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Finally, the ordnance departments were divided into three main groups with regard to size of bullet and power of cartridge. First, the small bore proponents were represented by the 6.5x50mm Japanese and the 6.5x55 Swede. (To this group may be added the 6.5 Mannlicher types as used by Austria and Greece but which were not included in this test series.) Next in line came the 308W/7.62x51 group, represented by the .303 Brit, the 7.5x55 Schmidt-Rubin and the 7.65x53 Argentine. All use 174-grain bullets at close to 2,550 fps.

Next the big boys on the block checked in with the 8x57 Mauser, the 7.65x54 R and the .30-06. They all step up a rung with more bullet energy than the other two groups.

The tests I ran showed that as issued they all could be made to shoot well enough to meet minimum “match rifle” standards, and with a little tuning some managed to afford a number of pleasant surprises. Issue ammunition, with two remarkable exceptions, was a disappointment, yielding a dull four minute of angle average. This no doubt was the result of economies of production and quality control, which were in keeping with a planned “dispersal on target” which would prevent an excited and stressed soldier from emptying his magazine into one small spot on the battlefield when the objective of his superiors was that he “spread it around and share it a little.”