out of a 20" about 270 Win performance).

They had to go to a new cartridge because of the pressures involved. Winchester is building a new plant for the cartridge. The two part cartridge cases have been around for years.

The new rifles are close to the AR 15 family in size and issued with optics.

Everyone keeps mentioning China, but when was the last time we successfully predicted the next war? Korea will involve lots of infantry, an island hopping campaign will need infantry to take the islands for the long range weapons, not to mention a return to the sandbox.

Support troops will keep the M4 in 5.56.

I'm glad the Army has finally addressed this shortcoming.

 

[LostintheOzone]

All over Africa the rifle and round of choice is an AK-47 or variant and 7.62x39. It's because they are available, effective, cheap, rugged in all conditions, and ubiquitous. In the words of a SADF colonel, "No need for Gucci weapons here."

Yeah. And it's a gas piston rifle. Not a DI design. There are probably 5x more AK-47 rifles in world than AR's.

 

[Greyman50]

Back in 2017 a long time good friend that mfg’ered “ items” for many governments got the contract to make the “ nut sack” for this short SAW. FN sent him one to test them on. He brought it to one of our MG shoots. What a piece of junk, could not hit the pop up military target at 400 meters. We changed the barrel and shot around 1000 rounds. Everyone there laughed at it, would take a BAR any day.

 

[biku324]

Which is fine when your opponents rarely use body armor. There was a video in late 2022 of some Wagner guys testing a piece of captured body armor. Their AK-74s didn't touch it.

Nearly all African Union and other national forces wear body armor, as do many al Shabab, Al Qaeda, and IS militant forces.

 

[cmj8591]

Y'all sure are a sour lot.

The round is already available to the public as the 277 Fury. 135 grain bullet at 2700 FPS out of a 16" barrel - remember the .276 Pederson?(3000 fps out of a 20" about 270 Win performance).

They had to go to a new cartridge because of the pressures involved. Winchester is building a new plant for the cartridge. The two part cartridge cases have been around for years.

The new rifles are close to the AR 15 family in size and issued with optics.

Everyone keeps mentioning China, but when was the last time we successfully predicted the next war? Korea will involve lots of infantry, an island hopping campaign will need infantry to take the islands for the long range weapons, not to mention a return to the sandbox.

Support troops will keep the M4 in 5.56.

I'm glad the Army has finally addressed this shortcoming.

The round is available in a regular brass case but I don't think that you will be able to load it to the same level as the 2 piece round. I have never attempted to load anything like that 2 piece case so I don't have any real world experience but looking at it, I don't think it will present any issues if you decided to load it. That steel head isn't going to obturate under pressure like a brass case would so it shouldn't need to be resized. I'm thinking that it will go into a sizing die just like a conventional case would. The bigger question is do you want to run you MCX at those high pressures? The military doesn't care because they'll just buy lots of barrels and spare parts and replace them as they need. I'm thinking that if I shell out a few grand for one of those guns, I don't want to pay for a new barrel every couple of thousand rounds.

 

[cmj8591]

Yeah. And it's a gas piston rifle. Not a DI design. There are probably 5x more AK-47 rifles in world than AR's.

I think they went with the piston to keep that 80000psi away from the upper receiver and the shooters face.

 

[chief38]

Even if the round does prove its merit and it is adopted, I would never buy a rifle chambered for it!! IMHO, it will more than likely be restricted in the near future and people who own that caliber will have a hell of a time feeding it. That goes for ANY special round the military adopts in the future!! Better to stick with something you have and can feed!

 

[petepeterson]

The .30 Super Carry of AR rounds?

 

[cmj8591]

Even if the round does prove its merit and it is adopted, I would never buy a rifle chambered for it!! IMHO, it will more than likely be restricted in the near future and people who own that caliber will have a hell of a time feeding it. That goes for ANY special round the military adopts in the future!! Better to stick with something you have and can feed!

I'm not going to say that I will never buy one. Never is a very long time and it's a gun so it's fair game. I think if the Army adopts this as an Army wide system, economy of scale will make it available to civilians. It's why you can buy 7.62 NATO for 90 cents a round and 30-30 Winchester is about twice as much and not as available. Once the ammo makers start turning out billions of rounds, it is going to leak onto the civilian market. When that is going to happen is a ways down the road I think. But who knows? The main detriment that I see from a civilian standpoint is durability. These guns will require lots of attention if you are going to run them at full speed. From a military point of view, the biggest problem I can see is increased weight. A couple of pounds of extra weight in the field doesn't sound like much but it is. It looks like this is going to be the military round of the future so there is no doubt that it will become common place on civilian ranges at some point.

 

[Buick]

If it was my choice I believe I'd arm everybody with a quick change barrel variant of the FAL in .243.