The Firearm Blog has the details. Looks pretty damn cool considering the current cost of .223/5.56. I do have a few questions though.
1. Will it be reliable with steel-cased ammo? Wolf, Barnaul, and corrosive milsurp are the only 5.45x39 ammo sources I can think of and I doubt anyone's going to come out with 5.45 brass-cased ammo. That would likely eliminate a great deal of the cost savings over 5.56 anyway.
2. Corrosive Ammo? - I really wouldn't want to run corrosive milsurp 5.45 through the AR's gas system. I imagine cleaning would be a real bitch.
3.Will S&W sell just the 5.45 follower or will you have to buy expensive mags?
This seems very promising if it's reliable with steel-cased ammo and is priced right. I'm surprised I just heard about it now, since they apparently released the info back in March. If it works well this would pay for itself within a few thousand rounds, although if it's popular it'll likely drive the price of 5.45 up immediately.
3 comments:
I worry about ammo availability. its a neat little round ballistically- but if all the AK style rifles in this country didn't get a domestic producer to gear up and generate some brass and loadings for it- I am hesitant to think an AR platform will get ammo companies to gear up either.
Agreed, but prices are at ~$120/1K for milsurp and Wolf/Golden Tiger is almost half the price of 5.56 per 1K. You could stock up quite easily.
Of course I'd worry about the possibility of an import ban with an Obama Admin / Dem Congress.
I also wonder just how corrosive the milsurp stuff is. I think I'd stay away from it with an AR.
could try the nail test.
take regular galvanized nails, pull a round dump the powder, pop the primer, rub the residue on a nail head and see how long it takes to corrode.
I've never done it so I'm not an expert on it, but I think they tested it on 'box o truth'
tell ya what- I bet if ammo was available, it'd be a dandy cartridge in a light bolt rifle for mid range pest control.
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