The full metal jacket 5.56 and 7.62 as far as I understand were designed to "wound a 160lb man" to accomplish "taking three men out of the fight, one wounded with two to carry him off the field". If you wish to splatter your target, hit em with a shotgun slug or rifle used for hunting deer. The ar15 is part available as well as having a abundant supply of cheap large capacity mags. Its simple, accurate and with m4 feed ramps very reliable. The ammo is cheap and the platform is optics friendly. I completely agree the m16 family is political but so is the reason to own one.
5.56, yes. 7.62x39, no.
And I'm talking about 7.62x51, not 39. That is the NATO designation for the .308 Winchester, with slightly more brass and a tiny bit less power. It is not made for wounding. It is made for placing a 30 caliber, 200 grain round through a cinderblock wall and then a person at 300 yards.
And the AR platform breaks. I don't use guns that break easily.
Most NATO rounds that are used in assault rifles are made to wound, because of all that political Geneva crap. Take it from me, someone who has used the 5.56 round extensively against actual people, there is only a few places I am for, and its not center mass.
if it was a static target (standing still and shooting at me) I would aim for the legs. Period, If you are laying on your back, you can't hit me. Moving targets, I aim for the heart or about the waist area, because I had my windage settings changed so that my post was down a couple more rotations than needed so that hopefully I shot their dick off. A bullet even grazing your nuts is gonna take you out the fight, period.
.308's are hunting rifles, aren't they? What always killed me is that we can't use the .50 cal machine gun to shoot people. That's always been a sore spot with me. To me, if you are in combat, I feel a round the size of your hand should definitely do the trick.
But seriously, I think the next platform of weapons should either involve 7.62 or the same round they use for Barrett sniper rifles(.50 cal). Yeah, they are inaccurate from the short barrel of an assault rifle, but most fights aren't at the distances they train you for in urban environments. I swear to God, most of my training was oriented for jungles and shit, and I joined in 2003, after the invasion, so it should have been clear that we are going to be fighting in urban environments, PLUS our military is supposed ot used for defense, and I am pretty sure most of our population density is in urban environments.