Hey there, it's me CharchPlarch720. I'm here today to talk to you about guns, and this one has been a LOOOONG time coming. Some people think they can outsmart me. Maybe, maybe. I have yet to meet one that can outsmart bullet. Part 1 - The effects First let's start with the basics, what do guns do when they hit a person? This can be summarized pretty easily by explaining the following: Trauma inflicted by projectiles entering (and carving a path through) the body is influenced by a number of things, but here are the most important to know. 1. The projectile's speed affects how much of a cavity is created when it penetrates the target, so the faster it's going the more violent of a wound cavity will be created. 2. The projectile's mass affects how much energy it delivers into the target upon impact, which translates to a round's stopping power. TL;DR - Fast bullets typically make bigger wounds, and big bullets incapacitate/stop people better. Part 2 - The bullets Bullets also come in many different varieties, as they aren't always solid chunks of one type of metal. The most common types of bullets are known as "FMJs" or Full Metal Jacket. These rounds are just a soft metal core, like lead, encased in something harder like copper or brass. By design, these are your bread and butter bullets, they are okay at stopping people and penetrating a decent amount of body armour. They aren't designed specifically to do either though, they are the jacket of all trades. Example TL;DR - Soft, dense core with an outer "jacket" of a harder metal, okay at tackling all targets but not proficient at any one kind. There are also "expanding" bullets, or hollow points as they are very commonly known. They are similar to FMJs, these bullets are designed with a hollowed out tip that makes the bullet expand outward (or mushroom) when hitting a target, like a person. This expansion greatly increases the girth of the bullet and creates a bigger, more devastating wound cavity in a person. Hollow points are also next to useless against body armour, as they have little to no penetrating power against anything hard in their path. Example TL;DR - Hollow points expand inside of people to maximize damage, but they are utter shit against body armour of even the weakest kinds. Most armour piercing bullets are also sort of like FMJs, except they are designed with defeating personal body armour in mind. As opposed to a soft core of something like lead, armour piercing bullets use steel or exceptionally hard things like tungsten carbide. This helps these rounds punch through thick weaves or solid plates that make up most body armour, though it also makes them rather ineffective at inflicting lethal wounds. They tend to go straight through stuff without expanding or breaking apart, meaning they are unlikely to strike vital things in the body and kill. Example TL;DR - Good at piercing things, usually not very good at causing sufficient trauma, needs to directly hit vital stuff for injuries to be fatal. Part 3 - What happens inside you So we've established bullets can do some PRETTY nasty things to people. They can expand, tumble, or even break apart and fragment inside of people to inflict very terrible wounds. Here's an example so you can visualize what the different types of rounds can do to you as a person when they hit you in the body. (To further explain the illustration here, the dark bits are the permanent wound cavities, which is the actual hole carved through your body by the bullet. The temporary cavities are the simple outlined sections, but even these can be deadly, as a temporary cavity can rupture things like arteries or even organs.) First is a 9mm hollow point, (JHP means jacketed hollow point.) Then you have a .30 carbine hollow point (JSP means jacketed soft point, which is basically a hollow point with an exposed lead tip.) Then you have a very common 5.56x45mm NATO OTM round, (OTM means open tipped match, which is basically a more deadly FMJ that breaks apart inside people.) 12 gauge buckshot is very self-explanatory, it's a bunch of lead pellets going into someone. Lastly, a .30-30 hollow point. Pictured beside the illustration are the guns used to fire those rounds, to give you an idea of what does what. TL;DR - Bullets can be specifically made to do certain things, like fragment, expand, explode, or burn stuff. Inside of the body, they do very nasty things to you. Part 4 - The calibres Calibres can get pretty fricking complex, so this part will be kept brief. Different calibres perform different from one another, hence their existence. Pistols will perform different from rifles, and the calibre of those weapons ultimately determines what role they are best fit for. .45 ACP (11.43x23mm) for example is widely known for being a big meaty "man-stopper" round, because it delivers a big, heavy slug into people that has exceptional stopping power. Then you have the very popular 9x19mm (commonly just known as 9mm) rounds, which is a decently fast, medium sized projectile. One such shortcoming of 9mm rounds is that their FMJs aren't the most spectacular, they have a tendency to go right through without being fast enough to create a big traumatic cavity; although this benefits them when shooting through things like thin cover as they also penetrate more than .45 ACP (.45 is big, so it delivers all energy into the first thing it hits = little penetrating power!!!) TL;DR - Bullet dimensions vary widely, maybe do a lil' research on what you intend to use to see how it performs, or ask someone who knows? I hope this helped, and ask any questions you got below pls
Foot note - Cartridge measurements are as easy as: First number = bullet diameter. Second nuber = Case length. 9x19mm is a 9mm wide bullet with a 19mm long case TL;DR - The wider the bullet, the harder it hits. The longer the case, the faster it goes.
Additional information for those who don't even know the basics of bullets Cartridges - A cartridge is the whole package, it's the bullet, the case, and the propellant charge inside that case. Bullet - The metal projectile itself, this does not actually include the case. Magazine - Used to hold cartridges, NEVER, EVER CALL THIS A CLIP. IT'S NOT A CLIP.
Useful, full of bad jokes, and easy enough to understand. Everything I expect from you. Good work, buddy. Nice to have a reference we can all use and agree on.
