Recently Texas State Senator Roland Gutierrez stated that an AR-15 Rifle could fire three times faster then his 9mm pistol. Outside of the fact he gave no number for how fast he can shoot his pistol, its highly improbable for a long rifle to have a higher rate of fire than a pistol.
First, is the problem of cartridge length, which dictates how much movement the bolt makes to extract a spent casing and then to load a fresh round. The 9mm pistol has to move 19mm back and forth to complete the firing cycle: An AR-15 rifle of 5.56 caliber has to move 45mm. To further document the point a MAC10 sub-machinegun firing 45ACP has a RPM of 1090: the 9mm version has a RPM of 1200, and the even shorter 0.380 cal MAC11 has a RPM of 1500.
The documented cyclic fire rate of a 5.56 caliber M16 military rifle is 750. I had to search for a pistol cyclic rate which I found for the full auto Baretta 93R: 700. The M16 is slightly faster but hardly three times. At the same time I am using cyclic fire rate which is impossible to achieve. The M16 in semi-auto mod can possibly empty two 30 rd mags in a minute for an achievable rate of fire of 60. To achieve the Senator's pistol rate of 20 (1/3) with my 9mm I would need just one mag change and not empty the second mag. Thus comes the real issue which is magazine size.
Then the senator makes a remark of some mythical- high lethality- ammunition for the AR15. This in stark contrast to the fifty plus years of ex-military personnel remarking on the 5.56 rd poor hitting power. It could be he is talking about the recently Army deployed M855A1 EPR ammunition which I doubt can be purchased legally. So poor has been the 5.56mm the Army is finally changing to a 6.8mm rd bringing its size halfway back to the 7.62 NATO rd used prior. But no one is claiming the 7.62 NATO as highly lethal.
First, is the problem of cartridge length, which dictates how much movement the bolt makes to extract a spent casing and then to load a fresh round. The 9mm pistol has to move 19mm back and forth to complete the firing cycle: An AR-15 rifle of 5.56 caliber has to move 45mm. To further document the point a MAC10 sub-machinegun firing 45ACP has a RPM of 1090: the 9mm version has a RPM of 1200, and the even shorter 0.380 cal MAC11 has a RPM of 1500.
The documented cyclic fire rate of a 5.56 caliber M16 military rifle is 750. I had to search for a pistol cyclic rate which I found for the full auto Baretta 93R: 700. The M16 is slightly faster but hardly three times. At the same time I am using cyclic fire rate which is impossible to achieve. The M16 in semi-auto mod can possibly empty two 30 rd mags in a minute for an achievable rate of fire of 60. To achieve the Senator's pistol rate of 20 (1/3) with my 9mm I would need just one mag change and not empty the second mag. Thus comes the real issue which is magazine size.
Then the senator makes a remark of some mythical- high lethality- ammunition for the AR15. This in stark contrast to the fifty plus years of ex-military personnel remarking on the 5.56 rd poor hitting power. It could be he is talking about the recently Army deployed M855A1 EPR ammunition which I doubt can be purchased legally. So poor has been the 5.56mm the Army is finally changing to a 6.8mm rd bringing its size halfway back to the 7.62 NATO rd used prior. But no one is claiming the 7.62 NATO as highly lethal.
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