Quote History Originally Posted By wolfganggross:

Its all in the percentages. Yes at one time the 30.06 AP did contain tungsten, but only around 3%. It got real expensive (tungsten is actually a strategic metal) so they switched to molybdenum. Steel is a multi-mixture of all different types of metal and if you play with percentages you can achieve what your looking for.



The tungsten in the M995 and M993 are at 93%. Big difference. It used to be mixed with cobalt as a binder, but everyone has switched to nickel/iron because its more "green" for the environment. Funny because tungsten is up there with depleted uranium in toxicity.



There has been tungsten core penetrators for the .223/5.56 since the mid 60's, US only just started using them with the M993/5 under the Soldier Enhancement Program (SEP). Its hard for our military to just "switch" ammo, without having congress and everybody else deciding on what they want. Remember how long it took the M855A1 to get accepted. Years of testing. You can't just switch ammo either, M855 has to me the ss109 projectile or its not M855. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quote History Originally Posted By wolfganggross:

Originally Posted By Glynn863:

What's old is new again.



WW2-era .30 cal M2 AP has a tungsten core. It would punch through this plate easily.



I have a M2 AP bullet at home that I've sectioned; I'll measure the tungsten core dimensions tonight and post them later.



The tungsten in the M995 and M993 are at 93%. Big difference. It used to be mixed with cobalt as a binder, but everyone has switched to nickel/iron because its more "green" for the environment. Funny because tungsten is up there with depleted uranium in toxicity.



There has been tungsten core penetrators for the .223/5.56 since the mid 60's, US only just started using them with the M993/5 under the Soldier Enhancement Program (SEP). Its hard for our military to just "switch" ammo, without having congress and everybody else deciding on what they want. Remember how long it took the M855A1 to get accepted. Years of testing. You can't just switch ammo either, M855 has to me the ss109 projectile or its not M855. Its all in the percentages. Yes at one time the 30.06 AP did contain tungsten, but only around 3%. It got real expensive (tungsten is actually a strategic metal) so they switched to molybdenum. Steel is a multi-mixture of all different types of metal and if you play with percentages you can achieve what your looking for.The tungsten in the M995 and M993 are at 93%. Big difference. It used to be mixed with cobalt as a binder, but everyone has switched to nickel/iron because its more "green" for the environment. Funny because tungsten is up there with depleted uranium in toxicity.There has been tungsten core penetrators for the .223/5.56 since the mid 60's, US only just started using them with the M993/5 under the Soldier Enhancement Program (SEP). Its hard for our military to just "switch" ammo, without having congress and everybody else deciding on what they want. Remember how long it took the M855A1 to get accepted. Years of testing. You can't just switch ammo either, M855 has to me the ss109 projectile or its not M855. I've never heard of tungsten being toxic. The darts I used to shoot were 95% tungsten 5% nickel which is the most common in top of the line darts. They also make watches and jewelry out of tungsten. The effectiveness of tungsten as a penetrator is the super high density not much is more dense other than DU and Platinum. Does tungsten become toxic when it hits something hard and vaporizes kinda like DU ?