Yup....... British 4.85mm beat the 5.56 all to Hell and back in the competitions, but 5.56 got adopted anyway.
Why?
Well, there were already 4 million 5.56 weapons out there and the Americans had been giving the damned things away all over the world. The time to have a competition is BEFORE you manufacture 4 million copies of something, not afterwards.
Of course, the US has never believed in fair competitions in matters such as this; it's much like some of the people on here: MY way or the HIGHway, dude!
Fact is, all those 5.56mm rifles could have been changed over to the 4.85 by switching exactly ONE part: the barrel. But the competition was rigged, right from Day One.
When it was over, the Brits went home, rather a bit satisfied that they had utterly trashed the 5.56 in an OPEN competition, changed-out the barrels on their 4.85s and announced the adoption of what we now call the IW-80.
I was at Enfield in 1976, saw s/n 4 of the X-70 series and got to play with it for the best part of an hour. They asked if I had any suggestions, so I made a couple and they actually produced one of them...... which was later trashed because it cost too much. But it is a brilliant design in many ways and is entirely constructed of materials which are available in the British Isles WITHOUT importation of anything.
They learned their lesson well in 1940.
.
Why?
Well, there were already 4 million 5.56 weapons out there and the Americans had been giving the damned things away all over the world. The time to have a competition is BEFORE you manufacture 4 million copies of something, not afterwards.
Of course, the US has never believed in fair competitions in matters such as this; it's much like some of the people on here: MY way or the HIGHway, dude!
Fact is, all those 5.56mm rifles could have been changed over to the 4.85 by switching exactly ONE part: the barrel. But the competition was rigged, right from Day One.
When it was over, the Brits went home, rather a bit satisfied that they had utterly trashed the 5.56 in an OPEN competition, changed-out the barrels on their 4.85s and announced the adoption of what we now call the IW-80.
I was at Enfield in 1976, saw s/n 4 of the X-70 series and got to play with it for the best part of an hour. They asked if I had any suggestions, so I made a couple and they actually produced one of them...... which was later trashed because it cost too much. But it is a brilliant design in many ways and is entirely constructed of materials which are available in the British Isles WITHOUT importation of anything.
They learned their lesson well in 1940.
.
