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| Feb 27 2011, 11:22 PM EST | John_234 | 2 words added, 11 words deleted |
| Dec 4 2010, 8:08 PM EST | John_234 | 21 words added, 21 words deleted |
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Ammunition, what flies out of the bad end of the gun when you pull the trigger. Most people don't look into ammo past that. Ammunition is the most important part of a firearm. Obviously, it won't shoot without ammo, but most importantly, it will not shoot reliably without good ammo. Thankfully for us, the market for ammunition and it's components is simply staggering. You can buy, or load your own ammunition almost any way you want it. (Article on reloading, for those interested.) This also means, that there are very many ways to go wrong with ammunition. There are four basic components of a centerfire cartridge, or round of ammunition. The bullet is the projectile that actually leaves the firearm,** held by the tension of the case. The powder, generally low-explosive smokeless powder in modern weapons, sits behind the bullet, detonated by a small cylinder in the base of the casing called the primer. **(Actually, most rifle and rimmed pistol cartridges use a crimp to hold the bullet.
whereas the centerfire autopistol cartridges use case tension. The reason is that semi-auto pistol cases headspace off the mouth of the cartridge, so cannot be crimped. Bottlenecked rifle cases headspace off the shoulder of the case and rimmed cases headspace off the rim.,so they may be crimped to provide a tight hold on the bullet)
There is also a type of cartridge referred to as "rimfire." It's only difference is that the primer is built into the base of the casing, allowing less powerful loadings and interfering with reloading.
When a gun is fired, it's hammer falls upon a firing pin. This pin shoots out and slams into the primer, detonating the sensitive material within. This flash goes through the base of the case and ignites the powder. The expanding gasses seek the path of least resistance - behind the bullet and down the barrel.
Ammunition comes in a staggering variety of designs all made for various purposes. At first, they were spherical, poured into moulds and fired from muzzle-loading rifles, where powder, wadding and bullet had to be loaded separately. These designs became cylindrical, but most commonly conular for superior ballistic performance and to keep the bore clean.
The first bullets contained completely in a case were bare lead, flat-ended and had copper cases (which were too delicate for easy extraction, it was soon found out.) The flat bullets, while aerodynamically inferior, allowed for rounds to be stacked end-to-end in the lever action rifles of the time. These early cased cartridges, like muzzle loaders, relied on black powder, inefficient and dirty when fired.
Shortly before World War One, the Spitzer bullet was invented - that is, the pointed bullet. It was greatly superior to flat-tipped bullets in performance and became the standard for rifles.** Along with this advancement came bottle-necked cases that increased velocity, separate primers, and superior powders. Shotguns retained the same type of ammo - loose shot and slugs, but went through different stages of case material, from copper, to paper, and finally plastic.
**( Actually bottle necked cases were in use back in the mid 1870's)
This basic layout of ammuniton remains the same today - handgun rounds with flat-sided cases and rounded bullets, rifle rounds with bottle-necked brass cases and slender, pointed bullets, and shotgun shells with brass bases and plastic walls. Following is a short overview of some of the more common types of bullets:
Types of Bullets:
 Cast Where most common bullets simply have a lead core, **cast bullets are made entirely out of lead. Toxic if not handled right, dirty in the bore and incompatible with some guns, people ask why you'd ever use lead. The reason? Price. Lead bullets, even when sold commercially, are cheaper than any jacked bullet. For reloading, you can literally buy a cast to pour your own bullets. Many competition shooters run lead ammunition simply to cut down on the cost of shooting in such high volumes. Lead also tends to expand faster as it is a soft, heavy metal. If you want proof, just look up the horror medical stories of men felled in the Civil War by the low velocity lead slugs that were the norm. ** Most cast bullets are made with a lead and tin or antimoney alloy to increase hardness, for higher velocity use. |  Full Metal Jacket (FMJ) Full Metal Jacket ammunition means ammo with the lead core covered completely with a copper jacket. In actuality, FMJ bullets are actually open lead at the bottom. Total Metal Jacket (TMJ) covers the bottom, a true jacketed bullet. FMJ is probably the most common ammunition out there. Militaries primarily use it, due to the Hague convention back in WW1. For their rounded shape, "Ball" (the military name for FMJ ammo) ammunition is also the gold standard of reliability testing, and many older weapons are designed exclusively with ball in mind. |  Jacketed Hollow Point (JHP) This type of bullet is open at the end and has a serrated jacket, designed to open up upon impact, increasing damage and slowing penetration - usually. JHP is popular in self defense for exactly the reason it won't over-penetrate by nature, quite a liability in a defensive situation. However, it is possible for materials like drywall to fill the nose, causing the bullet to fly straight through it's target like any FMJ. The lead core often tears free of it's jacket upon impact, and some manufactures offer chemically bonded core ammo for increased penetration against tough targets like windshields. |  Semi Jacketed Soft Point (JSP) A bullet jacketed all the way to the tip, with the core left exposed. They came around before the JHP, possibly as a way to combine the expansion of lead with the clean shooting of a jacketed round. Compared to hollow points, they do much the same thing. |
 Full Metal Jacket Boat Tail A type of FMJ bullet with a tapered tail. This makes it a little bit more accurate (less drag). Most modern military bullets will be of this type. Some, such as the M855, are a hybrid between FMJBT and armor piercing. |  Jacketed Hollow Point Boat Tail Most of your "sniper" rounds are going to be this type of bullet. The only real reason for the hollow point for a precision rifle is that they are more accurate than a full metal jacket. (Believe it or not.) These rounds are fairly popular in hunting. |  .Polymer Tip The issues of hollow points are clear - less reliable function than ball, and over penetration in some mediums. A solution was to take a hollow point, and pack it with a polymer tip to keep the round from filling. This ammunition generally offers less consistent performance than JHP, and is somewhat unreliable for self defense. Another interesting use for this ammo is in tube-fed rifles. The soft tip allows for the aerodynamically superior spitzer shaped bullet while not detonating rounds in the tube with a hard tip. |  Frangible The fastest expanding jacketed bullet made. Usually has a plastic tip to help separate the bullet upon impact. Used by law enforcement for indoor shooting, to prevent over-penetrating walls. However. frangible ammo generally has very poor stopping power, making it pretty poor for defensive usage. Some ranges require frangible ammunition due to the material of their backstops and to prevent ricochets. |
 Armor Piercing A bullet using very heavy metals in it's core. Normally does less flesh damage than a FMJ or JHP, but has a greater likelyhood of penetrating body armor. Note that the bullets on the right have plastic caps. Armor piercing handgun ammunition can have conular tips unsuited to reliable feeding, and the cap is designed to be identical to ball ammo to alleviate such potential issues. |  Armor Piercing Incendiary Generally has a silver and red tip. I had trouble finding a good picture. Really only found in anti-material rounds such as the .50 BMG. It's core is AP with a plastic explosive filler behind it. |  Non-Toxic Ammunition completely devoid of lead, with a bullet completely made of the same metal. It is often made for specific police requirements. However, there is another quirk that is less known to NT-ammo, as it is called. Normal primers create a large amount of lead when fired. NT lead uses it's own kind of primer, smaller than normal ones and non-reloadable. |
Types of Casings:
 Steel Case Normally coated to prevent rust. Does not seal as well in the chamber when fired. Most of it is surplus and quite cheaply available, but non-reloadable. Some steel cased ammo leave a terrible coat of laquer in the bore, complicating extraction and cleaning. Avoid this type of ammunition if you can. |  Brass Case The most common ammunition. Expands upon firing, sealing well with the chamber, and also takes well when squeezed down for reloading. Doesn't rust, is slightly more expensive than other types and is very reloadable. |  Nickel-Plated Case Brass casings plated with Nickel. The only real reason for this seems to appearance and possible easier recognition in low light. Otherwise, they are actually worse than brass for general use ammunition, as the plating makes the brass more brittle. |
Types of Shotgun Shells:
How Ammunition is Named
You'll notice something about the above bullets. The bullet type does not relate to caliber. Any kind of bullet can be fired out of any kind of case, as long as they are the correct size. Caliber is the most common term to measure bullets, the size of the bullet, out of an inch. A .38 Special is .38** out of 1.00 inch. Others will be named in millimeters, one mm being equivalent to .039 caliber. A common 9x19mm Parabellum is thus .355 caliber. In this case, the first measure refers to diameter, the second to overall length.
Most rounds have odd names attached to them. 9mm Parabellum, for example. The German army adopted the 9mm Para with their P08 Luger pistol (it has also been called the 9mm Luger since). "Parabellum" was not for organization or to distinguish a special purpose. It was part of the phrase, "Se Vis Pachem, Para Bellum." Which, in Latin means, "if one desires peace, prepare for war."
** ( This is actually incorrect. The ".38 Special" is not a .38 diameter bullet, but a .357. This is why you can fire a .38 special from a .357 magnum)
Most rounds have odd names attached to them. 9mm Parabellum, for example. The German army adopted the 9mm Para with their P08 Luger pistol (it has also been called the 9mm Luger since). "Parabellum" was not for organization or to distinguish a special purpose. It was part of the phrase, "Se Vis Pachem, Para Bellum." Which, in Latin means, "if one desires peace, prepare for war."
** ( This is actually incorrect. The ".38 Special" is not a .38 diameter bullet, but a .357. This is why you can fire a .38 special from a .357 magnum)
Others may be named after their designer, service weapon (again, Luger) or location. 30-06 Springfield (pronounced "Thirty-ought six"), for example, is a pretty sparse name. It means, thirty caliber, designed in 1906 for the Springfield rifle.
On top of this, manufactures slap all sorts of identifiers onto their ammo. A typical cartridge reads like this on it's package: "Cor-Bon 9mm Luger 115 grn JHP +P+"
We'll break this down. Cor-Bon is the manufacture of the ammunition. 9mm Luger is simply the caliber, as discussed above. 115 grn means the bullet weighs 115 grains. (A handgun round weighs between 100 to 250 grains on average, where a rifle is generally between 50 to 150 grains.) JHP, as we read above, means "Jacketed Hollow Point." +P+ means a very high pressure round, loaded to a velocity above normal (P+ means high pressure, +P+ even more so). in 9mm, it'd be easily over 1200 feet per second.
There are other measurements such as joules for kinetic impact force, decibels for firing noise, but velocity and grains are the most important for practical use. They give you a reasonable estimate how hard a gun is going to kick, and what role an ammo may be intended to fill. Full-power handgun rounds? Probably self defense. Very light powder loading, lightweight, lead bullet? Probably a competition or target ammo designed for low recoil, which may not work in your gun.
Let us be honest. When a zedpocalypse, or any other disaster strikes, it's almost never going to be on your terms. Meaning, if you can find a gun, it probably won't be the exact type you own. While it is useful to know the quirks of common types of gun, the minute differences can become a pain in this constantly changing market of firearms. It's easiest just to recognize important aspects of firearm design, regardless of model.
A wood stock and a heavy sight would indicate that the firearm is a sporting weapon. A heavy trigger pull and a complex holster may indicative that a pistol is primarily meant for law enforcement use, and has different design intentions than a military design. Scraping in certain areas, such as the corners of the slide or the triggerguard, could indicate simply that a gun is well-worn, where peening or random scratching could indicate unreliable function and/or poor care. One of the most important characteristics to recognize is caliber.
Example; you're wandering through town, one day. You have a group of buddies, four including yourself, but only one of you has a gun, and ammunition for it is scarce. You're out, scavenging for supplies. With some luck, you manage to break into someone's private collection. Most of it has been swept clean, but a shotgun and two handguns still remain, a revolver and a semi-automatic. However, there is a staggering amount of ammunition still laying around, and it's damned clear they don't all fire out of these remaining guns.
You generally won't be able to load the wrong type of ammo into a gun. If you can, the results won't be fun. Check out this link for more information on caliber interchangeability. It's best to figure out what kind of ammo you're dealing with.
A wood stock and a heavy sight would indicate that the firearm is a sporting weapon. A heavy trigger pull and a complex holster may indicative that a pistol is primarily meant for law enforcement use, and has different design intentions than a military design. Scraping in certain areas, such as the corners of the slide or the triggerguard, could indicate simply that a gun is well-worn, where peening or random scratching could indicate unreliable function and/or poor care. One of the most important characteristics to recognize is caliber.
Example; you're wandering through town, one day. You have a group of buddies, four including yourself, but only one of you has a gun, and ammunition for it is scarce. You're out, scavenging for supplies. With some luck, you manage to break into someone's private collection. Most of it has been swept clean, but a shotgun and two handguns still remain, a revolver and a semi-automatic. However, there is a staggering amount of ammunition still laying around, and it's damned clear they don't all fire out of these remaining guns.
You generally won't be able to load the wrong type of ammo into a gun. If you can, the results won't be fun. Check out this link for more information on caliber interchangeability. It's best to figure out what kind of ammo you're dealing with.
Option one:
The first option at your disposal is to unload the guns - remove the magazines and open the cylinders. It is unlikely a private collection would be kept loaded, but checking load is a basic precaution around firearms. This is more reliable if you're picking a gun out in the world, where it might have been kept in a combat-ready state. If there are rounds in the guns then you want to look at the shell's headstamp in order to identify the type. Here's a picture of several headstamps (Roll them over for the useful descriptions):
If you have time, also try to see if there is any mold or bulges on the casings, particularly the primer. A dented primer with the bullet still loaded can tell that the gun misfired, and red coloring around the base can indicate sealants were used on the primer.
Now, this is all fine and dandy, but as we've seen, this can be a problem if there is no brass or if it says something vague like "9mm", or simply says nothing at all. This brings us to option two.
Option two:
Option two is a much more reliable, much safer way to tell what caliber the pistol is. However, you might want to save it for when you have more time. What you do is you take the gun, and you look the whole thing over, because printed somewhere on it is the caliber. Simple, right? Yes, pretty much. Here's a few examples (Don't forget to roll 'em over):
NOTE: One very important thing to keep in mind, is that ammo names can have parts left out. 9x19mm Parabellum is often left as 9mm because it is so common. Another odd case is rounds such as .45 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol), .40 S&W (Smith and Wesson) or .357 SIG. Companies generally dislike using the names of other brands, and they may exclude these parts in a caliber name. Notably, Glock pistols leave .40 S&W as ".40" and .357 SIG as ".357."
Widener'sSuppliers Reloading SuppliesLTD AmmoPalmetto State ArmoryAmmunition to GoPage
SAME AS 9MM:
9x19
9x19 Parabellum
9mm Luger
9mm Para
9mm NATO
DIFFERENT THAN 9mm:
9mm Makarov
9x18mm
9mm Browning
SAME AS .45:
.45 ACP
.45 Automatic Colt Pistol
.45 AUTO
11.43x23mm
NOT THE SAME AS .45:
.45 Long Colt
.45 GAP
.45 SUPER
.45 Schofield
.45 Winchester Magnum
.45 Smith & Wesson
SAME AS .357 MAG:
.357 S&W MAG
9x33mm
DIFFERENT THAN .357 MAG:
.357 SIG
SAME AS .380:
.380 ACP
.380 Automatic Colt Pistol
.380 AUTO
9mm Browning
9mm Short
9x17mm
DIFFERENT than .380:
.38 Special
.38 AUTO
.38 Browning Long
SAME AS .308: ***Research your weapon to ensure it will handle the military loads***
7.62 NATO
7.62x51mm
.308 Winchester
M80
DIFFERENT THAN .308
7.62x54r
7.62x39mm
SAME AS .223: ***Research your weapon to ensure it will handle the military loads***
5.56x45mm
5.56 NATO
M193
M855
SS109
.223 REMINGTON
DIFFERENT THAN .223:
.222 REMINGTON
5.45x39mm
Firearms - A basic guide to different types of firearms.
Accessories - The add-ons that may just give you an edge in that gunfight.
Ammunition - An overview of types of ammo and reloading.
Weapons reviews - A user-created database of reviews for various zombie-slaying implements.
Handguns, Rifles, Shotguns, Heavy Weaponry - A user-created guide to using and maintaining firearms you are likely to come across.
