There has been a lot of M14 vs M16 threads and even more M16 vs AK-47 threads continuing today. But I haven't seen anyone arguing the choice of choosing a sized down version, the AR-15 over the larger older brother the AR-10 in Vietnam. As much as I like the AR-15 and how I think it's a severely underrated weapon by people who only casually know about weapons, I feel that the AR-10 would have been a better suited weapon through Vietnam.
The larger 7.62 round had greater power and more gas for the weapon to work with cycling the weapon, therefore making it capable of working through the fouling issues of a direct impingement system. The logic behind switching the 7.62 to the 5.56 was that more soldiers were finding that they were spraying into an area where they thought the enemy was. So the logic became more bullets=more kills. But I think the 7.62 would have been a more suitable spraying round because of it's ability to pass through dense wood and cover while retaining enough energy to kill something on the other side.
The big problem was weight however, the original AR-15's were about six and half pounds where the AR-10's can weigh up to 9 pounds. But looking at it from a present day stand point, the M16's today weigh 8 pounds. A pound is still substantial, but I believe the extra 7.62 penetration power and reliability is worth it in the environment where mud, dirt, and dense jungle is expected. Either way it's an half pound improvement over the m1 grand.
These are just my views and opinions, I kinda wanna ask the WAB community what they would pick in Vietnam if given the choice of AR-10 vs AR-15.
The larger 7.62 round had greater power and more gas for the weapon to work with cycling the weapon, therefore making it capable of working through the fouling issues of a direct impingement system. The logic behind switching the 7.62 to the 5.56 was that more soldiers were finding that they were spraying into an area where they thought the enemy was. So the logic became more bullets=more kills. But I think the 7.62 would have been a more suitable spraying round because of it's ability to pass through dense wood and cover while retaining enough energy to kill something on the other side.
The big problem was weight however, the original AR-15's were about six and half pounds where the AR-10's can weigh up to 9 pounds. But looking at it from a present day stand point, the M16's today weigh 8 pounds. A pound is still substantial, but I believe the extra 7.62 penetration power and reliability is worth it in the environment where mud, dirt, and dense jungle is expected. Either way it's an half pound improvement over the m1 grand.
These are just my views and opinions, I kinda wanna ask the WAB community what they would pick in Vietnam if given the choice of AR-10 vs AR-15.
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