RE: Low Tech Scenarios

There are two types of rounds.	The ball round refers to a copper jacket
with a lead core.  The NATO (I may be using wrong terminology, it's what
we called it) round has a copper jacket with steel penetrator at the
front of the round with a lead tail.  I don't know the exact ratio of
lead to steel.	From outside appearances it would look the same
(copper).

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Los [SMTP:los@cris.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 1998 6:37 PM
> To:	FTGZG-L@bolton.ac.uk
> Subject:	Re: Low Tech Scenarios
> 
> 
> 
> John Skelly wrote:
> 
> > They used ball in Somalia.	That could have a lot to do with the
> lack of
> > man stopping.  The NATO round, from what I've read and been taught,
> is a
> > much better round having a steel/lead core.
> 
> There's some confusion here. The term "Nato" is used with ball. If you
> look
> on the side of any military ammo can you will see it says  5.56mm NATO
> ball
> or 7.62mm NATO ball.) It's not a seperate type of round. There only is
> 5.56mm ball. Which is a jacketed round. (Yes there is also tracer).
> The
> green tipped that someone referred to has the same bullet. The only
> difference is that it is for use with the M16A2 and M4 carbine as
> opposed to
> the M16A1. Different grain load out.
> 
> As far as problems with stopping power with the 5.56mm: I never heard
> or saw
> a problem with stopping power. In fact the 5.56mm due to it's velocity
> and
> tumbling creates a special type of horrific wound. Saw one guy shot in
> the
> ass who had it come out the front of his throat. Yeesh. I was not on
> the
> Somalia op but have many friends & colleagues that were. Didn't hear
> of a
> single instance where a 5.56mm round failed to rip apart one of them
> skinny
> bastards. And who fires only one round?
> 
> The only problem you get into with 5.56mm is in it's use with SAW.
> It's a
> little light for a MG round when you are firing at vehicles. At longer
> ranges it doesn't have the penetration of 7.62mm Heck even at short
> range
> 100-200m you can punch holes in a BMP with an M60 or MaG58 (well
> depending
> on where you hit it also) that you can't do with a SAW.