Comments on: Small Caliber Rounds! What Are They Good For?

By: Scipio Americanus

Scipio Americanus — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 21:05:49 +0000

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.).

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 20:14:03 +0000

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

By: Scipio Americanus

Scipio Americanus — Thu, 18 Dec 2014 13:39:42 +0000

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.