Available and shipping now from:
https://www.headstamppublishing.com/cold-war-battle
Sorry to our European folks, but the copies allocated to the European shipping center have already sold out, so we can only fulfill orders from the US.
The Battle Rifle is a class of infantry rifles inextricably linked to the NATO forces of Cold War-era Europe. After the Second World War, almost all Western powers moved to “full-power”, magazine-fed, typically select-fire rifles for infantry use, in the face of the Eastern bloc which adopted rifles chambered for “intermediate” cartridges instead. For several decades these heavy hitting Battle Rifles were predominant in NATO forces, evidenced by iconic designs like the FAL and G3. Though the anticipated climactic battles between NATO and the Warsaw Pact on the German plains never happened, these rifles did see combat outside of Europe in the world’s scattered revolutions and bush wars.
Small Arms of the Cold War: Battle Rifles of NATO features more than 70 different battle rifle models, divided into seven chapters by type:
Precursors – the development of the Battle Rifle from the Mondragon through the Second World War
FAL – FN’s iconic Fusil Automatique Leger, designed by John Browning’s protege Dieudonné Saive in Belgium
G3 – the roller-delayed blowback system designed by Mauser engineers in the late days of the Second World War, and its progeny
M14 – the updated American Garand rifle, and its cousins like the Italian BM59
AR-10 – Armalite’s futuristic wonder rifle that came so close to adoption and which ultimately created the AR-15
MAS – the French copy no one, and no one copies the French, especially in Cold War small arms
Others – lesser-used but still relevant rifles, from the E.M.2 bullpup to the SIG Stgw. 57 and the Danish LAR
This book series blends insightful history and commentary from Ian McCollum with the gorgeous photography of James Rupley to give readers insight into the whole class of Battle Rifles, which are surprisingly poorly documented today. Small Arms of the Cold War: Battle Rifles of NATO puts them all at a reader’s fingertips in more than 490 pages of luscious detail.
From the CBJ web page for 0.300 blackout, you can penetrate 12.7mm of 300RHA armor. https://cbjtech.com/ammunition/300-blackout-cbj/ With a 0.30-06 AP M2 round 18mm of 300RHA armor can be penetrated at about 20 m. For 7.62×51 CBJ round, you need a speed of about 900m/s to penetrate Level IV body armor. Level IV body armor is taken as 18mm of 300RHA armor. It is obvious that 300 Blackout CBJ will not penetrate level IV body amour at any range. The 7.62×51 CBJ round will be able to do it to up to 200m with a 24-inch barrel. When the 7.62×51 CBJ round is fire from a 16-inch barrel, the muzzle velocity will be approximately 950 m/s. The effective range to penetrate level IV body armor will be about 80 m. Firing the round at 80000 psi from a 16-inch barrel, the velocity will be in the region of 1050m/s, and it will penetrate level IV body armor at about 280 m. From a 24 inch barrel at 80000 psi, the muzzle velocity will be in the region of 1125 m/s and the penetration range will be extended to 375 m. You can check with CBJ.
And no, you can not hit targets beyond 300m. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hW3qQv8mOdY