From Mosin to AK, SLR to SA-85, M14 to M16, G3 to G36, the near entirety of the modern world has gone ever lighter, shorter, and smaller calibered. Why?

The death of the battle rifle and the rise of the assault rifle.

In the aftermath of WWII, the immediate need to re-tool and replace the weapons found to be obsolescent in WWII (bolt action rifles, machine guns too heavy to be carried, anti-armor weapons that could actually punch through armor etc etc) nearly EVERY one of the major powers

immediately set to work on developing an semi-automatic or automatic rifle. The Mad Minute of the British Lee Enfield might work if a wall of approaching Germans decided to keep moving as you dumped loosely aimed rounds towards their mass and a German K98 was still quite lethal

if your target wasn't moving and you were an excellent shot, but by and large, the age of bolt action rifles was dead before the war began (with the US entering with a semi-auto, Germany and USSR each developing and producing their own during the war) and that was ensured when

the war ended. Russia moved swiftly from the Mosin Nagant and its semi-auto sibling the SVT-40 onto the SKS self-loading rifle in the new 7.62x39, an intermediate caliber, before rapidly replacing it with the Avtomat Kalashnikov, the AK-47, the first general issue assault rifle.*

(*note GENERAL ISSUE, the StG44 was never produced in quantities large enough for that). We'll return to intermediate caliber and assault rifle in a bit. For the rest of the major powers, the debate over the next big caliber and subsequent arms choices for the post-war bloc of

allied nations in the west, eventually settled on 7.62x51 (worth noting, the excellent British .280 round was somewhat unfairly pushed out of competition by US manufacturers & defense officials). The US would adopt the 10.7lb 20rd box magazine fed M14, itself very similar looking

to the M-1 Garand it was replacing. The UK would eventually go with a variant of the Belgian produced FAL, again a 20 rd box mag fed weighing nearly 11lbs. The Spanish and Germans would adopt the CETME and G3, again box mag fed heavy lengthy semi-auto battle rifle.

Most of W. Europe eventually choose a variant (or home design) of either the FAL or G3 in the new NATO standard of 7.62x51. For those familiar with WWII rifle calibers, 7.62x51 (a 7.62mm wide projectile in a 51mm long casing) isn't far off the 7.62x63 of the Garand, 7.7x56 of the

Lee Enfield, 7.62x54 of the Mosin Nagant or 7.92x57 of the German K98. This full caliber round could reach out and still be (with a superb marksman) accurate/lethal at 800m, sometimes more. So what's wrong with it? Well there's nothing *wrong* with battle rifles. But there's lots

BETTER about intermediate caliber assault rifles/carbines. Let's go with the M-14 (I've picked enough on Brit guns) as our standard for here on out, it's a decent anaologue for the others in the same class anyway. This is a heavy gun. I have two in my basement, and while 10.7lbs

may not seem like that much of a big deal, hold one up in a shooting stance for a minute or so. It gets tiresome quick. Now try the same with a 36in long AR weighing in 3-4lbs less. Weight will always be a factor but we don't stop carrying machine guns because they're heavy, so

let's keep going. Recoil. This is serious and often overlooked. The recoil and eventually soreness and even pain of getting consistently smacked in the shoulder by battle rifle is serious. Recoil makes troops hesitate/flinch when firing which drops accuracy, and reduces

their willingness to continue to fire. An AKM retains some potent recoil, but it pales next to a full caliber rifle. An M16s recoil is so neglible you could place it on your forehead and fire without so much as a red mark on your head. Recoil also matters for the sake of you

reacquiring the target you just missed or your next target. Lower recoil and rise, means you can get your eyes back in the sights quicker.

Lengthwise, the M16 that replaced the M14 was almost 5in shorter. The SA80 family that replaced the Brit FAL was almost 15in shorter. The

ammunition carried by these new intermediate calibers (namely 5.56 and 7.62x39) was lighter, more of it could be carried, and took up less space, while remaining very lethal calibers. But the most important factor for this lighter, less recoil, easier to shoot, able to carry more

ammo rifle type was... the realization that a) combat does not generally occur at 800m and b) most riflemen whether poorly trained conscript, mediocre trained draftee, or well trained professional soldier *cannot* exploit a man sized target at ranges like that. A great deal of

the downsides to the full size battle rifle were driven by a need to produce a rifle that could reach out and kill at ranges that the unaided human eye is *generally* incapable of (exceptions exist). This is a truism as old as the gun, and one the military still grapples with now

But when you step back and review where most combat and more importantly, most killing/wounding, from rifle fire takes place the distances drop drastically and the need for rifles that can reach beyond that drops too. A US example of this is the Marine rifle qual for M4/M27 only

goes to 500 yards and that's meant to test your fundamental marksmanship not your combat skill. The Army rifle qual is out to 300m. These are against static targets that can't get up and move away or change direction. And even at these ranges, it remains a struggle for many to

achieve repeatable accuracy on targets so far away.

The battle rifles of past aren't completely gone, plenty of nations still keep G3s and FALs in their arsenal, the US military has a handful of M14s used to special purpose rifles, DMs, or ship duty. But they're been surpassed

by intermediate caliber caliber rifles that are more efficient in nearly every category that matters, particularly for line troops who are not generally the snipers their leadership may wish they were.

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