I figure the best caliber would be a 6.59mm, which is the average of the 5.56 and the 7.62.
I should remind readers that not only was the .30-06 M1 used, along with a goodly number of '03 Springfield bolt actions, they also used BARs, .45 automatics, .45 submachine guns and .30 caliber Browning machine guns, not to mention a few carbines liberally distributed.
There may be some truth to the assertion that it takes five or six people to take care of a wounded person instead of the (presumably) none that it takes to do something with a dead person. But the theory falls apart if they happen to be your own people instead of the enemy's. In any case, I don't remember them mentioning in basic training anything about "shooting to wound." But then I never had an M16 in the army. That had to wait until I was in the guard.
Soldiers have been complaining about the loss in stopping power in the standard army rifle when they went from .50 to .45-70 in 1873.
I should remind readers that not only was the .30-06 M1 used, along with a goodly number of '03 Springfield bolt actions, they also used BARs, .45 automatics, .45 submachine guns and .30 caliber Browning machine guns, not to mention a few carbines liberally distributed.
There may be some truth to the assertion that it takes five or six people to take care of a wounded person instead of the (presumably) none that it takes to do something with a dead person. But the theory falls apart if they happen to be your own people instead of the enemy's. In any case, I don't remember them mentioning in basic training anything about "shooting to wound." But then I never had an M16 in the army. That had to wait until I was in the guard.
Soldiers have been complaining about the loss in stopping power in the standard army rifle when they went from .50 to .45-70 in 1873.