Ooh, I missed this thread starting A shame, that.
Personally, I would love to get a gun(or eight), but since the place I live in has a even more muddled set of gun regulations than most, its a tad unlikely.
On a controversial but non-political topic, which is better(in bog-standard FMJ form, fired from a bog-standard rifle length weapon, at ranges of 300-400 meters), 5.45x39 or 5.56x45?
Bullet behaviour in target depends on a huge number of factors including its construction. .223 rem / 5.56x45 has more kinetic energy at muzzle than the 5.45x39 with similar ballistic coefficient so its "more powerful", but that is not the whole story.
5.45x39 is almost 100 % military cartridge, and its bullet has a steel jacked below the surface coppering but an empty nose. The nose flattens to the side upon impact which makes the bullet tumble and yaw violently, making the bullet dissipate its energy into cavity(= wound) very rapidly, while the strong steel jacket makes sure the bullet stays (mostly) in one piece. Thats why its often called "the poison bullet". I'm pretty sure that steel jacket bullets also work well against soft body armor. One of the downsides is that while also cheap, the steel jacket cant be cast quite as accurately as copper alloys, reducing accuracy.
Your typical 55 or 62 gr 5.56x45 FMJ, be it civilian or military, performs in a fairly similar way in soft tissue. But without the flattening, hollow bullet nose, the behaviour strongly depends on the impact velocity and even angle. At very high speeds the bullet tends to tumble and shred massive wound cavities(except with even more kinetic energy), but once that speed drops it starts to mostly just poke a clean hole through the bad guy, which is obviously less effective.
Many 5.56x45 cartridges, such as most military ones, also do not use steel jackets but a very thin copper one on the lead core. If such a bullet tumbles in tissue(close range shot) or hits a bone, it tends to break up into tiny pieces. The ability of the bullet to tumble and yaw very soon after entering the target and then fragmentate and pump all that 1700 Joules onto the target causes absolutely massive damage disproportional to the caliber and kinetic energy compared to many other calibers and bullets. Such wounds are nearly impossible to clean and a torso hit is practically always lethal. From a 20" barrel you can expect reliable fragmentation from 55gr M193 out to about 150 meters, which is just fine for most purposes.
At 400 meters, you wont be getting fragmentation any reliably from any 5.56x45 FMJ cartridge and gun combination but you'll still retain kinetic energy, ballistic arc's flatness and accuracy(caliber and gun depending) edge over a 5.45x39 firearm. 5.56x45 Rem ammo OTOH is slightly heavier, but I do believe its more multi purpose.
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Topic: The Guns, Weapons, and Tactics Thread (Read 23017 times)