Thread: bullet help please

Greetings All,
The story about how the US got to the M2 30-06 cartridge may be of interest. The US adopted the 150 grain load in 1906 replacing the original .30-03 220 grain load. This followed the Germans adopting a 154 grain load for their rifle the previous year. The original claim for the maximum range of the 150 grain load was 4,700 yards. The US came late to WW1 woefully under prepared and with no machine gun. Initially US troops used either .303 Vickers or the French Hotchkiss machine guns which worked fine. Eventually Browning .30-06 machine guns turned up but were notably lacking in range. Later the maximum range of the early .30-06 was found to be between 3,300 and 3,400 yards or about 65% of what they had been using and more importantly what the Germans were using.
After the war a M1 .30-06 cartridge was developed with a 174 boat tail projectile and a maximum range of 5,500 yards. This round had more recoil and shot past the danger areas of many ranges so the US reverted to a 152 spitzer flat base projectile for shoulder fired weapons which is the M2 ball we have been talking about. Julian Hatcher covers this in his book Hatcher's Notebook for those interested.
Regards Grandpamac.