Knapping flint, 21st Century style
Best Beloved was desolately rooting through our ammunition boxes. "Don't we have any armor-pirecing rounds?"
I briefly pondered the price and availability of an anti-tank rifle. A vintage British Boys anti-tank rifle (.55 caliber) or Soviet PTRD-41 (14.5 mm) could cost $10K, and ammunition would be bloody hard to find. A rifle that fires .50 BMG would cost half as much, and would be a lot more versatile and not require a crew of two to operate. Maybe I'll get to buy a fifty caliber rifle I thought.
"Do you want to shoot through a bulletproof vest or an armored vehicle," I inquired.
She deflected my question. "I don't see any incendiary rounds, either. You'd better get some."
When my wife tells me to purchase tools, weapons, motorcycles, or quality liquor, I don't ask questions. Her wish is my command in these areas: I kiss her and run to complete the task.
"Armor-piercing" is a vague and misleading term.
The Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA) defines “armor piercing ammunition” as:
“(i) a projectile or projectile core which may be used in a handgun and which is constructed entirely (excluding the presence of traces of other substances) from one or a combination of tungsten alloys, steel, iron, brass, bronze, beryllium copper, or depleted uranium; or
(ii) a full jacketed projectile larger than .22 caliber designed and intended for use in a handgun and whose jacket has a weight of more than 25 percent of the total weight of the projectile.”
Your dad's deer rifle has better penetration than most handguns, even if the handgun ammunition had a tungsten core. And you'll notice that the GCA doesn't mention rifle ammunition at all. Depleted uranium bullets with a tungsten core and hardened steel tip, here I come! There's a problem: many of the firearms I own are chambered in pistol calibers, including my so-called assault rifles*. The exceptions to this are my WWI and WWII Russian/Soviet infantry rifles and carbines, and my shotguns. Fortunately the military ammunition is still available in a variety of styles including tracers, incendiary, steel or tungsten core, and, although prohibited by the Geneva Convention and illegal here, explosive tipped. Literally anything is available for shotguns.
I passed on all the "exotic" shotgun shells that have their roots in African inter-tribal bush wars and are intended to do things much worse than kill. If I wanted to chop people to pieces, I'd be honest with myself and use a machete like we have since we discovered how to knap flint. I did select flechette rounds that fires dozens of little darts instead of round shot because the needles penetrate brush really well, and a discarding sabot flechette round that fires one hardened steel dart that will penetrate a couple of car doors or very light armored vehicles. And "dragon's breath" incendiary rounds. They throw a 5,000 degree wall of flaming metal 135 yards, and turn your dad's duck gun onto a flamethrower. It's like thermite for intruders.
*Yes, somebody makes a pistol that fires the same round as an AK-47. Whoda thunk?
I briefly pondered the price and availability of an anti-tank rifle. A vintage British Boys anti-tank rifle (.55 caliber) or Soviet PTRD-41 (14.5 mm) could cost $10K, and ammunition would be bloody hard to find. A rifle that fires .50 BMG would cost half as much, and would be a lot more versatile and not require a crew of two to operate. Maybe I'll get to buy a fifty caliber rifle I thought.
"Do you want to shoot through a bulletproof vest or an armored vehicle," I inquired.
She deflected my question. "I don't see any incendiary rounds, either. You'd better get some."
When my wife tells me to purchase tools, weapons, motorcycles, or quality liquor, I don't ask questions. Her wish is my command in these areas: I kiss her and run to complete the task.
"Armor-piercing" is a vague and misleading term.
The Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA) defines “armor piercing ammunition” as:
“(i) a projectile or projectile core which may be used in a handgun and which is constructed entirely (excluding the presence of traces of other substances) from one or a combination of tungsten alloys, steel, iron, brass, bronze, beryllium copper, or depleted uranium; or
(ii) a full jacketed projectile larger than .22 caliber designed and intended for use in a handgun and whose jacket has a weight of more than 25 percent of the total weight of the projectile.”
Your dad's deer rifle has better penetration than most handguns, even if the handgun ammunition had a tungsten core. And you'll notice that the GCA doesn't mention rifle ammunition at all. Depleted uranium bullets with a tungsten core and hardened steel tip, here I come! There's a problem: many of the firearms I own are chambered in pistol calibers, including my so-called assault rifles*. The exceptions to this are my WWI and WWII Russian/Soviet infantry rifles and carbines, and my shotguns. Fortunately the military ammunition is still available in a variety of styles including tracers, incendiary, steel or tungsten core, and, although prohibited by the Geneva Convention and illegal here, explosive tipped. Literally anything is available for shotguns.
I passed on all the "exotic" shotgun shells that have their roots in African inter-tribal bush wars and are intended to do things much worse than kill. If I wanted to chop people to pieces, I'd be honest with myself and use a machete like we have since we discovered how to knap flint. I did select flechette rounds that fires dozens of little darts instead of round shot because the needles penetrate brush really well, and a discarding sabot flechette round that fires one hardened steel dart that will penetrate a couple of car doors or very light armored vehicles. And "dragon's breath" incendiary rounds. They throw a 5,000 degree wall of flaming metal 135 yards, and turn your dad's duck gun onto a flamethrower. It's like thermite for intruders.
*Yes, somebody makes a pistol that fires the same round as an AK-47. Whoda thunk?