RE: For All you 223 Fans
Would you take the shot with a .30-30? Both rounds have more or less similar energy depending on load. There are projectiles in bothcalibers that are designed to hold together/expand rather than fragment. (Edited here) I apologize, I mis-spoke abovedue to having acase of .22-250 on the brain today, when referencing the similarities in energy. Obviously .223 has a bit less energy than that. Sorry for the disruption. (Editing completed)
Just wanted to comment on the .223 being designed to wound and that being why the military chose it, yadda yadda. I've seen a few articles on why the military went away from the .308 and .30-06 for the primary weapons. The sources seemed to unanimously agree that the reasoning behind it was the fact that the average soldier just wasn't taking advantage of the long range the .308 afforded and the fact that full auto/suppressing fire was uncontrollable.For those reasons, the decision was made to switch to a round that was smaller and lighter which would allow for an individual to carry a lot more ammunition and have more control during burst or automatic fire. From what I've been able to gather, the tumbling effect was due to improper (or maybe proper if you want that terminal effect) twist rate versusbullet length/weight. With the proper twist, bullet constructionand bullet weight you shouldn't have to worry as much about the bullet bouncing around as penetrating and doing its job.