A lot of people I know have been saying that to prevent mass shootings, we should regulate ammo for “assault weapons”.
I understand that there are many bullet types that can be fired from either a rifle or pistol of the proper caliber. Is assault weapon-specific ammo even a real thing? Since nobody can even agree on what counts as an assault weapon, I imagine the answer is no.
You would be correct.
Most “assault weapons” (Gah! What idiot came up with that?) will probably feed better with FMJ ammo, but that is also the ammo that causes less damage than say hollow-points or soft-nosed ammo.
The 7.62x39mm ammo using in AK-47 type weapons isn’t used much for anything else, so I suppose you could ban that ammo. AR-15 style weapons usually use bulk quantities of 5.56x45mm NATO standard ammo, but sporting .223 Remington works just fine. And many ARs can be found or rechambered in other cartridges.
“Special ammo” for “assault weapons” to me just means bulk mil-spec ammo, you can easily buy in 5000 round quantities. Buying .223 sporting ammo is more likely to get you a few 20 round boxes from the local store.
Not really. It may have started out as a new cartridge, but quickly gets copied into civilian loadings and numerous other rifles are produced to use it.
The M-16 uses the 5.56 x 45 NATO cartridge, which is a very slightly modified .223 Remington civilian cartridge. Either cartridge can be used in either type of rifle with some cautions that I doubt a terrorist is concerned about.
The .223 in turn is just a .222 Remington cartridge lengthened 0.060" (about 1/16 of an inch) and the necked down portion moved forward to produce a bigger powder volume. I think you can just fire form the .222 in a .223 chamber and it turns into a 223. So would they ban that ammo also? Shooters are very resourceful about turning one cartridge into another. Special forming dies are made for just this purpose. Guess we have to ban them also.
Besides, if people realize they cannot just eliminate 300 million firearms, how would they ever eliminate billions, if not trillions of cartridges?
The “hardened core” military ammo does have restrictions. For some time now, any “armor piercing” cartridge that can be fired from a pistol cannot be sold. I remember the anguish in the AR15 community when an AR pistol first came out, as now the cheap penetrator ammo was going away.
Oh - the ammo grabbers didn’t realize the AR15 comes in pistol form, which can easily be fitted with a illegal but cheap auto-link to turn it into a machine gun, and 100 round beta mags fit on it?
DennisGun marketers.
Well there is the same design as .45-70 …
See .45-70 - Wikipedia , which is still available. So it does exist.
All we have to do is limit the bullets to 1880’s designs. Which is what some people buy and USE !!! For hunting.
yes thats why they have all these HUNTING RIFLES. For hunting, right ? So why not just sell the bullets you use FOR HUNTING… right ?
Because its blunt, well it doesn’t penetrate walls, glass, body armour (eg bullet proof vest).
All they have to do is make the bullet more square… short… length about the same as the diameter.
Tumbling is irrevelant, its the same as going straight… its square you see ? It doesn’t matter about tumbling or not.
It also can’t be secretely hollowpointed, or otherwise made soft, or else it will never leave the rifle. Its got to be a solid pellet.
It can’t be sharpened,as there is no spare metal to remove.
But being a small bullet, its fast and got a long range relative to the cartridge size. But accuracy ? well what are you going shooting long range anyway. Warning shots. Accurate enough for that.
How can I say that its reasonable to steer the industry toward small bullets ?
Recently NATO did just that for their MILITARY USE
Look at the FN 5.7×28mm FN 5.7×28mm - Wikipedia
The problem with hollowpoints is that they are no good against body armour. Big bullets just take up more space and so fit less rounds in the magazine.
So nato wanted a small sharp bullet… and on the same cartridge as a long bullet, its faster. So they got these newly designed FN 5.7x28’s. Its twice as long as diameter, and has a sharp point. Seems to suit NATO and they sell target practice versions … would also do fine for hunting.
So thats a possible half measure… but the full measure is to limit the bullet to being rather square and blunt. the sharp bullet for military , police use. shorter blunt bullets for the same gun,for target practice and hunting.
Let’s start with a definition of an assault weapon other than being black and equipped with a pistol grip.
I don’t want to ban all guns, just shooter guns.
Honestly “assault weapon” isn’t a real class of weapon so the OP’s question has no answer. It is literally a legal term used to define a type of firearm that a jurisdiction wants to restrict, and the definition differs from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Some jurisdictions define the term so loosely you can’t be sure what they mean. Sometimes a weapon must have rapid fire capabilities to be considered an “assault weapon”, other times it must have a “large” magazine (with “large” being arbitrary). It could even include any semiautomatic pistol that has a detachable magazine. You pretty much have to define the term before talking about it.
An assault rifle on the other hand is a recognized weapon class and includes any rifle that allows selective fire and is fed by a magazine.
I’m honestly not sure what definition this thread references unless it’s just any semiautomatic firearm.
Since they evoke the military look, how about “so-called assault weapons”? 
The definition of “assault weapon” depends a lot on which jurisdiction you’re talking about. It varies state by state or federal.
There is no “assault weapon-specific ammo”. Generally-speaking, a cartridge is loaded into a barrel, the breach is closed, point the muzzle at something you intend to hit, and pull the trigger. The firearm could be a single-shot, a double-barrel, bolt-action, pump-action, lever-action, gas-operated action, recoil-operated action, single action, double action, slide-action, whatever. Load the cartridge - close the breach - fire the weapon.
The chamber for the cartridge is specifically cut into a barrel to match the intended cartridge. A .243 Winchester cartridge fits into a barrel cut for a .243 Winchester. A .244 Remington fits into a barrel cut for a .244 Remington.
How to use the term “assault weapon” appears to be an arbitrary decision.
Ugh. There’s no way a weapon with that in it can fire three rounds without jamming.
And fires a round smaller than 7.62x51mm; the FN-FAL, for instance, is a battle rifle, not an assault rifle.
No. The only example I can think of is ammo that never really caught on and is basically impossible to buy, like 4.73x33mm or is basically unavailable in the civilian market, like 4.6x30mm (though Zombieland seems to think so).
Tons of people use it and .223 for hunting. I would consider both too weak for deer, but it can and has been in use for that purpose. Both are popular varmint rounds.
I am having a real hard time parsing this post, but are you suggesting that ammo has a point because it works the same way as a knife? 
No, this is solely for aerodynamics.
And do you think that .45-70 can’t be hollowpoint? There are tons of examples. Furthermore many of the examples are plain lead, so anyone can make ersatz hollowpoints pretty easy. .45-70 has over 2x the muzzle energy of .223.
The trend over the last 50 years of using smaller ammo is because it is almost half the weight of the ammo it replaced. Lower weight = soldiers can carry more, while being “good enough” for military purposes.
Let’s not forget that many “assault weapons” (whatever the OP chooses this to mean) are also available in a wide variety of calibers, including common pistol calibers. You can easily purchase an AR-15 style weapon that uses 9mm ammunition loaded into Glock magazines (with capacity for 20+ rounds). In fact, one of the Yo***** videos that news organizations are linking to in order to show the operation of a bump stock also shows the installation of the exact same device on a 9mm AR-15 style weapon.
Pistol cartridges obviously don’t have the knockdown power or range of a rifle cartridge, but automatic fire from such a weapon originating at a point closer to a crowd would have very lethal consequences.
what is this? A blunt bullet won’t penetrate walls or glass? I can assure you .45-70 will punch right through drywall, glass can’t stand up to any projectile. And body armor is usually rated to stop pistol rounds. .45-70 has enough kinetic energy where body armor might not be as effective.
this is the same myth which leads people to think shotguns are the best for home defense because “shotguns don’t penetrate walls.” Sorry, but they most certainly do.
Hmmm…I can see it now: “The ACME Bullet Sharpener!! Sharpens blunt bullets in seconds! Just $19.95! Order within the next 15 minutes and we’ll DOUBLE your order! (S&H required for second unit.)”
The Box O’ Truth meets the .45-70
About 3/4 down the page with photos.
Ah, Running Coach, that is one of my favorite tests they did. Never pick a fight with a buffalo hunter.
As for the mention of blunt bullets, pistol shooters usually use wad-cutter bullets, which are completely squared off, but highly accurate. However, they would lose velocity quickly.
Dennis
I don’t know about jamming, but it would sure be hard to hit anything. But with a normal 30 round mag, it can be made into a full auto pistol. It can be fitted with a silencer, (which despite Hillary’s comment are already legal) and fired with whisper type low velocity rounds. All this could be carried in a brief case.
I only mention the full auto because it can be done, I don’t think it makes for a better weapon unless you are real close as full auto AR pistols would be tough to control.
Ways to make semi auto rifles into full auto have been worked out for various weapons. The “lightning Link” for the AR15 is an example of one such method.
http://www.hk94.com/hk/topic/18916-the-swd-auto-connector-aka-lightning-link/
Only a few hundred were registered (and legal) before they were banned, but as you can see, it is a simple piece of metal easily duplicated by a machinist with a blueprint.
Dennis
[quote=“thelurkinghorror, post:12, topic:797905”]
Tons of people use it and .223 for hunting. I would consider both too weak for deer, but it can and has been in use for that purpose. Both are popular varmint rounds.
Yes, a lot of people use the 7.62 X 39mm round. I have a Ruger Model 77, 4 shot, bolt action hunting rifle that shoots it.
This gun:
Nice little hunting gun. Will put all 4 rounds in a one inch circle at a hundred yard. And you can buy hunting rounds too. It isn’t all just FMJ military ammo.
I’m curious if the shooter had a suppressor and low velocity rounds if less people would have died. In this configuration he would definitely be harder to locate (though the smoke would still give him away) but he’s also firing bullets at such low velocities I wonder how much damage they would have done at the 600 yards he was firing from.