The M16 5.56 was a jungle gun adopted for Vietnam.
Works very good in jungles and heavy wooded forests.
The problem is many of the conflicts we have been in during the last 20 years have been in areas where you can see the enemy a half mile away and he
can see you.
In afghanistan the enemy has the advantage as they set just outside 5.56 range(and 203 range) and spray the troops from dug in positions. if they get
to much return fire they fade away.
Do this enough times and you are bound to hit someone.
In many cases air support does not help as the enemy is spread out so that its two or more bombs just to get one enemy.
Mixed units with both 5.56 and 7,62 weapons helps in some cases if used right. base defence
The US troops use of scopes on there weapons helps. but when you weapon does not do major damage when it does hit the enemy does not help.
308 just don't have the shock and awe of 30 06,
these is no difference between military 308 and 30-06 except case size.
30-06 military rounds had extra space the the case when less dense modern powders were used.
military 308 removes that unused space. and has the same powder load and bullet weight as the military 30-06 just a smaller case.
You can not compare civilian 30-06 with military 308 because the military 30-06 had to use the lighter 156 gr bullet because heavier bullets would
bend the feed rods on M1 Garands and later converted M!s that used the 308 round.
edit on 28-6-2011 by ANNED because: 17394765