#FrangibleAmmo

Winchester Ammunition have confirmed that they have been awarded a substantial $38 million contract to provide frangible 9mm ammunition for close-quarter battle and indoor/outdoor CQB training. The firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract awarded by the Department of Defense, on behalf of NSWC Crane, also has the option of of an expansion up to a value of just over $62 million.

Andrew of GY6 takes a look at DRT’s frangible ammunition in .308 Winchester. The bullet has some interesting results. He shoots some paper to check for groups then he shoots a pork shoulder with a piece of ballistics gelatin behind it. If you are squeamish about blown up pork meat then you may want to scrub past that section.  Then Andrew tests how well this ammo performs after going through hard cover like a concrete brick before going into ballistics gelatin. If you watch the slow motion you can see a piece of jacket manages to over penetrate the gelatin. I circled the piece of jacket in the screen cap below. Now he is reusing the same gelatin block from his first test fire so it may have been somewhat compromised. You can see the fragments of the first shot at the other end of the gelatin block right below the blue circle.

I like to shoot steel. There is something satisfying about the “ping!” when a round strikes it. What I do not like is the occasional splash. It happens when shooting handgun; sometimes the target is not angled enough, or there is a small divot in the plate, etc. We generally shoot from about 10 meters away (or more) and it is not like it happens often. But it always requires a check to reset the plate angle and inspect for damage. If only there was a way to avoid it altogether…