US Soldiers want more powerful ammo [Archive]

KG_Panzerschreck

06-03-2007, 07:28 PM

You can easily increase the power of a round by changing the Casing, the Primer or by adding a few more grains of powder. Im sure it comes down to money. You cant have millions of rounds being made with upscale match grade Primers, heavier alloyed Casings {Nickle for one} and individually weighed {You'd be surprised how many of the exact same bullets can weigh differently, as much as a couple of grams, and that effects accuracy} and match graded Bullets. {Each bullet is weighed and all the bullets of the same exact weight are used to produce indivual lots of match grade ammo} By adding just 2 to 5 grains of powder, or changing powder types, can vastly increase the hitting power of a bullet. But the trade off is in accuracy. The more powerful a bullet becomes, the less accurate it becomes as well. If you have ever heard the term - "Work up a load", they are refering to the process of figuring out how much powder to add to a round to get the best accuracy and the highest power.

Then you have the other problem that every rifle likes a different load. If you take two exact rifles of the same caliber, model & manufacturer, and you worked up a great load for one, odds are it wont be as great in the other one. Thats why military ammo isnt made in a match grade process for standard infantry rifles like the M-16 for example. Its made to a standard to produce a slightly toned down round that will give reasonable accuracy and power from all rifles of the same caliber.

Now on to bullet weights. If you ever walked into a sporting goods store and saw different weights for the same round, this is what im refering to. A heavier weighted bullet of the same calliber as lighter weighted bullet will give you completely different characteristics between the two. For example lets take the .30-06 round thats used in the M1 Garand and M-14. Lets say you had a 125 grain bullet & a 150 grain bullet. The 125 grain bullet will have a longer effective and overall range to it than one of 150 grains because the bullet is lighter and flies faster plus it will be spinning faster because it is lighter. The 150 grain bullet will have more stopping/killing power to it because it weighs more and will not break up on impact as easily as a lighter bullet will. Also as rule of thumb the heavier a bullet is, it is less accurate than a lighter bullet of the same caliber. This isnt the case in match graded ammo because the accuracy will be "Dialed in" with the amount and type of bullet {Frangible, Hollow point, Full Metal Jacket, Lead ect...}, gunpowder, casing, and primer type that is used.

Now lets talk about Calibers. The age old argument that has been around since the first rifles were around. Overall bullet size is the most important factor when your talking stopping/wounding/killing power. A 7.62mm{.308 cal} bullet has a much higher stopping/killing power than a 5.56mm{.223 cal} bullet which has a tendancy to wound more than a 7.62mm bullet. Why is that? Because the 7.62mm bullet weighs more and is flying slower than a 5.56mm bullet which flies faster. Also the other major importance to bullet weights is that a heavier bullet has more stopping/killing power because it is traveling slower, has more mass, and wont break up on impact {With bone} than a faster, lighter, and more easily broken up bullet like the 5.56mm. Thats the reason why in the Civil War there were so many amputations{It is NOT because Doctors back then were idiots, a common misconception}. The very large and most common caliber was .55 cal, .05 of an inch bigger than the .50 cal HMG. When that bullet hit bone it pulverised the bone into splinters and kept its mass because it was slow and very heavy.

And finally you have the amount of ammo that can be carried as a standard load by combat infantrymen. A bullet with a longer casing and heavy bullet takes up more room in a soldiers ammo pouches than a smaller one. When comparing the 7.62mm round to the 5.56 round, a soldier can cary alot more clips with 5.56mm rounds than he normally could with 7.62mm rounds. Thats one of the main reasons the USA and other countries switched to the lighter rounds, more ammo carried.

As far as im concerned, this is just my opinion of course, the USA should never of gone with the M-16{a great weapon no doubt}. We should of stayed with the M-14 and removed the full-auto function from it. I have always been of the school that says less, heavier, more accurate rounds than a "Spray & Pray" mentality.