#Cartridge

One of the common questions seen in hunting groups on social media is some variation on asking what caliber is best for X animal. It pops up everywhere and instantly results in dozens of opinions, all backed by the commenter’s claim of extensive knowledge and unbelievable experiencing bagging Boone and Crockett deer or Bigfoot. Here’s the thing about the perfect round: it doesn’t exist. Now, before you race to the comments section to explain how I’m wrong and clearly don’t know which end of the gun goes “boom,” allow me to explain.

Note: In this article, I call this mechanical feature “underlug”. However, this is an error. Several friends of mine and I have been discussing the mechanics of firearms operation for close to a decade now, and we misremembered the term “underslide” from a book by Brassey’s as “underlug”. More details on the error are available in the comments. Regardless, “underslide” is the proper term for this principle, not “underlug”.

Previously, we looked at the incredible damage and penetration caused by the US Army’s new M855A1 Enhanced Performance Round (EPR), thanks to a video published by William of the Wound Channel. What happens, though, when that kind of performance is scaled up to .30 cal size and fired from a .308 Winchester? William has us covered there, too:

I don’t consider myself more than a hobbyist when it comes to ammunition – I reload a little, play around in SolidWorks a bit, and read dry, dusty tomes full of other people’s hard work collating every minute detail about ammunition. I’m, frankly, an ammo nerd, but not really a true expert. Once I began writing, however, I found that very few people are ammunition nerds, at least in the same way that I am.

Back in March, I wrote a post on caliber configuration, or the effort to create and standardize effective and economical ammunition for infantry small arms. As mentioned in the post itself, it was written as a more in-depth companion article for a podcast recorded by Ryan Michad for a Gun Guy Radio segment at the Firearms Radio Network, which hadn’t been released at the time. Well, the show has now gone live for your hearing pleasure, so you can listen to me ramble on about military ammunition to your heart’s content!

This post was written as a companion to an upcoming Gun Guy Radio podcast, hosted by Ryan Michad. The discussion below will be expanded upon in the show when it’s released later this month, but for now, read on to learn more about the past, present, and future of infantry weapon calibers!

Kramer Defense, the company that introduced the 6.8x45mm UCC cartridge based on the .378″/9.6mm diameter case head of 5.56mm,  filed a patent on Aug 14, 2014 (approved Sept. 1, 2015) that has recently sent shockwaves through the 6.5 Grendel and cartridge wildcatting communities. The patent relates to bolts of larger diameter than the standard AR-15 bolt, coupled with cartridges of larger size and bore diameter. The most relevant section of the patent is below:

There are a lot of weird and wonderful kinds of ammunition out there, but a candidate for the title of “weirdest ammunition” might be the .58 Schubarth. Shaped like an egg on a diet, the .58 Schubarth was originally designed for an American break-action breechloading rifle design from the early 1860s. The round was recently mentioned – and pictures of it posted – at the International Ammunition Association forums:

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:

Nosler has announced what it calls the “most powerful commercial 7mm cartridge”: The .28 Nosler. Based on the same case as the .26 Nosler (itself based on the .404 Jeffery) , marketing literature for the round claims a performance of 160 grains at 3,300 feet per second from a 26″ barrel. From the press release:

Hold on the heels of the Remington .30 RAR announcement, sister company Marlin have announced the .338 Marlin Express. John Snow has the scoop:

Here is the opening sequence from the movie Lord of War showing the life of a cartridge from a Soviet factory to use in an African conflict.