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Ultimate "Red Dawn Scenario" Caliber Conversion
It always seemed to me that it made sense to chamber a caliber swappable gun in the cartridge of the other world power most likely (however preposterously unlikely it is) to put troops on our shores. Battlefield pickup, right?
Well, China has a "decent sized" army, and it seems to me to be the only semi-antagonistic nation that could even propose to put boots on our soil. Granted, it would be difficult for them to do, but it just might not be impossible.
That aside, China's last few assault rifle designs have utilized a proprietary 5.8x42mm cartridge that they claim is superior to 5.56 and 5.45. I've thought of this before, but when I looked at the maximum loaded length for a cartridge in a STANAG magazine is around 2.25 inches. This cartridge is loaded to 2.3 inches. So I figured that was the end of that idea.
But I just noticed that magazines such as PRI's 6.8 allow for a max loaded length of 2.31 because of use of thinner steel and flatter welds. That's not much of a difference, but it would work right?
The next issue, obviously, is that as far as I know there is no manufacturer of 5.8x42 outside of China. While I'm sure that somebody could handle that, it'd still be expensive. That might be fine, however, since this would be the kind of conversion kit you stick in the safe or truck and hope to never need.
Ammo economics and scenario unlikelihood aside, would it be doable?
It always seemed to me that it made sense to chamber a caliber swappable gun in the cartridge of the other world power most likely (however preposterously unlikely it is) to put troops on our shores. Battlefield pickup, right?
Well, China has a "decent sized" army, and it seems to me to be the only semi-antagonistic nation that could even propose to put boots on our soil. Granted, it would be difficult for them to do, but it just might not be impossible.
That aside, China's last few assault rifle designs have utilized a proprietary 5.8x42mm cartridge that they claim is superior to 5.56 and 5.45. I've thought of this before, but when I looked at the maximum loaded length for a cartridge in a STANAG magazine is around 2.25 inches. This cartridge is loaded to 2.3 inches. So I figured that was the end of that idea.
But I just noticed that magazines such as PRI's 6.8 allow for a max loaded length of 2.31 because of use of thinner steel and flatter welds. That's not much of a difference, but it would work right?
The next issue, obviously, is that as far as I know there is no manufacturer of 5.8x42 outside of China. While I'm sure that somebody could handle that, it'd still be expensive. That might be fine, however, since this would be the kind of conversion kit you stick in the safe or truck and hope to never need.
Ammo economics and scenario unlikelihood aside, would it be doable?
