Hendrik_2000
Lieutenant General
Yeah there is video about it I just posted in PLA news and video is it 12.7 bullet or 7.62?
Chinese infantry fighting vehicles
- Thread starter Broccoli
- Start date
99% sure it's 7.62x39mm (AK-47 ammo). The MG used looks like a copy of RPD (Soviet army SAW before RPK).
I'm more curious if it's firing AP or just regular ball ammo. Because that doesn't look like AP to me.
by78
General
Wow, some of that footage is from over 10 years ago. I remember seeing it on the now defunct FYJS way back in the day.
Indeed; but ap in 7.62x39 is relatively rare as this cartridge is substantially weaker than the accompanying 7,62x54R as used in PKM machinegun, so in general it is preferred to use this caliber (7,62x54R) for utilising AP rounds.
I believe standard Chinese ammo (incl. 7.62x39) is steel core, not sure how much this differs to 'standard AP'
Russian (and Chinese?) ammo in this calibre indeed tends to be iron/soft steel cored and using lacquered soft steel cases as well, also for 'standard' 7,62x54R. This practice dates well back to before WW1 ! However this is not to be deemed "armour piercing" but rather due to facilitate production and due to scarcity of lead and abundance of iron/soft steel.
Steel-cored 7.62x54R LPS (Lekhkaya Pulya so Stalnim serdechnikom, Light Bullet with Steel core) aka 57-N-323S adopted into service in 1953. Before that "light" bullets (7.62x54R L mod.1908 and mod.1930) used to have lead. Production of lead bullets stopped in 1953 and cartridges with lead bullets were withdrawn from Soviet Army in 1968
How useful are these things in combat? And what's their utility of use?