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| Science & Technology |
| New "Green" bullets for Army |
| 2011-05-05 |
| The most familiar item in the Army's arsenal is getting an upgrade. The M855 bullet was designed in the 70s -- and has been in use since then, despite some complaints from soldiers that it's often less than effective. The new M855A1, which the Army will be demonstrating Wednesday at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, is deadlier, faster, and may soon replace its older cousin. The new ammunition is notable for being "green" for one thing; it's lead-free, meaning the new ammo is environmentally friendly, the Army said. The military began providing the lead-free round last June to U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan. It's good to know the creatures in the North Arabian Sea will not be harmed from dining on UBL. |
| Posted by:GolfBravoUSMC |
| #21 Will do Canukistan Sniper. Been everywhere but Winnipeg. Enjoy flying in your nice country. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2011-05-05 23:33 |
| #20 Thank you AP. |
| Posted by: Whiskey Mike 2011-05-05 17:40 |
| #19 Alaska Paul . . . . if I could have only one chambering it would be the 7mm Rem Mag. Not found anything else in 52 years of high- powered rifle shooting with more versatility/hitting power. Come visit Winnipeg some time and we'll swap shooting/hunting stories. |
| Posted by: Canuckistan sniper 2011-05-05 15:25 |
| #18 Whiskey Mike----That is a neat thing you did with the varying the density of the core. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2011-05-05 14:58 |
| #17 When going after grizzly bear or moose, I used to load Nossler partition bullets, where the copper partition held the base lead in and the top half of the lead went into the spitzer part of the jacket. These rounds mushroomed well, and lead retention was good, so after the round mushroomed, it was like a battering ram. They were twice the cost of Hornaday bullets. I shot a grizzly in a cornered situation from 30 ft with a 175 gr Nossler in a 7 mm rem mag. It rolled this big animal right over when hit in the chest. He ran away into the brush. I waited 2 hours then my dog and I tracked him. Found him dead about 100 yards away. When I gutted and dressed him, I found that I hit him in the heart. Scared the sh*t out of me when I saw where he went after the heart hit. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2011-05-05 14:37 |
| #16 I have made similar rounds. I can get the bullet to range in mass from 105 grains to 260 grains in the exact same jacket, varying just the powdered metal core. That is for a .308 x 24mm long bullet. This is an interesting technology. You can grade the density, partition the density, etc. |
| Posted by: Whiskey Mike 2011-05-05 12:15 |
| #15 Each bullet is "green" because they all have GM bamboo seeds in them, designed to sprout when exposed to warm, salty, brackish liquid, and can grow up to a foot a day. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-05-05 12:13 |
| #14 The obvious choice for next-gen bullets is depleted uranium. Lots of M for the old 1/2 MV**2, plus the initials DU alone will make heads explode at 1,000 meters without even firing the dang thing. I'm sure there is no truth to the rumor that the DARPA poindexters are developing a bacon-flavored Hydra-Shok round. None at all. No, really. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2011-05-05 11:48 |
| #13 So we're basically going to be replacing cheap lead with expensive copper. Who's supposed to be bleeding out from this, the enemy or us? |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2011-05-05 11:43 |
| #12 The core is tin and bismuth. I wonder if these bullets mushroom. The copper Barnes bullets mushroom into big sharp petals, which act like the blades of a blender when entering the body cavity. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2011-05-05 10:35 |
| #11 Full Melon Jacket |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2011-05-05 10:09 |
| #10 "Eat hot copper jacketed steel, heathens!" It just doesn't have the ring. |
| Posted by: Fred 2011-05-05 09:49 |
| #9 I thought subsonics were green? These are for punching thru vests? |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2011-05-05 08:25 |
| #8 It is green because of a chemical interaction between the bullet and the pork based lubricant that allows it to travel faster down the barrel. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2011-05-05 08:16 |
| #7 Now if it had a bacon core.... |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2011-05-05 06:51 |
| #6 Danke Whiskey. But it is Green, nmu! |
| Posted by: gr(o)mgoru 2011-05-05 05:44 |
| #5 While I'm not at all a fan of banning lead and it is useful stuff for bullets and shotgun pellets, some of the solid copper and copper/tungsten stuff out there is pretty awesome stuff. This year for deer hunting season I loaded up some Barnes Tipped Triple Shocks on a lark and had the chance to try them and I would say they work just as well as the bonded lead-core/copper jacketed Trophy Bonded bullets I had been using, both for accuracy and for lethality on CPX-2 sized game (IOW, human sized). One drawback of all copper or copper/tungsten core is the cost, quite a bit more than all-lead or even the thin copper jacket/lead core bullets like most militaries and hunters have traditionally used. For a hunter and occasional target shooter this isn't too daunting but for the millions of rounds the military must fire to stay sharp it might be. |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2011-05-05 05:41 |
| #4 Only the copper alloy jacket touches the rifling. |
| Posted by: Whiskey Mike 2011-05-05 04:05 |
| #3 The new ammunition is notable for being "green" The new 62-grain (4 g) projectile or bullet used in the M855A1 round has a copper core with a 19-grain (1.2 g) steel “stacked-cone” penetrating tip. Rather hard on the rifling, I should think. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2011-05-05 02:40 |
| #2 Personally I'm more concerned about the lack of international Pert consensus as per "PEAK OIL/ENERGY/RESOURCES", e.g. GULF OF MEXICO + 2040-2070. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2011-05-05 02:28 |
| #1 The new round has other benefits. Fear not the press and PR-touted greeniness; although it was a factor, increased lethality is the major upside. A lemonade from lemons story. |
| Posted by: Whiskey Mike 2011-05-05 01:44 |