#Flechette

Buy it at Ventura Munitions:
https://www.venturamunitions.com/precision-gun-works-12-gauge-flechette-ammo-5-rounds/

With Level IV armor rising in availability, calls for “overmatch”, and the increased presence of urban warfare, will designers be able to meet the requirements for future small arms? Forumgoer Poliorcetes raised this question in a discussion at the Military Guns & Ammunition forum:

In the coming decades, it is likely that one of the biggest challenges facing small arms ammunition designers will be solving the problem of how to deal with advanced body armors. The problem is already percolating to the surface, as Level IV body armor – which is immune to virtually all general issue rounds below .50 caliber – becomes more available and less expensive. Already, an individual can equip themselves with a full set of Level IV plates and a carrier for less than $1,000. As armor improves, it will only get lighter, cheaper, and more resistant to fire.

After World War II, US Army analysts determined that the effectiveness of the infantryman was not as closely related to their marksmanship discipline as had been previously thought. It seemed that instead, the random environmental circumstances and effects, plus the concealment and movement of the target, had much more of an influence on the probability of a hit than the ability of the shooter to fire his weapon with precision. With this knowledge in hand, arms designers in the West set out to improve the chances of the soldier to hit his target, and the most obvious solution was to simply send more lead downrange. The simplest way to do that was, of course, to create ammunition that fired more than one projectile per round.

In the last episode, we discussed how the most ballistically efficient projectiles are the longest, most slender ones, with the highest sectional density. This naturally leads to the idea of using a super long, rod-like projectile which would in theory have excellent ballistic characteristics… But there’s a problem with that: Unfortunately, modern rifle projectiles are spin-stabilized, and there’s a limit to how long of a projectile can be and still be stabilized by gyroscopic forces in that manner (that limit is about 7 calibers long in theory, more like 6 in practice). This means that to successfully stabilize the longest possible projectile with the highest possible sectional density, another method is needed. The most popular alternative – and the one used in arrows, darts, APFSDS tank projectiles, and today’s topic, flechettes – is fin-stabilization.

Quick: What’s the most advanced infantry rifle that was ever designed, but never got the chance it deserved? I’m thinking about a futuristic weapon from Central Europe that fired advanced, lightweight ammunition and featured a high rate of fire “hyperburst” firing mode. Care to take a guess?

This video is from 1997. It takes a look at different shotgun ammo and demonstrates it on assorted targets. Some of these rounds I have not seen before. Like the dustbuster made of compressed lead dust. The video recommends wearing eye protection. I would think one should wear a respirator when utilizing that round.

It’s often said that small arms technology has plateaued; that development of better kinds of weapons is essentially unfeasible for the moment, and that non-optic related small arms technology had pretty much reached its peak by 1965. It would be very difficult to cover the state of the art and how to improve it in-depth, so I won’t. Instead I want to take only a moment of our readers time to explore an often-missed element of firearms technology that is the key piece in understanding the technology “plateau” and how to end it.

Daniel spotted a very interesting auction at gunbroker.com. The rifle on sale was a Boys Anti- Tank rifle modified by TRW-SYSTEMS GROUP and rechambered for .50 BMG. It was intended to be used for .50 BMG flechette rounds.