More Gun Questions

[NotBillMurray]

Yeah, that's it

MuzzleVelocity^2 * Bullet Weight / 450240.

 

[RogueLeader]

Mass does not decrease velocity. A larger mass requires more force to accelerate, thus resulting in a lower acceleration. It only requires more time to reach a certain velocity.

 

[Kibbles-N-Bits]

the .50 round has been around a lot longer than WW1. It was used in the Buffalo guns. Effective range of nearly a mile, and very damn accurate. Only thing is, unless you have about 60inches of padding on the stock, firing it will leave a massive bruise... or break your shoulder.

 

[NotBillMurray]

Not trying to be argumentative, but neither statement is correct. Increasing mass will reduce the muzzle velocity if all other factors remain the same, but they rarely do. The assumption should not be made that a heavier bullet will be slower than a lighter bullet, as the opposite is often true. But there are so many factors that contribute to the muzzle velocity that make assumptions like that totally invalid.

 

[Gryphon]

Wrong, Kibbles. The .50 BMG came about as a result of experiences in WW1 and was introduced to the US military inventory with the M1921 (which later became the M2) machinegun in 1921. It was designed to be an antiaircraft weapon similar to the 11mm Hotchkiss "Balloon Gun". Later on it was adapted to antipersonnel, antivehicular, and antistructural roles, most normally being mounted on vehicles since it's not exactly a manportable system (the gun weighs 84 lbs. minus the tripod).

One thing the .50 BMG has NEVER been though, is an antitank round.

 

[Iceman]

Wrong, Kibbles. The .50 BMG came about as a result of experiences in WW1 and was introduced to the US military inventory with the M1921 (which later became the M2) machinegun in 1921.

Damnit Gryph you beat me to it .
[Edit]
Wasn't the main man portable anti-armour round in WWI the .55 boys (spelling?) cartridge, fired by them old bolt actions?
[/edit]

Iceman.

 

[Cap'n Beeb]

Gryphon: Where can I get some more on that 11mm Ballon Gun? Sounds kinda interesting...

 

[Gryphon]

Nope, the Boys came around in the mid-30's. I was at a shoot where a Boys owner was lighting his specimen up, and that thing has a remarkably loud crack to its report. Definitely not something you want to fire without earmuffs.

The world's first anti-tank "rifle" came from the masters of necessity-begetting-invention, the Germans. Long into World War 1 they developed the 13mm Mauser anti-tank rifle. It was basically a large Mauser action with a hefty stock and bipod, and delivered a 13mm armor piercing slug at some 3000 fps.

There's not a lot of data out there about the 11mm Hotchkiss, although I imagine it wouldn't have appeared too differently from the standard version:

Military Small Arms of the 20th Century states:

The Hotchkiss 'Balloon Gun' was employed to deal with German observation balloons which were an important part of the German artillery-fire direction system on the Western Front, although the design actually began as a heavy infantry machine gun. It used similar mechanical principles to the lighter Hotchkiss but was chambered for a special 11mm round developed from the old 11mm Gras rifle cartridge and carrying an incendiary bullet to ignite the hydrogen-filled balloons. The gun was relatively heavy and immobile and its use did not continue into the post-war years, though the Americans adapted the cartridge to a special version of the Vickers gun for use in a similar role and continued the development into the 1920's, eventually abandoning it when the .50 Browning began to show promise.