For other competitions besides Highpower, there are Run n’ Guns, Quantified Performance, Tactical Games, DMR matches, etc. Lots of people shooting 5.56 out to mid-range and using mag-length cartridges. Frequently 70-77gr.
Outside of competition, lots of people are taking courses like those offered up at Ridgeline in NH for scoped carbines. Or just setting up targets in farm land or BLM land.
But while you’re at Perry, go talk with some of the AMU guys about their SDM course during GWOT. Lots of guys put 62gr 5.56 on e-type silhouettes out at 600 yards. Granted, that was a lower hit percentage than with Mk262… because 62gr FMJ. But the hits were still made and got better as students learned the wind holds. Using free floated 20” Douglas match barrels helped.
Now, when shooting mag length 5.56 at 600 in wind, sure you may not get a first round impact on a silhouette target. But you can easily adjust on a second shot.
Yes, in Highpower every inch of POI shift due to miscalculated wind or crazy crossing gusts in Ohio can mean lost points, so yeah eeking out max wind resistance in your cartridge is the best choice. But for the rest of the applications for 5.56, 77gr SMK is still very very capable of making reliable and repeatable hits on target at 600. What a good SD does is take elevation error out of the equation so you can focus on windage and solid fundamentals instead of trying to figure out if a low or high shot was the ammo or bad range estimation.
Edit: I would say there are more people shooting 5.56 at newer gas-gun focused matches, scoped carbine style courses, and just out in BLM land around the country than people competing in Highpower. Highpower is the minority, though I wish it were more popular.
