Why 308?

[skscj]

Can some of you help me understand why the military chose the 308 over the 30-06 in a sniper rifle. Doesnt the 06 reach out further? And since its a sniper, they wont have to carry as much as a battle rifle, so weight is not an issue. Just wondering...

[Moress]

I could be wrong, but I believe it was because NATO wanted to standardize all of it's ammunition across all it's allies. .308 (Actually 7.62x51, but now we're splitting hairs ) was the round they choose because it's more "Cost effective."

[bohoki]

yup nato was already using the fal

besides 30 06 was kind of overkill

[smle-man]

They are essentially the same performance and the 7.62 NATO is as the name implies, a standard NATO cartridge.

[IrishPirate]

the x51 weighs less than the -06. I guess when you're shipping millions of rounds at a time the weight differences add up.

[five.five-six]

the x51 weighs less than the -06. I guess when you're shipping millions of rounds at a time the weight differences add up.

or if you are humping 300 rounds all day long

[Argonaut]

308/7.62X51 is so close to an O6 in performance, the difference in negligible, The NATO round is shorter and worked better in modern auto and semi auto guns so became the standard.

[IrishPirate]

or if you are humping 300 rounds all day long

i tried humping 300 times one day....it hurt.




ohhhh.....300 rounds........my bad

[skscj]

Do snipers carry that much ammo, 300 rnds?

[five.five-six]

that's classified ^

[Sniper3142]

The military did have a rifle chambered in 30-06... its called the GARAND. There was even s "Sniper" version but it suffered from being a poor mounting platform for optics.

They then decided there was a need to shrink the size of the round but not its performance (to lighten the combat load weight). Thus the M14 was born. It was a good overall design but it suffered from bad timing (Vietnam and the M16).

The military saw how great the 7.62x51 round performed in the M14 and the M60 and decided to also use it in the sniper rifles being fielded at the time. It has since become the standard in military and LE sniper platforms. There are now better rounds but it remains the most popular (or at least numerous).

[Astig Boy]

There was also a 30-06 M1903-A4 sniper rifle version used up to the Korean War.

[Boltz]

Can some of you help me understand why the military chose the 308 over the 30-06 in a sniper rifle. Doesnt the 06 reach out further? And since its a sniper, they wont have to carry as much as a battle rifle, so weight is not an issue. Just wondering...

Weight is always an issue for a soldier. 308 performs very similarly to 30-06, so why stay with the larger and heavier round?

[thrasherfox]

To my understanding, our troops were carrying around M-16's in Iraq and Afghanistan and the majoriy of the mission was close up, clearing houses, firefights in streets.

For this type of normal mission, the M16 performed well and as expected.

However, on occasion US forces and allied forces would be in the middle of a firefight and they would start receiving sniper fire.

Since snipers are usually pretty far away the M16's were not able to reach out and touch someone.

So they started to carry AR-10's. pretty much not much different than carrying around an M16, which everyone is used to. it can still be used for firefights in the street, however now if a team comes under sniper fire, each member having an AR-10 with a 3.08/7.62x51 now has the ability to change from close tactical fighting to being a sniper. with the AR-10 they can now reach the sniper with a round where as the M16 they could not.

Anyway, that was what I was told. Not sure if it is true or not, but sounds plausible.

[Untamed1972]

To my understanding, our troops were carrying around M-16's in Iraq and Afghanistan and the majoriy of the mission was close up, clearing houses, firefights in streets.

For this type of normal mission, the M16 performed well and as expected.

However, on occasion US forces and allied forces would be in the middle of a firefight and they would start receiving sniper fire.

Since snipers are usually pretty far away the M16's were not able to reach out and touch someone.

So they started to carry AR-10's. pretty much not much different than carrying around an M16, which everyone is used to. it can still be used for firefights in the street, however now if a team comes under sniper fire, each member having an AR-10 with a 3.08/7.62x51 now has the ability to change from close tactical fighting to being a sniper. with the AR-10 they can now reach the sniper with a round where as the M16 they could not.Anyway, that was what I was told. Not sure if it is true or not, but sounds plausible.

I also heard on a show I was watching in the .Mil channel that another advantage of the AR-10 in the current conflict is that it doesn't stand out as being different then M-16/M-4s the rest of a squad is carrying to prevent the squad sniper from becoming a specific target for enemy snipers.