It's one of those things where it's hard to get ballistics across to people. In this case the British Army. The Mk VIII ammo was definitely more capable in range than the 7.62. But, it had already gone by the wayside in favor of "all getting on the U.S. page of ballistics. Unfortunately, hard headed minds on the U.S. side of ballistics don't seem to think range is necessary. Bullet efficiency is not the right answer, if they didn't come up with it.It is my understanding that the PH Model 85 was slightly more accurate than the AI design BUT the life cycle cost for the L96 was significantly lower. It is also worth bearing in mind that:
whilst the Model 85 appears to meet and exceed the requirements set out by Sgt. (ret.) Douglas Mark de Haas, former USMC Scout- sniper Instructor in 1968, time moves on.
I personally prefer the look and design of the Model 85 but it is mildly pathetic that the Brits firstly rebarrelled their sniper rifles to use a shorter-ranged cartridge (7.62x51 NATO, a VERY bad joke as a machine gun cartridge in the Falklands) and then bought a heavier rifle, chambered for that same shorter-ranged cartridge.
Then again, I learned years ago, THE ARMY DOES NOT HAVE TO MAKE SENSE.
I'm not following you on this. Maybe I'm thinking too literally, though. The T-65 didn't come out until after WWII. It's civilian parent cartridge came out after WWI (1920). At that point (1947), the 7.92x57IS was done. Not because it was ineffective or obsolete, it was basically outlawed as a military cartridge. MkVIII was used all the way up until the U.S. shoved the 7.62 down everyone's throat. That would be well into the 1960's.I have suspected for a while, that:
One of the main reasons for the U.S. to push the T65 (7.62x51) cartridge as the standard NATO round was the growing status of the 7.92x57IS sS load, adopted for machine guns in 1917 and standardised for all German use in 1935; as the de facto machine gun round in Europe. It was the standard machine gun round in all German-, Czech- and British-built tanks in WWII, was introduced to match the French Balle D round and provided impetus for development of the British MKVIII load (mentioned by @sandwarrior) which was adopted in 1939 (for belt-fed machine guns only).
I see what you are saying now. And I agree. Enjoying the discussion as well.My point, was that the heavy bullet sS 8mm load is probably the best rimless cartridge for a general purpose i.e. belt-fed support machine gun. If it ain’t broke don’t try to fix it.
I possibly should have mentioned that before WWII the 7.92x57 was also adopted by Poland and Turkey and that, for a while, the French had postwar construction Panther tanks equipped with machine guns using that load.
In short:
The Russians kept their 7.62x54 cartridge for support, i.e. belt-fed machine guns (and sniper rifles);
The Swedes adopted a special heavy 8mm (obviously inspired by the pre-WWI 8a64 Brenneke trials cartridge) for their belt-fed Browning machine guns;
The Yugoslavs kept using the 7.92x57 and (post-WWII) making the SARAC (MG42) machine gun;
The British could have changed over to the 7.92x57IS sS round with relative ease because the BREN was convertible, using Inglis breechblocks (as done for the 7.62 NATO conversions) and new barrels. The BESA gun was still standard for British tanks AND Browning .30 cal guns could easily have been converted.
I was not suggesting the adoption of full-power 8mm service rifles. We both know that the moves by Italy and Japan to adopt larger rifle rounds after WWI were principally to improve tracer burnout performance in belt-fed machine gun applications AND that the standardisation by the German Army of the sS load in 1935 caused problems for riflemen, i.e heavier recoil of their bolt-action rifles and higher ammo weight.
The Swedes appear to have made the better choice by adopting an 8mm round for belt-fed guns only but possibly could have done better by simply adopting the sS load for the 7.92x57IS chambering. The experiment with ‘98 action rifles, chambered to the new round to simplify MG crew ammo logistics, was a reported failure due to the even greater firing recoil of the Swedish cartridge.
Internal U.S. Army politics, however, got in the way of logical solutions to the NATO cartridge debates. Great discussing this subject with you.