Small vs. large bullets (was Auto rifles in boot camp)

[email removed] (M.A.S.) writes:
>
> >(Yeah, I know, they aren't really toys, and I wouldn't want to be hit by
> >one! :-)
>
> No, you wouldn't.  The reason they use those 5.56mm bullets is because
> velocity kills, not size.  I'm not saying that it dosen't hurt to get
> hit with a .45 caliber at 450fps, but a 5.56mm at about 3000fps is a
> lot nastier.

Actually, I believe it is energy which kills.  5.56mm bullets come from
smaller cartridges than 7.62mm ones, and so have less kinetic energy when
they leave the barrel.  Being lighter, they are more affected by air
resistance than 7.62mm bullets, so they lose more energy on the way to
the target, which is why 5.56mm rifles have shorter ranges than 7.62mm
rifles.  (This is all inexpert opinion based on what I've read when this
sort of discussion comes up on the newsgroup sci.military, by the way.)

>								      I
> assume that's why a 4mm Gauss Rifle round is deadlier in the game than
> your standard autorifle, or ACR.  (And you thought Traveller wasn't
> going to get into this!) :-)

In fact, in the days of Striker, in which a gauss rifle's penetration was
not that much better than a 9mm ACR's, I tended to prefer the ACR.  Firing
DS ammo, its penetration was 6 to the gauss rifle's 7, which wasn't too bad.
And the ACR, being lower tech, could get ammo from more planets than the
gauss rifle - if the worst came to the worst, it could fire ordinary slug
ammo, which had a much lower penetration than DS but a much better penetration
than an empty gauss rifle.  Slug ammo, being even lower tech, was readily
available on any world civilised enough to be of interest and uncivilised
enough to let characters wave ACR's around. :-)

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 Adrian Hurt			     |	JANET:  [email removed]
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