Sir:
I've been a member of a survival retreat group for about a year. A member told
me to contact you. I am finally going to purchase a rifle (not for hunting).
I read where the [U.S.] military is really unhappy with the 5.56 and the
possibility of changing to the 6.8mm Remington. I like the idea of something
larger than the 5.56mm and smaller than the 7.62mm. Is it possible the military
will make this change and how soon? I am only going to buy one rifle. What
are the disadvantages of buying the 6.8mm? Sincerely, - R.S.
JWR Replies: If the
economy were to hold together, and if the
new 6.8mm round were to eventually gain long term civilian market popularity,
then it someday might be a viable option. Otherwise, no,
I do not recommend it, since supporting your firearms battery logistics
could be troublesome at best, or perhaps even a complete "show
stopper" in a worst case. If you have huge budget, you might want
to buy both 5.56mm and 6.8mm upper receiver/barrel assemblies
to mate with your AR lower
and several thousand rounds of each type of ammo. Otherwise, I would
skip the small calibers all together and get a battle rifle that is
chambered in a real sure stopping and versatile caliber: .308 Winchester.
(Parenthetically, I'm amazed how many letters I get from readers who
say that they wouldn't use a .223 for hunting 150 pound deer, but they
are willing to trust their lives to .233 for hunting 200 pound armed
men. I fail to see the logic there.) For .308 battle
rifles, I prefer FALs
and L1A1s,
since they use inexpensive magazines and have clean (non-fouling) adjustable
piston-operated gas systems. But if one of your key goals is
light weight, then get an AR-10.
(Although the latter do require more frequent and thorough cleaning.)
If you do decide to get an AR-10, then make sure that it is one of
the brands such as American Spirit or Bushmaster that accept
commonplace (and inexpensive) FAL magazines rather than unique
(and expensive) OEM magazines.
(The Armalite and DPMS brand AR-10s use proprietary magazine designs.
Those are usually very expensive modified M14 magazines.
Avoid AR-10 from such makers!)
