Tuesday, March 24, 2015

From Herschel Smith: Army And Marine Corps On M855 Ammunition

So in summary, the SOST is much like the .223 pointed soft point for game hunting, except that it has a copper shank. If a reader would like to weigh in on the effects of the copper shank, please do so (in an educated fashion – and do not allow this to become yet another worthless argument over 7.62 v. 5.56). Finally, don’t forget the main reason for the lethality of the 5.56 mm round, which is the fact that it is frangible and immediately fractures into pieces leaving multiple tracks through ballistics gelatin. See the excellent paper Small Caliber Lethality: 5.56 mm Performance In Close Quarters Battle. It appears that the Army has forgotten the simple things.

3 comments:

Sean said...

Boss, the Army never forgets the simple things. They want you, unless you're captured, hurt, or in some kind of trouble.

Anonymous said...

The new M855A1 round operates at around 60,000- 65,000 psi and has 3 times the gas port pressure of the M855.
In my opinion it is going to tear up any guns running it.
No U.S. based companies would provide the propellant for this round. St. Marks (which I believe is a Swedish Company)was providing the propellant for it.

Anonymous said...

Another component of ammunition that HAS to be sourced overseas. My, my - but do we know how to secure our future war-fighting capabilities.