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Bullet holes...


Jack

Question

I may be stupid but.........

 

Why is it then when you see bullets holes in, lets say metal that the entry hole is elongated - surely it should be round :schocked:

 

When I was in the US and I let rip with a Thompson and a M16 all of the holes were oblong :?

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What round would that be?

 

 

Top picture looks like a row of 75mm holes, either from a Mark 4: 75mm L/43 on a 4F or G or various Mark 4-based StuGs, 75mm L/48 on a 4J or L/70 on Panther of Jagdpanzer 4 L70.

 

I'd guess the bottom one is 88m, either L/56 from a Flak 88 or a Tiger 1, or L/70 from a Pak 88 or a Tiger 2.

 

IMHO of course.

 

Where L/nn is the ration of the length of the barrel to the calibre of the weapon. Higher the number, higher the muzzle velocity and the deeper the hole.

 

AFAIK, none of these weapons used Hohlladung rounds, forerunners of HEAT rounds found in modern hand-held AT weapons (and rarely in tank AT rounds but not in British tanks).

 

I vaguely recall that HEAT (High Explosive, Anti-Tank since you ask) rounds have a tendency within limits to turn perpendicular to the target as they strike, though the limit is extremely minimal and a non-perpendicular shot will tend to malfunction.

 

A property of explosives is to generate a blast perpendicular to the surface of the explosive material. A HEAT (and a Hohlladung) round is designed with the explosive face focused on the tip of the round (HEAT round has a distinctive pointed tip; Hohlladung (meaning "hollow charge") has an empty ballistic cap allowing it to fly better over longer distances.

 

Thus when a HEAT or Hohlladung round strikes a target, the explosion is focused onto a tiny spot on the target and a jet of what is usually termed plasma (though I don't personally believe this is entirely accurate) is fired through a tiny hole, vapourising the the crew and firing off the stowed ammunition.

 

These holes are not the latter. They look, as described, like solid shot penetrations to me.

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You had to ask Jack, did'nt you :|

 

 

Hey, it's my specialist subject. Don't get me started on how HESH works or how shot has progressed from a cannonball through AP, APC, APCBC, ADPS to APFSDS.

 

To the ultimate curse whereby my role demanded I count flash to bang time to determine the range to a nuclear strike. To this day, thunderstorms set me counting and calculating.

 

;o)

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