Quote:
Originally Posted by Tegyrius
The relative difficulty of reloading steel-cased ammo makes me wonder if Western weapons and calibers might actually be desirable among the Pact forces who are operating farther to the west.
I also wonder if shotgun reloading would be relatively rare due to the combination of low military utility and high per-round materials consumption.
Opinions, guys?
- C.
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Well, shotgun shells don't use a whole lot of powder (12 gauge is roughly the same as a round of 5.56mm in terms of power if fast power is used in the shotgun shell). Typically they will use a lot of lead, but then one can substitute almost anything for lead in a pinch for birdshot, at least, with varying effectiveness.
re: brass vs steel, soft steel would be just as easy to manufacture new as brass would, with the bonus that steel is a lot more common as a scavenged material. I don't really see a huge advantage there for the WP nations converting over to NATO calibers. IIRC (too lazy to re re-research it again), brass glides better and won't fuse to the chamber like uncoated steel will though, which is one of the reasons why the Russians lacquer coat their steel ammo, so that is an additional supply chain complexity.
I think a few WP countries manufactured brass ammo for 7.62x39mm as well in more limited quantities.