Ignoramus26744 wrote:
On Sun, 30 Oct 2005 22:16:39 -0600, Jon Elson wrote:

Ignoramus26744 wrote:

This is purely an idle question. I have no interest in doing this, for
many reasons. The main reason is that 7mm rem mag is armor piercing
even if bullets are made from dung. Anyway. I have some 4.8mm (3/16)
tungsten electrodes (lanthanated). I could, conceivably, cast some
bullets for a 7mm rem mag rifle with the electrode pieces inside, that
would be quite armor piercing. Would they go through, say, 1 inch
thick mild steel plate, assuming propellant loads that are safe for
the rifle?

I'm no expert on armor at all. But, ONE INCH?


I shot through railroad tie plates (mild steel) with 7.62 mm Mosin
Nagant, using 50 year old ammo. They are, what, 1/2" thick?


Have you seen what the Army and Air Force use for armor piercing
ammo? Like the 30 mm rounds for the A-10? These things weigh a
whole POUND each, and are SOLID U-238 (both hard and heavy as hell!)
The armor they are trying to pierce is about that thick, as far as I
know. A tank couldn't possibly have steel armor too much more than
an inch thick, or it would be too heavy to move.


Frontal armor on a tank can be much thicker than one inch, such as 4
inches or more. Plus, tank armor is stronger than mild steel, due to
metallurgy, use of composite materials etc. And I was asking about 1
inch of mere mild steel.

The old Nam era M133 armoured personnel carrier
had 1.25" of armour in places. The new M1A1
Abrams has an incredible 800mm or 31" of of
armour *equivilent* on the turret.