There are many Myths that infect our shooting community on how to kill, and what is the correct bullet/cartridge for a given application. We will start with some fundamental concepts, and debunk a few of the myths, finishing up with some comments about specific hunting, Law Enforcement and Military applications.

Know the difference between a 'Permanent Wound Channel' and a 'Temporary Wound Cavity'

The permanent wound channel is typically the shape of a 'baseball bat handle', a long cylinder, typically smaller than 1.25" (30 mm) in diameter. With small calibers and very hard bullets (FMJ) the permanent wound channel can look more like an arrow shaft. It is the area where cell tissue has been completely cut, crushed, severed, burnt, or completely destroyed.

1) The characteristics of the permanent wound channel (location, size, shape, bleeding, organ and tissue destruction) will most likely determine whether the target ultimately lives or dies.


The temporary wound cavity is typically much larger in diameter and wrapped 'around' the permanent wound channel, often taking the form of a football shape, fat cucumber or teardrop, depending on what type of tissue was struck, whether bone was hit first, and the composition and impact velocity of the bullet. The temporary wound cavity is caused by a shock wave that results from the impact of the bullet and severely bruises or disrupts tissue function without TOTAL CELL DESTRUCTION.

2) The characteristics of the temporary wound cavity (location, size, force, tissue function disruption) will most likely determine whether the target ceases motor function, runs, shoots back, or anything in between. The temporary wound cavity will probably determine the initial reaction, and the actions of the target in the near term.

We have all heard about or experienced situations where a target was hit in a reasonably good location, and ran off or shot back, continuing to function with little or no apparent terminal effect. The vast majority of these cases occur because of a combination of conditions that result in the temporary wound cavity being TOO SMALL!...Please note that I am NOT refering to POOR SHOT PLACEMENT.

How to increase the size of the temporary wound cavity in the 'Vital Area'.

A) Smarter Shot Selection

1) At long range, (lower impact velocities) wait or manuever for a 'Quartering Toward You' Shot Angle. Use the bone in the front shoulder to enhance bullet performance.

2) At short range, (High impact velocities) choose a 'Quartering AWAY' shot angle. Obtain a softer tissue path to the vital zone.

B) Increase the Impact Velocity

1) At short to Mid range a lighter faster bullet may give a higher impact velocity.

2) At Mid to Ultra Long Range High B.C. is mandatory.

3) Use Larger engine....Bigger case and longer barrel may be needed.


C) Choose a different bullet construction

1) More fragmentation. Once your bullet passes the threshold of penetration needed to go to work, more fragmentation produces a larger temporary wound cavity. You also get the added benefit of multiple smaller permanent wound channels.

2) Better tip design. The A-max, V-max, Ballistic Tip, and others initiate expansion and some even cause fragmentation. A slightly larger meplat like the Clinch River on match bullets can be helpful.

3) A lighter/thinner copper jacket is very useful at long range.

4) High Tech - Use powdered Tungsten/Tin technology and get massive improvements across the board. These will be available to the masses sooner than you think.

D) Faster twist rate

1) This helps a number of issues and is worthwhile if you are using a lot of bullets that are extremely well made (low CG offset) and the alignment on your machining is flawless.



Lets talk about thresholds next. Things like underpenetration (have reached epidemic proportions in the Highpower community ), and overpenetration can be major problems depending on your shooting discipline.

For hunting dangerous big game, underpenetration can win you the Darwin Award. Overpenetration could mean hours spent tracking or a lost Trophy. For the Law Enforcement officer involved in Hostage Rescue, Underpenetration could cost him his own life or the life of a hostage may not be saved. Overpenetration may stop the bad guy, but bring collateral damage that results in law suits, the loss of a career, and in the worst cases the loss of innocent life. Our Military is in a bit of a tough spot, they have hard targets, soft targets, shooting through glass, vehicles, and all the rest that MOUT operations throw at them, and when you throw an occasional TRAP mission or hostage rescue into the mix, WOW! How do you carry the right mix of three types of ammo, having no idea what is coming in the next few hours?


Big Game Hunting ---- Most hunters use bullets that are Too Hard for a given animal, impact velocity, twist rate. These bullets tend to way over penetrate, expending a lot of energy in the mud, rocks, and trees behind the target. Energy that should have been put to work increasing the terminal effect of the shot in the vital area of the target. Match bullets with thinner jackets will very often Outperform many tradition hunting bullets on mid to long range shots. The bottom line is what does the permanent wound channel and temporary wound cavity look like for a given shot under the actual range/impact velocity, shot angle, twist rate and bullet type. Hunters need to be honest with themselves about what they are seeing and make appropriate adjustments, it is the sporting thing to do, and everyone benefits. Go to the points written above and start with the easiest things to do and keep making changes until you get the desired results. I am not saying that everyone should go out and order the fastest twist barrel that won't make their bullets blow up in mid air. If you have gone through most of the other items on the list, and you are not quite where you want to be, make a mental note to go to a faster twist when it is time to rebarrel, and get some advice from someone who can tell you 'How Much Faster' to go. Just ten years ago there were often BIG PENALTIES in accuracy to pay for spinning a bullet faster than needed to stabalize. With the quality of jackets and bullets these days, the penalty is often so small as to be a NON ISSUE. If you are shooting a super high velocity case like a 300 Wolf you may have most of the RPM your bullets can stand, there is a threshold of RPM that a given bullet can stand and still maintain its needed accuracy. With the 300 WSM, we have seen a marked improvement in terminal effect with the 1 in 9" twist over the typical 1 in 11" twist. It just depends on your individual situation.


LAW ENFORCEMENT ---------- Special Operations, HRT, SWAT, ERT, Tactical Operations, Tactical Response......These are the guys that serve thousands of High Risk-dangerous warrants a year, are tasked with everything from focused area crime sweeps to hostage rescue to barricaded subjects to working with the Secret Service on personal protection and Securing special events like the Olympics and Presidential Debates. Although the majority of these teams spend more time fighting the War on Drugs (remember that war?) than the "WAR on Terror": times are changing and these guys are Highly Likely to be the first responders to the next terrorist attack in the U.S. A big shootout is inevitable at a Synagogue, Christian Church, refinery, or Nuclear Fac. inside the CONUS, it is not a matter of if, JUST WHEN.

The big picture says simply that the overwhelming problem is the 'Great Variety' of targets and situations possible. All of these requirements can not be solved by bullet selection alone, some however can. Some issues can be solved by better caliber selection and choosing weapon systems that better fit the specific missions. This costs money, and with limited funds many departments are buying things like CCBA's (Draeger Units) to give them more time in the 'Hot Zone' of an N.B.C. incident. Our Law Enforcement now needs to be able to stop a Truck on command, and do several other things that overlap the world of Hard Target Interdiction. Only a new and much larger caliber will solve this requirement. So what can L.E. do Right NOW???

1) Purchase off the shelf from Hornady TAP 110 gr. 308 Win. for Hostage Rescue

2) Custom order 200 gr. Accubond 308 ammo with 39 grains of Benchmark from Black Hills for shooting through glass and Vehicles.

3) If your Armorer or Lieutenant won't play ball, demand that they order Fed Gold Medal GM2 with the 175 Sierra bullet when it is time to reorder, it won't be much different in an overpenetration scenario than the 168, but is significantly better than the 168 when shooting through glass.

4) Throw away your Fed. Tactical Bonded ammo, it is a poor choice for the overpenetration scenario and is pathetic when shooting through glass. It is a 'Classic Marketing Lie'.

5) Purchase 40 grain TAP (.223) for CQB work. It is a Polymer tipped spitzer boat tail, part #83256, ballistic coefficient =.200: This bullet offers high velocity even in shorter barreled weapons with reliable functioning in the AR15 weapon system. It also offers rapid expansion, high fragmentation and little retained weight. This round is intended primarily for situations where its' limited penetration, extreme fragmentation and reduced ricochet potential are desired.

6) Purchase 75 grain TAP (.223) for outdoor, vehicles and everthing but CQB work. It is a boat tail hollow point, part #80265, ballistic coefficient =.390: This match quality bullet is the Hornady company's heaviest TAP offering in .223 caliber. It demonstrates rapid expansion and a fragmenting bullet for both the precision rifle and the carbine. This bullet demonstrates deeper penetration than the 55 and 60 grain bullets yet penetrates less than most police handgun service rounds. It penetrates glass with minimal deflection, due to it's retained weight. The bullet shows minimal break up on sheetrock, retaining most it's weight and penetration.

7) Start the long and painful process lobbying for a more flexible small arms Strategy.
That means a couple of 300 short mags in semi-auto, something that has a prayer to stop a truck (think 50 cal.) Start to consider the ammo suggestions above.


Military......my favorite subject.............





I will write more later....stay tuned.


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The U.S. Military

DOD has the most simple solution of all, and just can't seem to do the right thing, (The Pentagon will not even stand up to the ACLU on behalf of the Boy Scouts). Remember the whole Mogadishu debacle? The ignorance of the Clinton Admin. to fail to support the mission with armor and Spector Gunships that were requested by the CG, was exacerbated by ammo that failed to perform in the terminal ballistics arena......the results????(Blackhawk Down the Movie). Remember all the complaints about guys running out of ammo??? The truth is they had to shoot people 6 to 10 times to put them down. The combination of dehydrated combatants high on Kaat, and bullets that are way too hard for the task, directly resulted in the loss of U.S. servicemen's lives. This fact has been confirmed by two friends of mine, one State Dep. and one Navy Seal: Both were in the AO when the mission went down.

Rumsfeld has got one thing right....."The System is Broken". What he is talking about is the budgeting and aquisition system. No where is this more true than in the small arms area. The corruption is rampant and unnacceptable. Anyone want the inside scoop on the tungsten/nylon core of the M855 that got recalled??? A test was done at Lake City, loading different manufacturers cores on the same machine on the same day. One manufacturer's product had less problems feeding in the machines, shot more accurately, and outperformed every other core in the test in every catagory. Was it picked for the Army contract???NOOOOOOOOOO!!! Politics and greed got involved and behind the scenes pressure and corruption caused the tungsten nylon core to be chosen. Well, as luck would have it.......the chosen core swelled after being in storage for more than a year and started overpressuring guns....Instant RECALL! Their corruption has not only bit them in the A$$, it has cost us lives in combat, and Puts us ALL AT RISK



What should DOD do?

1) Appoint an Independant Commision to work with GAO, and audit all Military Small Arms Ammunition Contracts looking closely at the test results that were supposed to support the decisions.

2) Give our Warfighters what actually works, Blended Tungsten and Tin. By controlling the amount of pressure used when making the cores, you have an enormously broad range of control to solve ANY TERMINAL BALLISTIC REQUIREMENT. Volume is the key to bringing the cost down....MAKE THE INVESTMENT! DOD needs to stop trying to steal the technology from the people that hold the patents, just pay them a commission and get the volume up so the cost comes down. Our fighting men and their families deserve the best, we owe them that and more.

3) Contract with the best of our Ammunition Companies (Like Hornady) to put the FEAR of EXTINCTION in the Bureaucrats running places like Lake City. Give the contracts for the new technology to the private companies and start the transition. Send the message, "Get honest, get rid of the politics and corruption, or GET EXTINCT!

4) Get rid of the Officers that are 'Enablers' to unobjective buying decisions. Make it a crime with a dishonorable discharge and loss of pension for any corrupt deals made in the purchase of Any Item whose performance affects the survivability of a Warfighter in combat or training. Write the legislation so it is enforcable this time. Commit the resources to enforce the law.


The difficult nature of the new enemies we face demand we become more professional, more lethal, and more objective in our analysis, small arms strategy and buying decisions. We already have multiple examples of terrorists that have been shot in combat, survived to set off bombs, or shoot and kill our men on a different day. Doing things right is a matter of survivability.....Yours, mine, and our children.


_____________________________________________

I see a trend coming at USSOCOM. Short barreled .308s for CQB WORK!

Hallelujah!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Does this mean we will no longer have to shoot a terrorist 5 times to kill him??????

It is ABOUT F'n TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Check this story, this is what I have been talking about for 10 YEARS!!!!!!


Praise GOD!



___________________________________________

"ST. PETERSBURG TIMES
SOCom inquiry sires new charges
A retired Army colonel is indicted in the scandal, accused of paying
bribes to get preferential treatment for his clients.
By BRADY DENNIS, Times Staff Writer
Published November 9, 2005
TAMPA - A retired Army colonel was indicted Tuesday in an ongoing bribery
scandal involving defense contracts at Special Operations Command.
Tom Spellissy, 48, was charged with five counts, including wire fraud,
bribery and conspiracy to defraud the United States.
He is expected to make a court appearance today. "He's been told to turn
himself in," said Steve Cole, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office.
A private defense contractor at SOCom, which is based at MacDill Air Force
Base, already has pleaded guilty in the case. Officials say more people will
be implicated.
"This is not the end," said Col. Samuel Taylor, a spokesman for SOCom.
According to prosecutors, Spellissy paid William Burke, a SOCom official in
charge of equipping special operations forces, several thousand dollars to
give companies he represented preferential treatment.
Burke pleaded guilty last month and agreed to cooperate with investigators.
Tuesday's nine-page indictment says the offenses took place between early
2004 and July 26, 2005.
It states that Spellissy set up a consulting firm, Strategic Defense
International of Clearwater, to "make illegal payments" to Carlisle Bradford
Enterprises, which prosecutors say Burke set up to "accept illegal
payments."
Prosecutors say Spellissy would tell Burke which companies he was
representing, and, in turn, Burke would provide preferential treatment to
those contractors. The indictment outlines numerous e-mails the two men
traded beginning in April 2004, though the content of the e-mails was not
disclosed.
It also details thousands of dollars sent through international wire
transfers from Nordea Bank Sweden to an account at Bank of America in
Scranton, Pa. Prosecutors say that the Swedish account belonged to Spellissy
and his consulting firm and that the Bank of America account belonged to
Burke.
Spellissy retired last December. He had been in charge of special weapons
programs at SOCom. Neither Spellissy nor his attorney, Pat Doherty, returned
calls seeking comment Tuesday.
Doherty previously denied that his client did anything wrong. He said
Spellissy worked legally with Burke after a 25-year career in the armed
services that ended with an honorable discharge.
After Burke pleaded guilty last month, the U.S. Attorney's Office and SOCom
said they were trying to determine whether special operations forces had
received inferior equipment as a result of the scam.
On Tuesday, Taylor said he did not believe that to be the case.
"We have no reason to believe this has in any way been detrimental to our
acquisition process," he said. "Our troops continue to receive the best
equipment as they carry out their mission on the global war on terror."
Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, SOCom, which oversees the
nation's elite commandos, has been at the forefront of the war on terror.
SOCom also has been rocked by scandal.
Last week, the FBI said it was looking into separate allegations of
corruption in defense contracts at SOCom. A subject of that investigation is
the SOCom commander, Gen. Bryan "Doug" Brown.
As a federal contracts gatekeeper at SOCom since 1999, Burke oversaw the
evaluation and testing of foreign and domestic weapons systems that
eventually would equip special operations forces.
His recommendations for weapons contracts went directly to the Office of
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Companies he recommended generally got
congressional funding. Companies he did not recommend were put at the back
of the line.
Last month, Burke, 49, pleaded guilty in federal court to a bribery charge
and now faces as much as 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. In exchange
for leniency, he agreed to cooperate with federal authorities.
In his guilty plea, Burke admitted taking bribes from an unnamed
co-conspirator who was representing companies competing for
multimillion-dollar contracts. His plea agreement also details how Burke
received several thousand dollars from an unidentified individual and was
promised substantial money "down the road."
The FBI, SOCom and the Pentagon inspector general, the agency's
investigative arm, have teamed up in the ongoing investigation. Taylor on
Tuesday said the indictment hasn't altered day-to-day business at SOCom.
"It has not been a distraction," Taylor said. "We took immediate action to
make sure this was investigated fully by the appropriate people. When these
things surface, we take the appropriate actions."
Spellissy attended Clearwater Central Catholic High School and graduated
from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1979. He commanded
battalions in Fort Sill, Okla., and Germany, according to a biography he
gave to a defense industry conference in 1999.
Spellissy served as a military analyst at MacDill-based Central Command, the
nerve center of the war in Iraq. He also was the point person for Foreign
Comparative Testing at SOCom for several years, the same area Burke
eventually took over.
Spellissy bought a $680,000 house in Indian Rocks Beach last December from a
combination of savings and profits made from selling some condominiums he
owned, his attorney has said.
The maximum penalties he faces, if convicted, are five years each on the
conspiracy charge, 15 years each on the bribery charges and 20 years each on
the wire fraud charges. Each count also carries a maximum fine of $250,000."

S1,
can't agree with ya more about trust in the gov.
On the other hand, thank GOD our currency says it right!
In God We Trust!

What did we have in Vietnam?
250,000rd's per dead VC?
Gotta love that 55fmj in a slow twist.
A good Navy S.E.A.L. friend of mine, Team 6 commander, called DOC, short for his call name Delta Oscar Charlie, called them "trip rounds" in the early years of the war because the rounds would tumble.

What's the reasoning? Wound more than kill because then you take 3 bad guys off the BF?
Seems to me more humane to just kill the bad guy and move on.

The debate over the effectiveness of NATO's 5.56 × 45 M855 rifle and LMG ammunition continued throughout last year, prompting a study of alternatives by the US Army. The focus was on whether any commercial, off-the-shelf 5.56 mm bullets would perform better against unarmoured targets in close-quarter battles, although some tests evaluated alternative calibres, specifically the 7.62 × 51 NATO and the 6.8 × 43 Remington SPC.

Despite the US Army's unswerving official support for the 5.56 mm M855 ammunition, it seems unlikely that the controversy will go away. The older 7.62 × 51 round, supposedly retained primarily for machine guns and sniper rifles, remains popular when more range or barrier penetration are required. Not only have many of the old US M14 rifles in this calibre been refurbished and issued for service, but USSOCOM's (US Special Operations Command) new FN SCAR assault rifle is to be acquired in a 'heavy' version in 7.62 mm as well as a 'light' version in 5.56 mm.

In an interesting parallel development, the UK has completed a calibre study to determine the effect required by the next generation of small arms, and research is continuing (it is intended to replace the SA80 family in 2020). No details have been released so far, but the results will presumably be fed into the eventual debate over the characteristics of future NATO small-arms ammunition.

For the present, however, the 5.56 mm will have to soldier on, with support from the 7.62 mm when required. Meanwhile, the commercial development of composite (polymer/brass) cases in 5.56 × 45 continues in an attempt to provide some of the benefits of lighter ammunition for existing weapons.

Specialised cartridges for sniper rifles continue to attract attention, in two categories: subsonic rounds for suppressed rifles, permitting virtually silent operation at short to medium ranges, and high-power rounds for very long range shooting. A selection of the cartridges now available is displayed here.

Two new additions this year are the subsonic Russian 12.7 mm Vychlop, and the US .416 Barrett for the long-range role. The Vychlop follows the same route as some of the American subsonic rounds in adopting a large calibre but small capacity cartridge firing a heavy, streamlined bullet. Like the .460 Steyr, the Barrett has been created by necking down and slightly shortening the .50 BMG (12.7 × 99) case, so it is a simple matter to rebarrel .50 calibre guns to fire it. Although apparently introduced to circumvent a Californian law banning .50 calibre rifles, the .416 has undoubted potential. Whether the ballistic advantages of these very heavy sniping rounds are worth the loss of the ability to fire multipurpose (SAPHEI) 12.7 mm bullets against vehicles and other materiel targets is a question which only potential purchasers can answer.

Following new allegations about the scale of potential fraud and corruption in Iraq and Afghanistan, US legislators are pressing ahead with legislation that would tighten oversight of battlefield contractors.

The Senate approved measures on 20 September introduced by Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri that aim to crack down on alleged fraud, waste and abuse in defence contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan. The amendments - added to the Fiscal Year 2008 defence authorisation bill - would prompt independent reviews of major logistics support contracts; tighten restrictions on emergency contracting practices; and provide better training to military personnel who work with private contractors but who are not part of the regular acquisition community. The measures would also expand the writ of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.

"We are spending billions of dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan each month and we need to make sure every penny is being used wisely," McCaskill said in a statement. "These amendments will bring greater scrutiny to defence contracting in a way that will help prevent abuse as we move forward."

Political momentum has been growing for greater oversight of wartime contracting. During a 20 September congressional hearing, Thomas Gimble, principal deputy inspector general for the US Department of Defense (DoD), revealed that investigators were probing contracts worth a total of USD6 billion for alleged criminal irregularity. While that figure represents only a fraction of the USD550 billion that the department has received since 2001 to fund military operations overseas, defence officials conceded that in many cases oversight of war-zone contracting had been poor.