The days of handloading may be numbered.

[Tacgunner]

Problem with poly-case ammo: if your military goes to poly-case, and you need a boatload due to war, can the manufactures make enough, or do your weapons still work with olde tyme brass cased ammo that your NATO allies have?

Bigger issue: your army goes to poly-cased "not 556" ammo and there is war demand. Your allies don't have that funny caliber just yet, and your one sole supplier can't meet demand. Your troops now have ammo shortage. But wait, you can get brass cased "not 556", but.....other suppliers need time to ramp up production. Still have ammo supply issues. For reloaders this is a non-issue, but for governments it's a major headache to switch calibers and types of casings.

[wanneroo]

Problem with poly-case ammo: if your military goes to poly-case, and you need a boatload due to war, can the manufactures make enough, or do your weapons still work with olde tyme brass cased ammo that your NATO allies have?

Bigger issue: your army goes to poly-cased "not 556" ammo and there is war demand. Your allies don't have that funny caliber just yet, and your one sole supplier can't meet demand. Your troops now have ammo shortage. But wait, you can get brass cased "not 556", but.....other suppliers need time to ramp up production. Still have ammo supply issues. For reloaders this is a non-issue, but for governments it's a major headache to switch calibers and types of casings.

Well yes, that's why the Brits didn't adopt another cartridge before WW1 and post WW1 to get rid of the ancient 303 rimmed and why we didn't go to 276 Petersen in the M1 Garand when we should have.

However the US military is going to move in the direction of these polymer composite cased rounds because

1. they want to deny the enemy reloadable cases or shrapnel for IEDs.
2. The current 5.56 will not defeat the new Russian body armor, they want a 6.5 bullet with more power
3. They want to cut the weight the troops have to carry

Yeah it's going to be a major change but necessary. The technology is now there to do these things so it's happening. It's not like 30 years ago when the US military was evaluating different rifle technologies like sabot rounds and caseless ammo that wasn't ready for prime time.

[dannyb]

Here is a link to a Wikipedia list of caseless-ammo firing weapons:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_caseless_firearms

The concept has been around for a long time. In the 1977 Craig Thomas novel Firefox (later became a Clint Eastwood movie), troops used the H&K G11 caseless rifle. The G11 actually never went much beyond the prototype stage.

[DucatiRon]

There was a caseless 22 around for a brief time that made it to retail for a short life span.

[wanneroo]

Here is a link to a Wikipedia list of caseless-ammo firing weapons:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_caseless_firearms

The concept has been around for a long time. In the 1977 Craig Thomas novel Firefox (later became a Clint Eastwood movie), troops used the H&K G11 caseless rifle. The G11 actually never went much beyond the prototype stage.

What the military is adopting isn't caseless ammo.

The German military issued them to a battalion sized unit for a year or so to see how they would perform operationally and they were prepared to adopt the G11 in bulk. The end of the Cold War meant many programs got cut and the G11 was one of them. Perhaps if the rifle had been ready in something like 1983 it would have been adopted. In the end as I recall one issue with the caseless ammo was problems with moisture in the field. The polymer composite cases are a good compromise keeping weight down but powder protected from the elements.

[Bang]

They are also easily policed up on the range as the head is steel and they can be collected with a magnet.

[gun-bunny]

...it looks like the days of reloading ammo as we knew them may look different in the future.

Enter technology; where there's a will, there's a way. 3D printers have come a long way in the last five years, who knows how prevalent or capable they will be five years from now. I can see printing up a batch of 6.5x casings and having to press or glue them to stainless steel case heads and rims. Not PLA, but there are plenty of other plastics out there to play with. Set it in the printer before bed and scrape off and remove the needed case hulls the next morning in your choice of colors.

[PAMedic=F|A=]

Problem with poly-case ammo: if your military goes to poly-case, and you need a boatload due to war, can the manufactures make enough, or do your weapons still work with olde tyme brass cased ammo that your NATO allies have?

Bigger issue: your army goes to poly-cased "not 556" ammo and there is war demand. Your allies don't have that funny caliber just yet, and your one sole supplier can't meet demand. Your troops now have ammo shortage. But wait, you can get brass cased "not 556", but.....other suppliers need time to ramp up production. Still have ammo supply issues. For reloaders this is a non-issue, but for governments it's a major headache to switch calibers and types of casings.

Fun Fact.

Nato uses wtf we them to. That is why the 45 ACP is still a nato round, even though only some elite US operators use it.
WE use all sorts of non-nato rounds, especially for snipers.
I've never heard of a soldier ever receiving NATO allied ammo, especially in theaters of operations. I know two mortars who have received Israeli Mortar rounds, but we use Israeli designed cannons.

The Army is going to 6.8mm.

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/bu...-bullets-68052