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Old March 21, 2005, 12:41 AM   #2
Crosshair
Senior Member
 
Join Date: December 16, 2004
Location: Grand Forks, ND
Posts: 5,333
Increasing the bullet weight would help, but the simple fact is that FMJ bullets perform poorly compared to other bullet types. If the jacket material was made sufficiently weak so it would readily fragment, then we may have a chance. However, the people in charge seem to be creaming themselves over how much steel the bullet can penitrate. This may be a usefull feature in the war against Skynet, but humans tent to be made of soft and squishy stuff . Therefore we should have bullets that function well against soft and squishy targets. The 5.56 relies on fragmentation for it's lethality. If it doesn't fragment,(Especialy with short barrel carbines) you essentially have a 22 Long Rifle on Crack.

I agree that the 7.62x39 round is superb against soft and squishy targets as well as penitrating hard cover like logs, concrete, etc. It doesn't rely on fragmentation to do it's damage. Instead it relies on the "bigger hole = bigger leak" method of killing. If it happens to fragment, all the better. The 6.8 SPC moves back to the "bigger hole = bigger leak" method as well as providing better long range performance as compared to the 7.62x39. I think the 7.62x39 would be a good choice for a service round. Combine it with a bullet that more readily fagments and you have a good all around assault rifle round.

But since we have the chance, we are designing an even better round (6.8 SPC) that will provide better long range performance in regular rifles as well as better lethality in short barrel carbines. Our current problem of lethality would be quickly solved if we adopted a hollow point, soft point, or similar bullet type that would more readily expand and fragment.

Just to take care of the "The Geneva Convention bans HP bullets" people, let me say this.

The Geneva Convention doesn't ban HP bullets, the Hague Convention of 1899 banned HP and other types of expanding bullets. The United States NEVER signed, nor ratified that convention. Legaly, we could use HP ammo tomorrow if we wanted to.
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