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PO1 Tony Holland Not my area of expertise either Tony, but very interesting about the history of the AR-15 - the real story is how do we keep it out of the hands of deranged individuals that shouldn't be allowed to purshase the AR-15? That is just my opinion Tony - may not be others! Thanks

SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSLSMSgt Minister Gerald A. "Doc" ThomasLTC Stephen F.SGT David A. 'Cowboy' GrothSFC George SmithCPT Jack DurishSSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4"PO1 William "Chip" NagelTSgt Joe C.SP5 Mark KuzinskiMaj Marty Hogan MSG (Join to see) SSgt (Join to see) LTC Stephen C. LTC (Join to see) SN Greg Wright Capt Seid Waddell Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MSSSG Warren Swan

Thanks for sharing PO1 Tony Holland. While many rounds were designed to rip through the body of an opponent, the M-16 .5.56 AKA AR-15 was designed to penetrate and ricochet when it hit a bone so that a small entry wound would yield a lot of damage inside the enemy soldier.
Thanks for mentioning me @COL Mikel

"Study after study seemed to point to the specifics of the 5.56mm cartridge as a major limiting factor. In 2006, the Joint Service Wound Ballistics–Integrated Product Team released a report that suggested a projectile between 6.5mm and 7mm was the ideal bullet size. Three years later, then-U.S. Army Major Thomas Ehrhart, wrote a now often-cited paper at the service’s Command and General Staff College, which referenced this and other research and called for a new, standard infantry weapon.

“While the infantryman is ideally suited for combat in Afghanistan, his current weapons, doctrine, and marksmanship training do not provide a precise, lethal fire capability to 500 meters and are therefore inappropriate,” Ehrhart contended. “There are several ways to extend the lethality of the infantry… A better option to increase incapacitation is to adopt a larger caliber cartridge, which will function using components of the M16/M4.”

In Afghanistan more so than Iraq, insurgents employed Soviet-era 7.62x54mm SVD rifles, RPGs, recoilless rifles, and mortars and seemed to routinely out-range American squads armed primarily first with M16s and then the shorter M4 carbine. Though handier for close-quarters combat and when getting in and out of vehicles, the M4’s 14.5-inch barrel only reduced the terminal impact and effective range of the 5.56mm bullet.

Both the U.S. Marine Corps and the Army, along with special operations forces, initially built specialized designated marksman versions of the weapon, before beginning to reissue larger 7.62mm NATO rifles. In addition, the Army obtained a number of Mk 48 Mod 0 machine guns, a 7.62mm relative of the 5.56mm M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, and sent them to units Afghanistan."

http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/10147/the-army-is-once-again-looking-to-replace-the-5-56mm-cartridge