cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/50832775

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[–] 1 point 1 month ago (1 child)

I'm not a gun guy, but I've never heard of tungsten being used in bullets, and AFAIK it would severly damage the barrel, right?

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago (1 child)

    I don't know about tungsten bullets, but I have heard of tungsten shot.

    You could probably jacket a tungsten bullet in a softer metal like copper to mitigate the damage to the barrel, but I feel like that's also gonna run up against armor piercing regulations

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago (1 child)

    I think, from a report I did in middle school, that you have just described how armor piercing bullets function.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago

    Yeah, that's basically the gist of it, jacket a hard, dense penetrator in a softer metal so it doesn't damage the barrel

    But there's some edge cases like with m855 "green tip" 5.56 ammo which has a steel core inside a lead bullet and copper jacket, but generally isn't considered "armor piercing" even though it does penetrate armor slightly better than most other standard 5.56 rounds

    So I'm gonna hedge me bets and say there may be a case where a tungsten bullet may not be considered armor piercing but I don't know the specifics of where that line would be drawn.

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