#Bullet

The Firearms History blog has posted an anthology of sorts of different videos dealing with modern cartridge manufacture. The manufacture of ammunition is the critical characteristic of modern small arms – huge advances in technology would today be possible, such as caseless rounds or flechette projectiles – if not for the need to create billions of rounds of ammunition per year to feed millions of rifles in service around the world. Since this is the most important limitation government small arms technology, it is worthwhile to get a firm understanding of it. Below are some of the videos embedded in the post; first, a World War II-era short detailing .303 British ammunition manufacture in South Africa. The methods show are dated (especially the manufacture of cordite propellant), but much of it is still current:

The flight of a rifle bullet may seem to be a simple thing – it flies through the air at high speeds, steadily losing velocity and energy until it either impacts the dirt or simply falls out of the sky. In fact, though, there is a lot of complex fluid dynamics to absorb to fully understand the flight of a bullet through the air, especially as that bullet drops below Mach 1.3 (about 1,450 ft/s) and encounters the transonic flight regime. To help us understand what happens better, we’ll turn to an instructional video from the 1950s from Shell Oil; while it covers the flight of then-high-performance aircraft, not bullets, the basic principles still remain the same. I highly recommend my readers watch the video first, before reading my discussion of it:

While digging through the IAA Forum (an excellent resource for the cartridge collector) archives for data on the 7.65 Argentine, I came across these two threads chronicling two separate instances of spotter ammunition detonating while using an impact puller to remove the bullet! Yikes!

One of the great innovations in the past 50 years pertaining to the study of what projectiles do in flight and why is the advent of ultra-high-speed photography – the kind that can keep a rifle bullet in focus. This sort of endeavor is not for the novice photographer, but the results speak for themselves in terms of empirical and artistic quality.

Nathan at Aimed Research, who specialize in ultra-high speed gun photography services and equipment rental (I did not know this was even a thing … I have lots of ideas for posts with this kind of equipment), sent us this photo of a .243 bullet. Nathan wrote …

This is a bullet shaped mini black powder cannon. I am not quite sure why they call it a mug. I suppose it is somewhat mug sized.

A Russian inventor emailed me photos of his patent-pending bullet design. These bullets are loaded in 12.7×108mm cases.

From a photo gallery at Wired magazine …

The CompBullet is an interesting bullet made by an Italian company. The bullets, made from a solid copper alloy, have vents machined into them. According to the company, these vents reduce friction by allowing gas to lubricate the bullet as it passes through the barrel and then act as a muzzle brake as the bullet exits the barrel. They apparently also reduce smoke, increase velocity (a rocket effect as they leave the barrel) and reduce muzzle flash. In other words, they are miracle bullets.

20 year old Briana was shot at by her former boyfriend. The bullet, reported as “.40 caliber” presumably .40 S&W, passed through her windscreen and hit her at the back of the skull. Her hair weave prevented the bullet penetrating her skull. Her only injuries were minor and she never lost consciousness.

These Varmint Grenade, made by Barnes are amazing. I am going to have to try them out in the near future 🙂