We owe these guys so much...

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by SteamWake

Heres a couple of photo's .. only the first two images but it will answer the questions about the size of the round.

http://www.foxnews.com/slideshow/hea...juries?slide=1

He lived through that?

Originally Posted by UnderseaLcpl

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.

You've a lot better idea than me on these types of subjects James....very informative

[TLAM Strike]

Interesting UnderseaLcpl. I noticed that this rounds is used in some Sniper Rifles much like our Barrett. I wonder if the Taliban got it hands on some

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by TLAM Strike

Interesting UnderseaLcpl. I noticed that this rounds is used in some Sniper Rifles much like our Barrett. I wonder if the Taliban got it hands on some

I dont know many snipers that shoot pepole in the top of the head. Hell it may be freindly fire as far as we know.

Very long ranged Sniper shots actually come down into the target.
Not on a flat plane.
Hollywood has many believeing that.
It's a big arc.
In nearly every case though?
A .50 cal at extreme ranges still blows the body apart.
No little hole 'AKA' Hollywood.
Massive bodily distruction!

I'd bet the round fell out of an airbourne unit.
The terminal velocity would be much less then a fired round.

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by privateer

Very long ranged Sniper shots actually come down into the target.
Not on a flat plane.

That is what I was thinking. Also Afghanistan is very mountainous perhaps this trooper was hit by a guy at a higher elevation than himself.

If a round is fired?
It's velocity is VERY high.
Even on a downward arc it's still much faster then just falling
from the sky.

If it fell from an aircraft overhead?
It could only reach it's terminal velocity.
Once that is reach it can not go faster without help.
Laws of Physics and all that.

It's like if I stood on the Empire State Building and shot a pellet at you.
Since the pellet is travaling faster then it's terminal velocity?
And it takes much longer for wind resistance to slow it down?
It's gonna do some serious damage!

Now if I just drop it?
It will hurt like a MOTHER!
Cause it can only reach a certain speed with gravity pulling it
and wind resistance pushing against it.

A heavy projectile will arc into the Earth before wind resistance
can slow it down to it's terminal velocity.
Unless you do a nearly vertical shot that is.
As the projectile would stall out.

[UnderseaLcpl]

Originally Posted by TLAM Strike

Interesting UnderseaLcpl. I noticed that this rounds is used in some Sniper Rifles much like our Barrett. I wonder if the Taliban got it hands on some

I'm sure they have. The 14.5mm was used in the old Soviet PTRS anti-tank rifles. A lot of Soviet gear was captured in the Soviet-Afghan war, so it wouldn't surprise me if the round came from a PTRS.

Other weapons, such as the KPV heavy machine gun used the 14.5mm, but the fact that it was a HEI round leads me to believe that it was fired from a PTRS. That's pure speculation, though. I don't know anything from ground perspective in Afghanistan, but I know that insurgents in Iraq would often confuse round types in RPGs and HMGs (firing Anti-personnel warheads at armored targets and fortifified walls) I could show you if I could get my movies off my old laptop.

Going OT for a sec, does anyone know about how much it would cost to recover contents from a hard drive, or how likely it would be to be successful? I have a lot of footage and pictures that I can't get off my old HP laptop because it won't boot correctly. Thanks in advance for any help.

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by UnderseaLcpl

Going OT for a sec, does anyone know about how much it would cost to recover contents from a hard drive, or how likely it would be to be successful? I have a lot of footage and pictures that I can't get off my old HP laptop because it won't boot correctly. Thanks in advance for any help.

Around here about 80 bucks and no gaurentees however they are usually successfull up to 90% recovery unless there was physical damage to the drive itself.

I have heard stories of data being recovered from 'disposed' goverment fixed disks which had holes drilled through them.