It had been a while since I read in the American Rifelman article about this, but I think the Army team was using either a 70 or 74gr 223 hand load but they would have to hand feed them one at a time. Sort of defeats the true spirit of the all around military rifle.
If you are going to shoot 1,000 yds in a class where it is a standard mil rifle then the same gun should be able to shoot 200, 300, 500 and 1,000 with out mod and handloading one at a time. I think this a strech of the true sprit of an all around military rifle like the M-14 or a M1 to let them take a M-16 that has to be modified from here to next week to shoot the longrange leg and call it a standard military rifle. Besides the free float handguard and the special barrel they have to be hand loaded one round at a time because they will not fit in the magazine. If all issue guns were in that configuration then fine. The way they have to trick out an M-16 to do the long range leg I think it is not fair, right or in the true spirit of the high power match.
Why are there so many articles in the current gun magazines about soldiers over there now wanting something for the 300 to 500 meter range with more knockdown power? Why the 6.8 SPC? Why do I keep seeing where they are digging around for M-14s, rebuilding them and shipping them overseas as fast as they can?
I love my AR-15s but unless it comes in 308, I would rather shoot my M1A at anything that far away. A 300 Win Mag bolt ain't too bad either.
There are plenty special configurations for the AR from rimfire 22 to 50BMG, but in a standard A2, A3 or M4 configuration I do not think it is the all around weapon, and is weak at long range.