Posted on 10/12/2002 11:13:14 AM PDT by icantbleaveit
Ex-TopSecret "Silent Cartridges" of USSR & Russia.
They have no give-away muzzle flash when fired - and there is no recoil. The bullets are designed to be used in rifles CIA armourers have developed. They have twice the range of ordinary sniper weapons and a killing accuracy of a mile.
http://www.world.guns.ru/ammo/sp-e.htm
It shoots simultaneously out both ends! </silly>
This thing works on the "pinball machine" principle. A piston flies forward and whacks the rear of the projectile, sending it down the barrel. Given the force of that shove and the weight of the projectile, it could pack quite a bit of energy and be nearly silent.
There is no propellant in the projectile, therefore no rocket-like sound. A relatively heavy bullet is used in order to capture useable energy from the design. It really does produce no flash, since the gunpowder detonation is contained in the case. Small Arms Review magazine had an article about this ammo, and the fact that each round would technically be subject to BATF's regulations concerning sound suppressors.
It has nothing to do with the MD shooter, though... wrong caliber. A 235-grain .224" diameter bullet would be about two inches long!
nope their all trying to catch this idiot with a high powered rifle
then they aren't too good at being "an expert"
The piston though is a seal all it does is retain the gases in the brass. It must leak though, else there would be a really loud pop when the bullet exited the bore, because of the vacuum behind it. Also if it didn't leak down quickly, the brass would likely burst upon extraction. Also the entire acceleration would have to occur in less than an inch. That requires explosive, not propellant. The range on this handgun round is ~30yds.
These are basically low power rounds similar, but less powerful than subsonic rounds. They mention the longer range version is actually a subsonic rifle round with a silencer and are comparing it to handgun rounds. They're not to clear with their separation of topic there.
Like somebody else said, all the shots were in the 150 yard range. The NRA approved High Power Match (Service Rifle) competition starts at 200 yards standing!
I am a lousy shot, and I can still score 155 1x (20 shots) or better standing position, at 200 yards.
At 150 yards, with a scope and a rifle combo that was sighted in properly, these are easy shots.
I always thought is was real neat to see the bullet wake. It gets real warm in the summer months here and you can easily see the bullet cut through the mirage on its way to 600 yards. I never really believed how much of an arch there was in a shot until I saw it for myself. It is a lot more like a softball pitch/lob than the straight line all the movies make it out to be. It is anything but flat!
My limited understanding is that most breechs are designed to withstand a certain max pressure. That pressure is far lower than you would expect just because as the bullet starts traveling down bore, the pressure is being relieved.
If you want to prove your theory, do this [DO NOT TRY THIS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE]...take a patch or wad and stick it half way down your barrel. Now, chamber a round and pull the trigger**. IF you survive, let us know.
Sam Fadala, in his BlackPowder handbook, does an excellent job talking about bore obstructions, pressure curves, and has some dramatic pictures from a series of tests he ran. BP is very slow burning and inefficient, but he was able to easily blow apart a modern rifle barrel with a simple obstruction.
My point with all that, is that it will in fact have to be a very weak load to prevent destroying the arm entirely.
My point in explaining how weak it will be is that the projectile will most likely be subsonic and highly unstable after 30-40 yards. Terminal energy will be very low.
**DO NOT PUT ANY OBSTRUCTION IN A BORE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES - EVER; it will destory the gun and probably kill the shooter and any idiots stupid enough to be watching.
The recoil from a 180 grain round is something close to 40 lbs. It will make you wince twenty minutes before you fire your rifle. I'd pay someone else to fire a round of the weight given in this article. After firing twenty or so 180's during one session at the range it took a month for the bruise to go away.
I think you should go back to school!
Most of your modern high powered rifle rounds are generating approx. 60,000PSI. This does not occur instantly. Pressure increases as the bullet moves out of the case and down the bore. Somewhere in the bullets travel down the bore, the pressure will peak and then begin to drop.
If all the pressure and velocity were generated with the initial detonation, then shorter barrels would give you higher velocities, as the bore would act as a huge drag. This is not the case, longer barrels produce higher velocity, to a point.
Perhaps my memory is not all that good, but the sound of a supersonic bullet going by is not very loud.
My thoughts exactly.
Do you have any data on this "red mercury?" I'd like to see an evaluation of it.
About 10 years ago the "Russian military black-market" was supposedly selling a mysterious "red mercury" which would supposedly allow the manufacture (among other things) of 2 megaton hand grenades (uh no thanks not really interested in using one of those).
Red mercury; 150 MPH carburettor, everlasting light globe,
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