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Old 04-12-10, 11:52 AM   #6
UnderseaLcpl
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It's definetely 14.5mm high-explosive incendiary; you can tell from the x-ray. Like .50cal rounds of the same type, it has a tungesten core and a small charge in the nose designed to aid in penetrating armor through heat-softening, kind of like a HEAT warhead but backwards.

My guess is that it's a chemically-ignited type of round, but I don't know enough about Warsaw Pact ammo to be sure. Apparently, the round either dropped straight down onto this guy's head with a low enough velocity that the tip didn't shatter and the chemical compund didn't ignite, or the round was fired from extremely long range. Either that or his skull was not hard enough to shatter the tip so the compunds remained stable.

I'm inclined to believe the former is the case, since the velocity of an AP round like that is high enough that it will deform when it strikes dirt, bone, metal, or anything else of substance.
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