Reply To: US Marine sniper team

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Gotta concur with @volleyfireandy – I have never heard of M16 or M16A1 and AK-47 / AKM modified to share ammo.

M-16 / AR-15 fires the 5.56mm NATO / Remington .223.  AK family weapons (at least the early ones) fired 7.62mm COMBLOC, broadly speaking a .30 caliber round much bigger than the 5.56.

The AK-74 does come out later, which fires a 5.45 COMBLOC round, as Soviets followed the general trend started by the M-16 for smaller rounds in assault rifles.   Closer, but still not compatible, and I don’t think any of these saw action in Vietnam.

What the NVA / VC vet might have been talking about is US squads who either carried captured AKs, or who preferred other “friendly” 7.62mm NATO weapons like the older American M-14 or Australian L1A1 / SLR (basically, their version of the FN FAL).

Relevant to this thread, a 7.62mm round is also fired out of that Marine sniper rifle. 😀

There was a serious debate about whether the 5.56mm was “punchy” enough to compete with the heavier 7.62mm round.  Spoiler alert, the answer is YES, mostly due to the 5.56’s muzzle velocity, but the 7.62mm clearly beats it out in accuracy over range.  But most of the firefights in Vietnam were very short-ranged anyway, so …

So this NVA / VC vet that @skiptotheend mentions – might have said something like “some American units fired weapons that used the SAME CALIBER as our AKs.”

I don’t think 7.62mm COMBLOC and 7.62mm NATO FMJ are interchangeable (different brass casings, primers, cartridge lengths, etc. – but they ARE the same size … of technically speaking, the same CALIBER.

By the way, that “is the 5.56mm heavy enough” debate rages to this day, as we see the recent trend in the new mid-range cartridges like the 6.8mm SPC (Special Purpose Cartridge) and the “680 Grendel” round.

Whatever’s fashionable at the time, I guess.  😀