From: Eric Murray <ericm@lne.com>
Date: Tue, 6 Jan 1998 00:33:44 +0800
To: ichudov@Algebra.COM
Subject: Re: .50 ammo
In-Reply-To: <199801050436.WAA21960@manifold.algebra.com>
Message-ID: <199801051627.IAA20090@slack.lne.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Igor Chudov @ home writes:
> 
> Tim May wrote:
> > Armor-piercing ammo, the common kind, is just steel-core ammo. This is
> > readily available in most calibers, esp. military calibers. (A less common
> > kind is "KTW" handgun ammo, which is under some recent restrictions. And
> > even less common, and almost certainly unavailable to the proles, are
> > "sabot" rounds, some with tungsten cores.)
> 
> By the way, I keep hearing about these sabot rounds but do not know
> what they actually are. Could someone please explain. Thank you.

A Sabot is a casing which goes around a bullet, allowing say
a .22 caliber bullet to travel properly down a .30 caliber barrel.
They're usually made of plastic and designed to fall away
from the bullet soon after it leaves the barrel.

It's a hack to get high(er) velocity out of an existing gun, or
to expand the range of available projectiles for a weapon.

I used to see Sabot rounds that were .22 caliber bullets
with a .30 caliber Sabot, in a .30-06 casing.  I think Remington
made them and they were available to the general public.
They were marketed for 'varmint' hunting, as an alternative
to buying a .25-06 or similar varmint rifle.


> > (There is little need for this, for even folks like us. We are not likely
> > to want to disable fleeing vehicles, etc. And even conventional lead-core
> > rifle rounds will cut through body armor easily, which is all I care about.)
> 
> Many people underestimate the power of most rifles.

Yes, and many people want to be able to buy a quick technological fix
to something (like shooting) which requires talent and/or practice to
become good at.

Just like buying a synthesizer doesn't instantly make one a musician, buying
a wonder gun doesn't immediately make one a crack shot.

Not that I'm accusing anyone in this discussion of having this tendency, just
pointing out that the best gun in many situations is the one that you
have run the most rounds through.

-- 
Eric Murray  Chief Security Scientist  N*Able Technologies  www.nabletech.com
(email:  ericm  at  lne.com   or   nabletech.com)          PGP keyid:E03F65E5