The front end of the case holds the bullet. At the rear is the primer, which in center-fire cartridges is a cap sunk into the center at the rear, and in rimfire cartridges encircles the outer edge of the case.
Some cartridges are made without a case. A caseless cartridge consists of a molded propellant charge with a bullet affixed to one end and a primer to the other. The propellant is a relatively slow-burning powder. An explosive that burns too fast could burst the gun barrel. Its burning is started by a spark from the primer, which ignites when struck by the firing pin. The bullet, or projectile, is the part of the cartridge that is fired at the target.
Rapidly expanding gases from the burning powder break the bullet loose from the case and propel it through the barrel at high speed. The inner surface of the barrel has spiral grooves called rifling that cause the bullet to spin, increasing its stability in flight.
Bullets are made of lead, of lead alloyed with tin or antimony, or of a lead core jacketed with a harder metal. The jacket prevents the lead from contaminating the gun barrel and from breaking apart when it strikes a target.
A bullet with an exposed lead point tends to flatten and expand when it strikes, inflicting a severe wound. It is used in rifle ammunition for hunting and in most handgun ammunition intended for self-defense.
By international agreement, expanding bullets are banned from warfare, as are wooden bullets which splinter and white-phosphorus bullets which cause burns. An armor-piercing bullet has a core of extremely hard material, such as tungsten carbide.
Tracer bullets contain a substance that burns and gives off light, aiding the gunner in aiming. Blank ammunition, used in training and for salutes, has a paper, wax, or plastic wad or pellet in place of the bullet. The only complication when using cased ammo is the ejection system is somewhat complicated. But the mechanism is as simple as a flat spring on the side of the bolt that will grip the rim of the cartridge to extract the case from the chamber.
Also, the use of a simple blade of metal as part of the receiver kicks the case off of the bolt face, as the bolt travels back in the receiver. Our understanding of firearms is progressive over the years to the point where we can develop a reliable rifle that can fire thousands of rounds without a single jam.
A caseless firearm does not have a way to eject, or clear the chamber of a live round. It can be a potential danger when you have a failed primer, or when you need to make the firearm safe for transport, disassembly, and cleaning. In theory, caseless ammunition is operational and superior to cased ammo. However, the difficulty is the fact that all firearms are a tightly integrated weapon system. The many attempts to popularize caseless ammunition are just the same as those of replacing steel cars with aluminum.
It can work, but a single change in design and function affects everything about the system. The details require a redesign from the whiteboard up. The first reason why caseless ammunition is not modern-day ammunition is that there are not so many standard caseless versions that have been commercially released. Also, the production of caseless ammo makes for a material challenge. It is near impossible to come up with an explosive that is stable under every conceivable situation.
Bullets get dropped, abraded, shocked, crushed, burned, soaked, shot, overheated, and aged among other harsh treatments. It took hundreds of years for modern bullets to get to the point they are today and that is why they go off only as they are supposed to. The second reason caseless ammunition is not a favorite is that the ammunition is in the gun.
There are a lot of things that must happen in the correct sequence. A mechanical system moves the ammo around and we know that metal-on-metal is more forgiving than metal-on-caseless. Afterward, the explosion must happen in a controlled setting, with a sealed chamber as the explosion propagates. When using a telescoped caseless ammunition, the overall bullet is shorter because the round is surrounded by a propellant.
The explosion must first start by pushing the bullet forward before the rest of the explosion finishes. The explosion needs to be clean because any residue will foul up the mechanical parts. If this happens, it can make the stuff used to make the caseless material strong not to burn correctly in the brief explosion. When using cased ammo it would normally seal against the various chamber parts making it a disposable, controlled environment for the explosion.
Caseless ammo in the chamber is under direct exposure to every explosion. And when the traditional case is ejected it takes lots of heat and soot along with it.
The caseless ammo leaves all the heat and soot inside the mechanism. A third major reason why caseless ammo is not feasible is that to make it work, you also have to make an entirely new gun that works too.
There is also the added difficulty of the fact that cased ammunition already exists. Caseless ammunition should be an improvement and as things are, it is not a necessary improvement. For military use, the requirements of ammunition are tough. All ammo must be able to handle rough and extreme levels of both heat and cold. It is an advantage if you can store the ammunition indefinitely and not explode when ignited. The weapons must portray some demonstrable improvement over conventional designs.
For example, a high cyclic rate is what the caseless ammo promises but modern thinking prefers the use of three-round bursts as opposed to a rapid burst of continuous fire. It is hard to see a high capacity magazine as an advantage. Making a caseless cartridge that will reliably feed on a belt is also a potential challenge. There is no need to have the logistics of two kinds of ammunition when one can suffice, as you risk igniting the entire belt up in flames should one round be hit accidentally.
For every upside, there is a downside, and as it stands the downsides seem to be more than the upsides. Caseless ammunition has been tried and found wanting. If the idea comes to fruition, it may obsolete the cartridge case overnight as it means having a cheaper, lighter, and more compact ammunition. The firearm would be able to carry more than 50 rounds in slim, and inexpensive magazines that can expel them at a higher rate. The result is having a complete firearm that does not need lots of maintenance during combat.
Unfortunately, caseless ammunition has some problems with breech obturation. The deposits of burnt powder or propellant that the gun ejects, will still be left inside the breech. Until there is some sort of breakthrough that makes the propellant eject safely, then the entire notion of having caseless ammo sooner is a nonstarter.
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