Ammo question

Status
Not open for further replies.
C

Crosby67ss

Member
Joined
Jan 10, 2011
Messages
24
Location
North Carolina
hey yall i know i might sound dumb when i ask this but just hang in there and tell me please. I have never understood why the 5.56 bullet has 55 grains of powder and the .30 cal Carbine bullet has 110 grains of powder. but the .30 cal carbine bullet is smaller than the 5.56 bullet. :confused:
 
Uh? Say again, last; interrogative: What?

The FMJ .30carbine round has a diameter of 3/10 of an inch, about 7mm, but weighs 110 grains.
The 9original/typical) FMJ 5.56mm round has a diameter of 5.5mm, about 0.22" and it weighs 55 grains.

A "grain" comes from old measurement standards and refers back to the weight of mustard or barley grains. It's very close to 65grams; it's 1/7000 of a pound.

The powder charge behind the projectile can vary based on the powder type.
 
Umm....
Ok when they list 55gr 5.56 ammo they are talking about the bullet weight not the amount of powder it has. The bullet weighs 55gr. It could have different amounts of powder depending on what company or person loaded it. Usually it would be in the 23-26gr range.

A 30carbine that is listed as 110gr has a 110gr bullet. I am not familiar with loading it so I could only guess as to how much powder it uses. Not 110gr though. Not even magnums carry that much- at least none I have loaded.
 
I am not sure what the question is but I think your confusion is 5.56 is in millimeters and .30 cal is in inches so if you convert .30 to millimeters you get 7.62 for the .30 cal
 
Pants, I think he's referring to the casing when he says "jacket."

Which will be true, .30carbine is a 33mm long case, so, it's most of 12mm shorter than the 5.56x45 (or the 5.45x39 for that matter).

Wow, wiki makes me smart--.30 carbine is a .308" round (7.8mm) with a case capacity of 14gr water (0.92874 cm³)

5.56x45 is round of 5.70 mm (0.224 in) diameter, case capacity of 28.5 grains H2O(1.85 cc)
 
A typical 30 carbine load would contain around 12-16 grains of powder with a 110gr bullet. A 223 would have somewhere around 20-27 grains with bullets ranging between 35-80 grains.

The 30 carbine velocity is around 2000 fps while the 223 will be around 2800-3400fps depending on the load.
 
wiki makes me smart
Click to expand...
Yes, it can do that for anyone capable of a basic google search.

Crosby67ss, wikipedia has quite extensive information on most common ammunition, including dimensions, common commercial loads and their velocity, weights, case capacities, parent cartridges, similar cartridges, common guns using the rounds, metric/US conversions and most alternative names, pictures, etc etc.

But first I think you may need this:
ammo_basic_components.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.30_Carbine
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5.56
 
Grains are a unit of measure for weight, not physical grains of powder. In reference to loaded ammunition, the grain weight is specifying the weight of the projectile. The powder load varies by manufacturer and is not advertised.

1 gram = 15.4323584 grains according to Google.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top