Ask Ian - What Was the Best WW2 Rifle Cartridge?

"We gave everyone [thing], unless they were in the Marine Corps" seems to be a re-occurring theme within the US military.

A good number of the "overpowered," WWII infantry rounds you discussed had their designs rooted in the late 19th / early 20th century with the design philosophies and doctrine going back to the dawn of the smokeless powder era. At that time, infantry soldiers faced a threat not only from enemy infantry, but also horse-mounted cavalry. I do not recall where I read it, but it was some time ago, that one of the considerations in the design and adoption of the .30-03 and later .30-06 was ensuring the round would also be capable of defeating horse-mounted threats. Following the adoption of these rounds, mechanized warfare made rapid advances, and by the time WWII kicked off, horse cavalry was a fading memory, thus while the rounds can easily be perceived as excessively powerful in terms of their use in infantry rifles strictly against human targets, the doctrine at the time of their adoption demanded the rounds have capabilities above and beyond the mere infantry vs. infantry role.

If you like the idea of a BAR using a lighter round you might want to try to get a hold of one of the BARs that were made in Swedish 6.5.

I'm so glad forgotten weapons is one of the few channels that bother with closed captions, most big channels don't really bother but as someone who wants to pick up every bit of information in these videos, im really glad i can read along, i am very thankful

Do you have a Playlist for just your "Ask Ian" series? Would be cool so we could just listen to those. Love how your channel breaks down everything so organized. Might look into grabbing a mug or shirt, love your channel.

Of all the bolt action rifles i fired, i have to say my most favorite was the 6.5x55mm fired from a swedish mauser Gevär 96. Recoil was pleasant, accuracy top notch.

The US Army at the time would disagree with this. They were pretty enthusiastic about the ability of the 30-06 to penetrate trees and other forms of cover, and when you consider the amount of fighting that took place in the jungle, they may have had a point. Though the tendency of the actual soldiers to switch to carbines when they could would suggest that not everyone was convinced by Army dogma. I wonder if there are any statistics on the number of enemy casualties that resulted from fire through cover of the kind that only a rifle bullet could penetrate.

Really liking the short-form Q&A a lot better! Feels like something that I can enjoy in little chunks.

The Carcano 6,5 being dismissed over the old round nose bullet begs the question of whether they could have simply given the existing Carcanos a new spitzer pointed bullet? Well argued Ian. Thank you.

Training is another important factor supporting Ian's hypothesis. WIth mass mobilization nations would be eager to get conscripts and less-trained reservists into the line as soon as possible. I joined the Coast Guard in the last year the M-1 Garand was the service long arm (1970), so got a fleeting chance to qualify on that rifle in boot camp. (Small arms training got short shrift in the Coast Guard at that point. Things changed drastically over my 20 years and a bit.) Three rounds to sight in and then one qualification course, that was it. All I can say is that I was somewhat more lethal with the Garand than I was (at that point) with the Model 1911. My next trip to the range, several years later, instruction was still uninspired but the M-16 was a whole different experience. When you get to the point where the MG cannot carry the whole squad, jungle/forest/urban etc., having a rifle that the average recruit can be taught to shoot effectively becomes much more important.

My dad fought in Korea and Vietnam, he really liked the .30-06 over the later 7.62Nato/.308, in Korea they were standard issued AP ammo often instead of ball. He liked being able to shoot through things. He also liked having the API round. "Nothing says F you like throwing API at the enemy". He was also a fan on the .30carbine as well.

For bolt action - the Lee Enfield is an incredible rifle. The 303 round sure could be tweaked etc, but the rifle and round overall is an accurate, hard hitter and super fast action. I have owned many SMLE's from 1918 to 1952 - both Canadian and Aussie, and I have taken more game with this rifle than any of my other many super accurate and super expensive rifles - Weatherby, HS Precision, Remington et al...

Always gotta love some cheeky 303 Brit. Every rifle I've fired chambered in 303 was really nice.

To add to the "what if" category, what if the m1 carbine had been chambered in .30 Remington? Small light rifle chambered in what essentially is a rimless .30-30 Winchester. Which the .30-30 is close to .762x39 in ballistics. When upscaled to the cartridge it would've been basically a Ruger mini-14 sized. We would have had essentially a Ruger mini-30 in the 1940s.

The most finesse feeling gun I've ever shot was a 6.5 swedish Mauser my buddy's father bought for white tail hunting that was all original but every single component was refurbished and coated and it was a silly expensive process that he did specifically out of love for the gun and history of the cartridge but it is now ungodly smooth and just a joy to shoot

You haven’t mentioned the .303” cartridge at all It entered service before WWI was used in machine guns, aircraft, and rifles. It was used throughout WW2 in most British Aircraft, Heavy and Light Machine Guns, and Rifles It was still standard issue until the late 1950s It was loaded with 180 grain bullets, and had a compensation range of 500 yards Supplied in Tracer, Incendiary and Ball Highly accurate in skilled hands, easy to feed from clips, and unlikely to jam

Ian, I love, love, love the new Q&A format. While it was fun just putting on an hour and a half Q&A video, the new Ask Ian series is so interesting and accessible. Please make a channel playlist where you stick all them in so we can still binge them if we want!

Really liking these Ask Ian videos lately. Keep it up!!

This made me look into how 8mm Kurz preformed and honestly I can’t find anything about it on YouTube other than people shooting it and talking about it’s history and how cool it is. But I wanna see a comparison video of let’s say 8mm kurz, 7.62x39, and .300 blk supersonic.

Ask Ian has to be my new favorite section on your channel, always excited to listen!