What if the bullet has a telfon sabbot designed to engage the rifling?

[ConnorExum]

During WWII the German K5 series Rail guns used special grooved projectiles that directly engaged the rifling of the gun... So obviously this is easier to achieve on a 28cm projectile or 11 inches for us standard English unit people. But what if the bullet were designed with a malleable disintegrating sabot? One that is large enough to crate the tight bore fit that will increase pressure and velocity while being both soft enough to easily conform to the bore's rifling with a low surface friction coefficient to enable it easily move down the bore once engaged. The obvious simple answer is teflon, but does it with stand the heat?

I'm curious if anyone has tried it? The Germans used to be able to get 3700fps out of the standard K5 rifle... I bet 6mm Br type case with a bullet of this sort would see a 30% increase in velocity no problem. Now that's just a guess but I would love to know if anyone has seen or done experimentation in this area with small Caliber VLD's and Sabot technology.

 

[Cheechako]

connor

Remington Accelerators do just that. Going back further in time, the US Military,and other countries as well) did considerable testing of such things in just about every conceivable caliber from darts,flechettes) all the way up to artillery.

They all work. In the small calibers, such as shoulder fired weapons, accuracy is never very good because the sabot has to seperate from the projectile in flight. For the larger calibers they are satisfactory and are used in many applications today.

Ray

 

[ConnorExum]

You see I'm not creating a sub-caliber ammunition. Like the Swedish use in their 308 Caliber cartridges, I'm talking about making a gas -checking Sabot that might not even discard after firing like the German K5 Rail Gun had.... This would be a full size 6mm BR shooting a full size BR not the sub-caliber designs like Remington's Accelerators but actually just means to crate a very tight bore seal and thus increase the pressure and efficiency of the powder available in the cartidge.

 

[Cheechako]

connor

If you make a sabot that does not seperate you destroy the BC of the bullet. If you are talking about a teflon coating on the bullet, yes, that's been done. As has Moly and all the other slippery stuff.

I don't think you will create a tighter seal with a soft bullet coating thereby raising the pressure. But that's just my ignorant farm-boy opinion. Squeeze bore projectiles would do that much more effectively but it still leaves you with the issue of accuracy.

If your goal is to increase pressure and velocity, just go to a bigger capacity case. If your goal is increased accuracy, I think it has been well proven that you don't need super velocities to do so. Just the contrary.

Again, JMHO

Ray

 

[ConnorExum]

The Germans, didn't see a decrease in BC with there bullets because they reach 39miles unaided. I think the sabot is made to form fit the groves and and lands of the barrel the BC shouldn't be really affected at all.

http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-weapons/anzio_annie.htm

Notice he projectiles, this what I'm talking about.

 

[ConnorExum]

You should be able to apply the Whitcomb Area rule to the bullet and maximize the BC of the bullet still even if we add a little area to the main bearing surface if we reduce the areas in front sectional of the bullet and the boat tail of the bullet.

 

[ConnorExum]

I think the key to maximize the bullet for Supersonic flight, and forget subsonic performance altogether. I mean if you're propelling a 117grain bullet with a BC of .61-.62 at 3700-3800fps who cares if the BC drops of to .43 or .35 at velocities under 1100 FPS??? It seems rather unimportant to me. Since I'm only concerned with highest possible performance at speeds above supersonic velocity not subsonic or transonic velocities.