Comments by "Asbestos Muffins" (@AsbestosMuffins) on "Ask Ian: Why Not a Semiauto BAR Instead of the Garand?" video.

@Riceball01 tbf the way troops were trained and drilled back then did cause large amounts of wasted ammo when under pressure. at the battle of The Rosebud (the prequel to Little Bighorn) the american troops acting on instinct dumped ammo on the ground in front of them in anticipation of rapid fire only to have to leave that ammo behind due to rapidly being routed. they 'used' something like 25,000 rounds of ammunition for a few dozen dead on both sides. the native americans found piles of ammunition at the defensive positions after the army's retreat. Though that's all the fault of the generals designing the drill and training so its still on them not the troops doing what they were trained to do
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magazines were very difficult to reliably manufacture back then, and well mostly up to like the modern day, but clip systems were also substantially cheaper, lighter and easier to ship in that time so it made way more sense
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the armory system probably would have killed any proposal to lighten the BARs if it ever went anywhere. you just couldn't be a private company developing a battle rifle for the army at that point without that nat-sec apparatus behind you
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