.277 fury information long range performance

[Megawatt maker]

I don't see this taking off. With the budget crunch coming, and it is, cuts will have to made across the board, and that will include defense. Do you really think the GOP will commit political suicide by cutting Social Security and Medicare?

They won't, and something will have to give, and that will be defense. Frankly, it should be cut. It's full of waste.

This new .277 is a fine example of that waste. They will not fund the billions it will take to replace all the weapons, and the retooling it will take for the ammo. Too many other competing programs that will have higher priority that trying to fix something that ain't broke...like the service small arms.

Sorry to bring politics into it. Not wishing to derail anything, but that is a factor that can't be ignored.

Just remember too...a big reason we got the Garand was because John Garand was smart enough to know...the war department wasn't going to invest in a new cartridge when they already had everything for 30/06.

History will be repeating itself with this.

Frankly...it is dang ridiculous. Yes, the 277 may perform a little better...but not enough to justify the costs and all the yet unknown problems that WILL come up.

 

[12Bravo20]

The 6.8x51 was never intended to replace 5.56x45 for the entire force. And if it proves itself, then I can definitely see it replacing the M240 (7.62x51) and the M249 SAW (5.56x45) in regular infantry units. Only time will tell.

 

[N555]

I hope it takes off. I want 308 class 80,000psi hybrid brass to experimentify with. I want them to neck down to 6.5mm and make 260Chicxulub.

 

[Megawatt maker]

Let's not forget also, the entire premise of these new round is to defeat body armor that doesn't yet exist. Our potential enemies barely have body armor at all. Just look at how poorly the Russians are equipped in Ukraine for example.

Besides, I'm sure 7.62x51 AP ammo will do the job just fine. I watched a guy use it to blast right through AR500 steel targets at the range over the summer, and got himself kicked out for it. But, it went right through it like knife through butter at 100 yards.

80k psi...just wow. I have serious doubts that this round will ever be offered to civies at full power. The liability has to be off the scale.

Or, maybe not. Maybe this is the start of the next big leap.

As another posted said, we will have to wait and see.

 

[Phaedrus/69]

Presumably part of the touted ability to defeat armor will be a penetrator core that us filthy plebs won't be able to buy.

 

[N555]

I find hunting bullets more interesting than dot mil junk that will shoot through whatever.
I know a guy that's been loading 260rem so hot he only gets 2 shots out of his brass, first shot is a factory load or normal pressure hand load to fire from the cases. After the first hot load the primers go in a little looser, then after the second reload he is done with them. Probably running at least 70,000psi maybe more. Been loading them that way since the late 1980s to early 1990s. Fired those hot 260rems in 700s, a savage, an armalite AR10. The guns can take the pressure, the brass cant.

 

[CapnMac]

in regular infantry units.

I can see the XM-250 stockpiled to be issued out by McDill, as the various snakeeaters can justify a SAW-sized replacement for 240B. But, there's not enough weight savings--and particularly no volume savings--to justify 6.8x51 over 7.62x51. So, suspect a caliber change down the road.

For Regular Infantry, giving up the current SAW loadout of around 500 rounds, for, maybe, 200-250 rounds of the 6.8 sounds dumb. It's one thing to have the AGs add a 200 box & pouch to their LBE, but, when that AG pounch only hold 100 for the same weight, then you need twice as many AG for the same amount of support fires. S4 shop would wind up being very busy moving ammo up.

Time will tell.

 

[12Bravo20]

I can see the XM-250 stockpiled to be issued out by McDill, as the various snakeeaters can justify a SAW-sized replacement for 240B. But, there's not enough weight savings--and particularly no volume savings--to justify 6.8x51 over 7.62x51. So, suspect a caliber change down the road.

For Regular Infantry, giving up the current SAW loadout of around 500 rounds, for, maybe, 200-250 rounds of the 6.8 sounds dumb. It's one thing to have the AGs add a 200 box & pouch to their LBE, but, when that AG pounch only hold 100 for the same weight, then you need twice as many AG for the same amount of support fires. S4 shop would wind up being very busy moving ammo up.

Time will tell.

I never said any transition for regular infantry units would happen anytime soon either. You and I both know how slow the system is and how changes are not generally liked by the old guard.

I didn't get a M16A2 issued to me until Jan 1992 and was still issued the M1911 and M3A1 until late 1992/early 1993. And I was in a Combat Engineer Bn that directly supported Infantry units on the front line.