I’ve been hearing a bit about this lately. I honestly don’t see much future in it, but let’s talk about it.
Sebastian points to a roundup and notes:
It would seem like the round is a good compromise between the .308, which requires a different lower receiver, and the 7.62×39 Soviet round…
That’s pretty much what I’m thinking, and I see where it has merit, but I have no idea how they’re going to sell hunters on this thing. Actually I’m not sure how they’re going to sell anybody on this.
If you follow the link to Sebastian’s place you’ll see he’s referenced Murdoc on the matter who has a nice round-up post which links to The Gun Shots and their nice comparison table between .308 Win and .30 RAR
The .30 RAR is clocking out at 2800fps compared to .308 which does 2700fps at the muzzle. Okay, that’s comparable, but they’re using a 125 grain bullet in the .30 RAR there, whereas the .308 is firing a more traditional 165 grain bullet. Naturally the lighter 125 grain bullet drops energy levels faster than the traditional 165 grain .308.
I’m just not seeing who in the world is going to buy this thing. I highly doubt that somebody looking for .308 performance in a hunting rifle is going to concern themselves with having a lower receiver that could take a .223/5.56 upper. If they wanted an AR platform rifle they’d just go with an AR-10. I can’t imagine anybody that currently has a .223/5.56 upper going for .30 RAR instead of the 6.8mm upper either.
I’m not seeing a lot of sales in their future on this one. Nobel effort, and all that, but I don’t know anybody that’d buy one.
