Anatomy of an AP round

[ray1970]

Years ago I was curious about just what was inside a 50 BMG AP round so I deconstructed a couple. Thought I'd share my findings.

Pulled two bullets. The first one I did kind of a cutaway just to see what was inside. The seond one I totally removed the outer layers of copper and lead leaving only the tungsten core.

The core is .425" in diameter and about 1.835" long. I never weighed it but might have to do that next time I get the scale out. It's pretty heavy.

I was a bit surprised to see the core was actually shaped like a bullet. Pretty sure I pulled the core out of a round of 5.56 green tip years ago and it was just a small, cylinder shaped rod.

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/04/46847650ab9e80e97b95e12b9f922a2d.jpg

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/10/04/8b2f7b42f60a9edec29cddc7bed9a987.jpg

[izzy]

I'd love to see many more of these types of posts. For some reason the cutaway is really intriguing to me.

.... ready go!

[jmg8550]

Old 30-06 AP rounds also have bullet shaped tungsten cores. They go right through 1/2" AR500 plate. The points are pretty sharp.

[Portsider86]

Both findings are very interesting.

[dustdevil]

Old 30-06 AP rounds also have bullet shaped tungsten cores. They go right through 1/2" AR500 plate. The points are pretty sharp.

Tungsten? What armchair commando told you that. It is a steel core.

[MOD: Getting real tired of your brash responses. Tone it down!]

[jmg8550]

Prior to 1940, the military used 4% tungsten, chromium steel in the penetrator. After that they were manufactured with manganese molybdenum cores. So we're both right.

[Calculated]

That is very interesting, I really expected a pointed cylinder. I'm curious to see the inside of a 5.56 green tip, if you ever get around to it. Thanks Ray

[ray1970]

Yeah, I did a 5.56 round years ago. From my (bad) memory the core was a simple, cylindrical rod. Kind of like a piece of welding rod. About 1/8" in diameter.

If I get a chance this weekend I'll try to cut another one apart and post up a picture of it.

[Sawin]

There's plenty of cross section pictures already out there. Save your ammo :)

61463 Here's one of xm855 (green tip).

[68Charger]

a cross section of M855:
61464

and for grins, M995:

http://media.townhall.com/_townhall/uploads/2015/3/3/9.jpg

Source: http://bearingarms.com/white-house-blatantly-lied-media-m855-ammunition-heres-matters/

you can see why M995 is more effective

[rondog]

I have .30 and .50 penetrators in my cartridge collection. I don't know what they're made of, but those mothers are HARD! Harder than any steel I've ever encountered. And still needle sharp after punching through steel plates.

[ray1970]

Thanks for the pictures, guys. The 5.56 core looks nothing like I remember it from twenty ish years ago. Lol.