Small Caliber Rounds! What Are They Good For?

Thursday, December 18th, 2014

In today’s world of .22-caliber infantry rifles, it can be hard to remember that .30 caliber used to be small caliber, as this 1891 New York Times article makes clear:

In further comment, Captain Surgeon Marsh points out that, inasmuch as the resisting surface offered to the face of a small-calibre bullet has been thus reduced, the ball penetrates and passes through the tissues without having expended much of its energy in their destruction. Its track is so narrow that there is practically no destruction of substance in its path. Such a ball might pass through a large joint without touching the bones, or between the two bones of the forearm or leg without injuring them in the slightest, thus producing nothing more than a simple flesh wound, not grave enough to place the wounded man hors de combat.

A larger calibre ball, say of the Martini type, .45 calibre, striking in similar situations would inevitably shock the system and shatter the bones to such an extent as totally to disable the soldier for many months, if not for life. In adopting a lighter and smaller calibre ball there is sacrificed to a great extent the stopping power and shock possessed by the larger missiles.

Comments

  1. This was before they started noticing that the interaction of the very high velocity rifle round with the surrounding tissues frequently caused an almost explosive amount of damage inside the body. At the time this was written they had experience only with relatively low velocity rounds, for which cross-sectional area was indeed the most important factor.

    Cue more than a decade of everyone accusing everyone else of using explosive ammo, right up into WWI. Took a while to figure out what was going on. See this report for more detail… and many pictures you’ll have a hard time forgetting.

  2. Isegoria says:

    It was a legitimate concern, that small, high-velocity bullets left a small, clean hole.

  3. It absolutely is a legitimate concern. At certain angles, ranges, and velocities, the bullet goes clean through like a sewing needle without causing massive internal trauma.

    There are a large number of physical characteristics in the interaction between bullet and target that determine this, such that the resultant pattern might as well be random. In one case, several rounds can pass through the target’s chest cavity without stopping them (immediately, anyway), while in another seemingly similar case a single shot causes enormous internal trauma.

    That said, modern high-velocity, small-calibre rounds are generally reliable enough to justify using them for the other benefits they bring (greater ammo carriage, etc.).

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