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Military to switch to copper bullets
Posted:
Wed Dec 25, 2013 11:46 pmby stonewallrabbitry
Military plans to switch to all copper ammo by 2018, that will be a large increase in the amount of copper being used and probably not recovered to be recycled. I do not see how this could do anything but increase copper prices.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/12/21/en ... latestnews
Re: Military to switch to copper bullets
Posted:
Thu Dec 26, 2013 7:06 amby reddirtcoins
Re: Military to switch to copper bullets
Posted:
Thu Dec 26, 2013 10:45 amby Tourney64
All that inventory you have built up will be declared illegal.
Re: Military to switch to copper bullets
Posted:
Thu Dec 26, 2013 2:37 pmby cooyon
Tourney64 wrote:All that inventory you have built up will be declared illegal.
I was thinking that too...the next big phony war could see Lumumba issuing an Executive Order outlawing private hoarding of copper cents. Maybe there will be an exception for numismatists, and of course, bankers.
Re: Military to switch to copper bullets
Posted:
Thu Dec 26, 2013 5:26 pmby scyther
Interesting. I don't know if it's enough to really affect prices, but it can't hurt. You can never know what might be confiscated, but I wouldn't worry too much about it just because of this. The military uses a lot of different resources, and has a big enough budget to buy them on the open market.
Re: Military to switch to copper bullets
Posted:
Fri Dec 27, 2013 5:57 pmby mrlaufer
Any coincidence with this article about someone "scooping up" copper contracts?
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/ ... FG20131220
Re: Military to switch to copper bullets
Posted:
Fri Dec 27, 2013 7:33 pmby AGgressive Metal
I assumed it had to do with the lead smelter closing down. On the plus side, local civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan will be able to get into the scrap business digging copper pieces out of walls and hillsides, haha.
Re: Military to switch to copper bullets
Posted:
Sun Dec 29, 2013 8:36 amby Sullysullinburg
It possible because of this that they will need more copper and stop making the penny.
Re: Military to switch to copper bullets
Posted:
Sun Dec 29, 2013 8:29 pmby chester5731
Sullysullinburg wrote:It possible because of this that they will need more copper and stop making the penny.
I didn't think there was any copper in pennies anymore.
Re: Military to switch to copper bullets
Posted:
Sun Dec 29, 2013 9:27 pmby JerrySpringer
Turn the knob up to '11' on the penny sorting routine RC'ers. I don't think we will be alone with our CRH'ing if news spreads like it does with every get-rich quick plot......
Re: Military to switch to copper bullets
Posted:
Sun Dec 29, 2013 9:39 pmby Rodebaugh
The current cent (2013) ytd mintage of 6.8 billion coins
2.5grams each with 97.5 zinc and 2.5% copper
2.5gX2.5% = 0.0625g CU /coin X 6.8 billion coins = 425000000g CU =
468.5 tons of copper used in 2013 cent manufacture
Re: Military to switch to copper bullets
Posted:
Sun Dec 29, 2013 10:52 pmby AGgressive Metal
468 for pennies out of 16,000,000 tons mined in 2013
Re: Military to switch to copper bullets
Posted:
Mon Dec 30, 2013 12:42 amby Sullysullinburg
They still make them with copper and just to make all the pennies in 2012 then needed more then 1,984 tons of copper. I don't know any info on bullet composition but that would make a lot of bullets.
Re: Military to switch to copper bullets
Posted:
Mon Dec 30, 2013 12:20 pmby Kurr
Im curious as to ballistic effects, wound ballistics, effects on rifling, etc etc. Will we have to re-barrel? Will the same lands/groove be efficient or have to go to something different like hexagonal rifleing?
How will that much lighter/harder projectile perform? How will it affect projectile drop rates. penetration? Remeber too the millitary's goal when shooting at folks isn't the same as self defence goals. The milliary likes to use an attrition thing versus body counts. They'd rather poke some damaging holes in people to tie up as many resources of the enemy on and off the battlefield as possible rather than producing a corpse. Where as in self defence the goal is to stop the threat (massive damage) and hunters seek most efficient way to make a corpse.
Sooooooo many questions on equipment and performance.
Re: Military to switch to copper bullets
Posted:
Mon Dec 30, 2013 1:19 pmby 68Camaro
I believe a 95/5 cu/Zn alloy same as pre 82 US cent was introduced as a bullet application commercially several years ago.
Re: Military to switch to copper bullets
Posted:
Mon Dec 30, 2013 1:59 pmby doug
The lead saving will depend on the caliber.
It will definitly change the flight dynamics too.
Doug
Re: Military to switch to copper bullets
Posted:
Mon Dec 30, 2013 5:35 pmby RichardPenny43
Kurr wrote:Im curious as to ballistic effects, wound ballistics, effects on rifling, etc etc. Will we have to re-barrel? Will the same lands/groove be efficient or have to go to something different like hexagonal rifleing?
How will that much lighter/harder projectile perform? How will it affect projectile drop rates. penetration? Remeber too the millitary's goal when shooting at folks isn't the same as self defence goals. The milliary likes to use an attrition thing versus body counts. They'd rather poke some damaging holes in people to tie up as many resources of the enemy on and off the battlefield as possible rather than producing a corpse. Where as in self defence the goal is to stop the threat (massive damage) and hunters seek most efficient way to make a corpse.
Sooooooo many questions on equipment and performance.
http://site.cuttingedgebullets.com/pages/welcome2
Re: Military to switch to copper bullets
Posted:
Mon Dec 30, 2013 8:47 pmby Kurr
Color me happy, that does seem impressive!
Re: Military to switch to copper bullets
Posted:
Sun Feb 16, 2014 11:23 amby Shazbot57
Probably not going to happen. A cheap heavy metal (like lead or steel) is needed when the outer "skin" peels back, and there are mountains of lead laying around here in the midwest (especially in MO, the lead belt). If the US doesn't allow smelting, you can bet some country like China or Russia will buy it and do whatever. We'll ship some more of those US jobs overseas to countries that hate us!
Re: Military to switch to copper bullets
Posted:
Wed Feb 19, 2014 7:06 pmby pennypanner
Hunters have been using all copper bullets with great success for years.
