View Single Post
Old 08-13-2012, 17:42   #6
The Reaper
Quiet Professional
 
The Reaper's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Free Pineland
Posts: 24,780
The M855 Ball and M856 Tracer ammo is designed and spec'ed to be fired from a 20" barrel. The government also has regularly procured powder without requiring flash retardant, which could be an added cost requirement.

As you can note from the flash, the powder is not completely burned by the time the round exits the muzzle on the SPW, Para, or Mk 46 SAWs.

M4s, CQB-Rs, etc. have the same issue.

Good suppressors and muzzle devices will minimize this effect, but do add weight and length back onto the platform.

There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.

TR
__________________
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1910

De Oppresso Liber 01/20/2025
The Reaper is offline   Reply With Quote