Posted on 07/26/2013 10:29:53 PM PDT by neverdem
The Daily Caller website just published a short article by Michael Bastasch titled "Getting the lead out, literally: US Army plans switch to 'green' bullets".
Green bullets? It appears that the Obama administration is once more pandering to rabid environmentalists by requiring the Army to re-engineer the bullets our men and women in the field use in combat to be more "environmentally friendly". To accomplish this, the military is replacing the lead in bullets with copper. Because the Army doesn't believe in half measures, the Program Executive Officer, Col. Phil Clark has said that they have already eliminated 1,994 metric tons of lead from the military's 5.56mm rounds, and as this program expands to the 7.62mm round, he reports that the total lead reduction in our small arms munitions 3,683 metric tons between 2013 and 2018. A metric ton is 1,000kg, or about 2,200 pounds, so 3,683 metric tons is approximately 8.1 million pounds of lead is the amount the Army will remove from its ammunition over the next five years.
Naturally, the idea of reducing all that lead, which is of course a toxic substance, from the environment is an admirable goal. Almost any time we, as a society can reduce the unnecessary dispersion of toxins, we should consider it a win.
However, the current spot price of lead is $0.94 per pound. The current spot price of copper, on the other hand, is $3.21 per pound. That is a difference of $2.27, or to look at it another way, copper is 341% more costly than lead.
When that cost differential is applied to the additional 3,683 metric tons of copper that must be acquired to replace the lead component of these small arms rounds, the total is $18,431,000.
Nearly twenty million dollars, not to improve the effectiveness of...
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Way back in Viet Nam we opened a new case of C-rats. To our dismay there were no cigarettes, just a note saying cigarettes were hazardous to our heath. With bullets flying over our heads and impacting our sandbags we all thought of the idiots who made that decision.
You'll never take me alive, copper.
The only thing that should matter is whether these new bullets will kill a bad guy before he knows he has been shot.
That is just plain funny. Thank you.
Can you shove a homemade bullet into those casings that pop out of the gun every time you fire? Are those casings reusable? Is there any special equipment involved?
Please excuse my ignorance. My experience with firearms is limited to very occasional practices at the range.
However, Barnes bullets have quite a following, or they used to have at any rate.
I should add that Barnes bullets also cost about 36 dollars, and up, per 50 bullet box.
Hate to burst your bubble but an 180 gr. bullet, regardless of what it is made of, will have the same energy and trajectory as any other 180 grain bullet of the same ballistic configuration. Depleted uranium is heavier than lead but if you are using a 180 gr DPU bullet it will have no greater energy upon impact than a 180 gr lead bullet.
“They already bought a billion bullets,”...JFK bought one thousand Cuban cigars before the embargo.
Give them credit for trying and it just might work.
Plenty of non-thinking, emoting humans here to gather around such a cause.
They really need US disarmed, one way or another.
Yes, shell casings are quite re-loadable. You can buy bullets or make your own(buying them is much easier)and, yes, you need special equipment to reload. You need a Press and dies at a minimum, plus powder measures, powder scales and other gadgets. You can buy books that would help you get started if you wanted to start reloading, I have been reloading my own ammo since I was 20, I am 71 now.
It is cheaper and somehow more satisfying to reload your casings than it is to buy the completed round.
A copper bullet which is dimensionally identical to a lead 180gr bullet will have less mass. A copper bullet with the same mass as a lead 180gr bullet will have to be larger.
Lead isn't some alien substance. It is a product of the earth. It is impossible to toxify the environment with something that came from that environment in the first place.
Barnes bullets(which I do not use, BTW)cost more than lead bullets but their performance can't be denied, neither can their commercial success. BTW, they already sell to the military and have for quite some time, ditto to LEOs.
Back when I was young, if you had a ringworm or fungus infection, my mom would take real copper pennies, put them in a saucer and pour vinegar over them. After a few days the vinegar would turn green, then you could dab it on the ringworm to kill it.
It really worked. Saved on a doctor’s visit.
LOL! Reminds me of the winter siege of Stalingrad when the Germans lost all their resupply aircraft except two.
When the soldiers unloaded those supplies they had...condoms and black pepper.
***Can you shove a homemade bullet into those casings that pop out of the gun every time you fire? Are those casings reusable?***
Yes! Reloading is big! I’ve been a reloader for the last 45 years.
Cases you can’t reload...Aluminum with berdan primers. Boxer primers will work in most cases designed for them.
Boxer primers are used by the US. Berdan by most European armories.
Years ago, a gunsmith (I can’t remember his name, he was from Trinidad, Co, later Salt Lake City) who designed a .22 cal bullet made mostly of copper with a small lead tip.
He said it was devastating on even big game in that it opened up, held together and went through the animal like a small buzz saw.
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