That's bullshit. Smaller cartridges are used because it's assumed that the average soldier can't hit anything anyway, but at least now their guns can gun pew more times during a firefight, and that must make them feel useful and nice.
Revolvers aren't simpler at all, if anything they are more complicated than a glawk.
Wheely Steely Point and Dealies
Logan Edwards
Gavin Jenkins
And it takes more skill to shoot them proficiently too. As nice as the trigger might be, you're dealing with two different trigger pulls that are pretty much unavoidable on any combat situation.
Soldiers are issued with small caliber pistols because side-arms aren't relevant, you want to cut down the dead weight while still having a last resort weapon (or something you can hold and use with one hand under very specific situations).
Shit like 5.56 exists because volume of fire is more important on the big scheme of things than individual firepower. Soldiers aren't alone in combat (or at least they shouldn't). Given a set volume limitation (and a reasonable barrel life and free recoil), the round is meant to be as deadly as possible within an optimal engagement distance (200-300 meters) while still being capable of delivering some lead further down range to keep the enemy under preasure. Any cartridge bigger or heavier would reduce the max volume of fire per soldier.
Then we can argue if 5.56 is good or not, but stating that the round is meant to wound is just wrong. It kills as much as it can.
Jordan Thompson
Anything that goes bang and puts holes in shit, that are big enough to drop an enemy, or a tasty animal , is relevant.
Auto loaders are more convenient, hold more ammo, and are often lighter and easier to carry, and more accurate.
However , revolvers in good condition are generally reliable, jam proof, and make up the majority of the big ass caliber handguns.
Michael Cooper
I'd probably choose a revolver if raw power was the top priority.
For instance in Alaska or Africa where a Mag full of 45acp isn't reliable to stop a charge of a bear or something similar.
Outside of that a 9mm auto is plenty for a sidearm, or even 45acp if you need extra stopping power at the expense of lower ammo capacity.
David Lopez
M8, it's called 10mm.
There's a reason actual alaskan and danish (or was it norwegian) use G20 in 10mm.
Aaron Wright
No. Intermediate cartridges exist first and foremost because of their longer effective range. Better follow-up is a nice thing that comes with it, not the reason it exists. 5.56 in particular made up for its comparative lack of umph to 7.62 by fragmenting a ton, but then humanitarian rights niggers over in eurocuck land made us get rid of that. Come on japanon, you know this.
Alexander Martinez
5.45 is objectively the best intermediate cartridge in widespread use today. Longer, slimmer bullet means better BC and flatter trajectory. Aggressive case taper means better reliability. Spoontip bullet means it will tumble through flesh to make nice big wound channels. Because the tumbling factor is based almost entirely on bullet geometry and not velocity, its secondary wounding mechanism works even if it's going a bit slower. 5.56 in contrast will only fragment if it's going fast enough when it hits the target.
I'd really like to see how a brass-cased variant, with high quality modern powder, performs. 7n6 is on par with modern 5.56 loads out of 16" barrels, but that's with the low-quality Soviet powder. If the propellant were modernized I imagine it would perform even better.
sage because not in the slightest relevant to revolvers.
Levi Edwards
Are you baiting us? Originally the M16 was adopted as an interim solution until project SPIW produces a usable weapon. The whole point of project SPIW was to design a burst firing weapon that guaranteed to hit anything in its sight at every pull of the trigger. This goes back to the traditional importance of marksmanship in the US army, as the project was a reaction to the relevation that the average grunt in ww2 wasn't a leet oper8er sniper. Remember, the USA sabotaged the adoption of .280 British because it wasn't a full powered cartrdige, even though later versions retained more energy due to their better aerodynamic shape.
As for the Germans and soviets, they both started from research that said most firefights happened under 300m. The Sturmgewehr was meant to be a semi-automatic rifle that could be used as a LMG to cover the GPMG of the squad when it was moving, and it certainly wasn't meant to be a long range weapon.
The soviets originally went down a different route, and wanted to retain the system of smg, rifles and machine guns in a platoon, but they also wanted all three weapons to fire the same cartridge, hence the 7.62x39. It just turned out quickly that although the AK was meant to be the smg, it can do the job of the rifle just fine, and the design can also take up the role of the lmg with some modifications. But even then, they still developed the SVD as a "support weapon" for the platoon.
Now, the soviets switched to 5.45x39 after they saw that 5.56x45 works just as well as 7.62x39 in most situations. But then came Afghanistan, and they quickly realized that it's a good idea to give at a proper GPMG to every squad. Also, the US armed forces strated deploying 7.62x51 rifles in every squad since Afghanistan, because 5.56 NATO is simply inadequate at the longer ranges there.
Liam Scott
What fantasy world are you living in, my dude? You do understand that the 5.56x45 M4A1 is still our standard service rifle, right? 5.56 M249 as the SAW. The last rifle to use 7.62x51 was the M14. You straight up trying to lie? Let me correct my sentence a bit, anyways. "Modern intermediate cartridges exist first and foremost because of their longer effective range". Intermediate rounds intended for pseudo-lmglike sturmgewehrs are going to be a lot different then what our modern ammunition is because, as you said, they started from research that most firefights are
Robert Gomez
The same M14 that the muhreens have been desperately trying to make work for years so they can have someone on the squad able to reach out and touch someone in Afghanistan?
It's ironic that Turkey and Greece, two nations that aren't exactly known for having their shit together, at least know to keep a huehueBR around.