U.S Military Small Arms Ammo

[HEMI®Dart]

I was half asleep this morning about 4:00 am listening to the History Channel on TV. It was a show about the different types of cartridges and bullets for small arms.



They were talking to a guy that experiments with the Military cartridges, and he says they can only use Full Metal Jacketed bullets in the US Military's weapons. For the sole reason that the Geneva Convention? says we must use the most humane and non-tissue destructive bullets during wartime?



So a Jacketed Hollow point is out of the question, even though it would have more stopping power than a FMJ bullet.



I was blown away when I thought I heard this. I never knew that.



Or was I dreaming?

 

[The patriot]

No, you werent dreaming.

There are other ways of making the bullets more effective.

Hollow cavity at the front of the bullet, but still in the FMJ profile.

The Russians do/did this, but we dont.

"Overstabilization" of the projectile... this will cause the projectile to alomst explode on impact. We do this to some extent, but the real reason was because of the longer tracers wouldnt stabilise in the 1/9" twist bbl.

Eric

 

[Peter Campbell]

At a military shooting competition we used "reject" FMJ rounds. There was a small hole in the tip where the brass was not spun closed. Could "practice" with the free ammo as much as you liked, just could not take any- it all had to be consumed right there at the military firning range.

 

[XJSuperman]

Some of the civilian ammo companies are starting to "fill" their hollowpoints.

They don;t use a full "metal" jacket BUT fill the hollowpoint with a polymer (plastic) subtance. Supposed to provide better velocity and not hang up as much as regular hollowpoints.

As far as shooting it is supposed to act as a FMJ... but then on impact you get the knockdown of the hollowpoint as the polymer allows for full expansion.

 

[KBennett]

One theory I have read is that in a battle if you wound the enemy it takes several soldiers to help the wounded and none to help the dead. This takes more soldiers off the battlefield.

If you are fighting at close range I would want a FMJ . 45ACP because stopping power is exactly what it was designed for. Long range a . 223(5. 56 NATO) will work just fine to wound really bad especially if it starts tumbling.

For long range sniping I will take a 30-06 or 308.

 

[JConley]

The 308 long range ammo M-118 LR used by the sniper teams uses Sierra 175gr match bullets. Its open at the tip of the bullet, but its not classified as a hollow point. The old M-852 ammo used for national matches, used 168 grain match bullets. It was marked "Not for combat use", but things have changed, and you can use either of these for combat. The open tip is due to the manufacturing process, not because they wanted to make hollow point ammo. I dont think it really matters with a 308. If you get hit with a 308, you are going down regardless of the bullet tip.

 

[JohnE]

I caught part of the show. Missed the part about Geneva Convention though. It only makes sense with the societies worried about carrying off the wounded.

I remember the same reasoning many years back on local police force using . 38 versus the more popular . 45 or stop versus kill. Funny, every police officer I know has told me "if you use lethal force, make sure it is lethal".