[SILENTSOUL308]

Anyone know where I can buy Fletchettes? not the loaded rounds, just the actual little darts. want to tinker with some loads with these babies :evil:

[Heavy Metal Hero]

I don't even know if they are legal?

[flutedchamber]

One of the surplus powder and brass dealers had some a few years back. Contact them, they may have too little left to advertise. Have fun.

[ReloaderFred]

Hi-Tech Ammo sells them by the pound. I don't have the link handy, but if you do a search, I'm sure you can find them.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[phydaux]

http://www.hi-techammo.com/ near bottom of page.

[owen]

If flechettes were so great, why isn't everyone using them?

People complain about the smallness of a 9mm hole. here's an idea, lets go all the way down to a .5mm hole!

[donttellthewife]

I think I've heard of these being called a beehive round due to the sound of the flechettes flying through the air sounding like bees, killer bees that is. I think you'll have to have special wads to load them, I've seen them at gun shows but didn't look to close. If someone sales them doesn't that make them legal, just kidding. Be sure and check you local and federal laws first, I think nato banned them due to unnessasary suffering:scrutiny:

[Spiggy]

sabots are generally employed for the use of sing fletchette shots. This is where I hear the problems started:banghead:

[Hkmp5sd]

If flechettes were so great, why isn't everyone using them?


One reason they aren't used in Florida is because they are illegal.

[ReloaderFred]

donttellthewife,

When I was in the Marine Corps back in the late 60's, the beehive round was the load from the 40mm grenade launcher that contained steel BB's. Flechettes were loaded into a multitude of rounds, from 12 gauge shotgun to 105mm cannon rounds.

Spiggy,

The 12 gauge rounds used an elongate wad made of plastic, with a steel washer at the base of the wad to push the flechettes. I think I may still have a couple of rounds around someplace. At one time, I had several hundred, but have shot and traded most of them. I still have some of the individual flechettes in my sample drawer on my loading bench. I've seen them in two different lengths, and I'm assuming the longer lengths were for the cannon rounds.

Silentsoul308,

I've fired the 12 gauge round and wasn't particularly impressed. It won't penetrate the windshield of a car. It also takes a few yards for the darts to stabilize. Within about 10 yards, they hit sideways and are pretty unstable. After about 12 yards or so, they straighten out and go in like needles. When stabilized, they will go through the outside skin of a car door, but not all the way through. Up closer, they hit sideways and won't penetrate the steel of the door.

Flechettes were primarily designed for up close jungle fighting and for use against charging masses. They didn't prove particularly deadly, and I believe they may have been abandoned as a tactical round. At any distance at all, they lose their energy rather quickly and don't produce much of a wound.

Several states have outlawed them, and I believe California is one of them. The darts are cute, but that's about it. They look meaner than they proved to be, hence politicians jumping up and down and banning them. They would have no use for hunting game at all and their use as a defense round would produce marginal results in my opinion.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[SILENTSOUL308]

Thanks for the replies all, good info submitted. To address the legality issue..................... Is anything thats fun ever legal?! lol thanks again all.

[emitt1]

They are advertised in the Shotgun news three times a month.

[dixee]

I Have Some Fletchettes I Would Be Willing To Sell]

[RyanM]

You're a year late, and this isn't the forum to sell stuff.

[Roadkill]

What the hell - its related. In 1969 I was on the Cambodian border outside Dautieng at a firebase called "Blue". It got dark, we pull in for the night except for Lps and a couple of ambush patrols. Within an hour movement was reported all over, the Lps and patrols were called in and the probing started. We had three 105s at the base plus a 81mm and couple of 60mm mortars. Illumination was sent up, trip flares went off, we got mortared, then a RPgs hit. We returned fire, ect -artillery went out, then they started really opening up from the rubber trees about 150 yards out. The 105s lowered their barrels and slammed about five rounds each of fletchettes into the treeline. They had a real high pitched whine. The firing stopped. It got quiet except for a few mortar rounds. At daylight next morning I was sent with a sweep team of the area looking for a body count. I carried an Ithaca 12ga pump with forty rounds of 00 in a claymore bag. It was almost light and still dark in the rubber trees. I eased into the treeline and about twenty feet head stood a NVA. I fired with the shotgun, rolled came up he was still there, fired twice more and dropped to reload. Other team members are firing into treeline, I'm hollering there's a dam gook, I raise up, he's still there, I fire four times. Saw his left arm blow off. Team Sgt crawls over, I point to NVA, he studies then walks up and kicks him. He had been pinned to the tree by the fletchettes. Scared hell out of me.

[VonFatman]

Dang Roadkill,
Now that's a story! I imagine you don't forget something like that!

Better him than you guys!

Bob