Why you should hold the butt against your shoulder (was: Re: [SGVLUG] hp tech support! - take this!!!)

[Dustin Laurence]

On Thu, Jul 12, 2007 at 11:45:10AM -0700, John  Jefferson Lowry IV wrote:
> 
>    I  have never bought the argument that it does more damage.

I think common hunter's knowledge is sufficient to disprove that.  A
.223 (== 5.56 NATO) is underpowered for anything much larger than a deer
while a .30-06 (ballistically about equivalent to .308/7.62 NATO) is
suitable for all American big game except Alaskan brown bear (and I
assume the similar-sized polar bear, though I've neverheard it
mentioned).  The only thing I might wonder is whether all that extra
energy is wasted on human-sized targets so the practical difference is
small.

I imagine the point was more that you can only kill someone so dead, so
why use a big-game round on people? :-) And, it might be, that 5.56
creates more expensive wounded casualties that a 7.62 round would have
killed.  I like the other explanations better, though, the logistical
one above all.

> ...The AR-15,
>    the  civilian model of the M-16, is an amazingly accurate gun. Firearm
>    novices  can  hit  stuff  consistently  at  300m  in  an  afternoon of
>    practice.  I  think  that  more than anything else is why the military
>    went with it.

Sure it's accurate, but I think that's mostly the fact that recoil
spoils most people's aim.  If you're used to larger calibers a .223 is
essentially recoilless.  I don't recall shooting .308 but it should be
similar to a .30-06, and most people that pack that much gun and above
probably can't do their best shooting with it.

Here is some footage of people firing more gun than they can handle:

http://www.thehumorarchives.com/joke/Quite_a_kick

:-)

Some of those looked like they'd not even snugged the butt up against
their shoulder, which would really suck.  That was in the prank section
so I'm guessing some of those guys didn't know what they were firing?
When I was a kid I got suckered into firing a .270 once and felt a bit
like that. :-)

I like .30-06 much better but I guess it's pure nostalgia--the short
.308 case is pretty convenient for a lot of actions.  My caliber choices
appear to be exceedingly eccentric: my old deer rifle is a 7x57 Mauser,
which is a great cartridge with a really unlucky case length (hits
almost like a .270, kicks better than a .243), and I'd dearly love to
have a lever-action .45-70.  Now *there* was a man's cartridge. :-)
They're expensive, though.

Dustin

-- 
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