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...The new ammunition will use lightweight polymer to replace the brass on the cartridges as well as the metal on the ammo cans used to transports the bullets.......The new polymer ammunition was required to have the same ballistic requirements and be just as lethal as the brass M33 projectile currently used by the Marine Corps....
The first and most obvious difference between brass-cased and polymer-cased ammunition is a weight reduction of up to 40 percent that comes as a benefit with polymer. For the average consumer, this savings might not have as much of an effect, but saving weight has a far-reaching impact on our military.Another important advantage of True Velocity's ammunition is the way it handles heat. Heat is the nemesis of every firearm. High temperatures rapidly accelerate wear by softening the material doing the work. When you combine high pressure from firing with heat, parts start breaking quickly.A polymer case is an insulator rather than a conductor. When the cartridge fires, the case contains the heat and pressure and directs it all down the barrel. Instead of super-heating brass that then heats the chamber around it, the only heat the entire barrel sees is what's found in the bore. Heat will certainly move from the barrel around the bore back into the chamber area, but keeping the heat out initially will reduce how quickly the AR bolt heats up, thereby prolonging its life. The way this ammunition manages heat should appeal to military and high-volume shooters alike.True Velocity starts their manufacturing process with a steel case head that gets a polymer overmold. The mold forms everything but the case's shoulder and neck. Case thickness variation is held to .0003 inch, which is incredibly precise. A second mold process forms the shoulder and neck. Later, the two components join to create one complete case. Molding the shoulder and neck as separate pieces allows for consistent case thickness that's unattainable any other way that I'm currently aware of. True Velocity's finished cases then move on to be loaded as ammunition.More at link.
True Velocity is also working closely with Dillon Aero. They used Dillon's M134 Minigun to fire thousands of rounds for several months. The M134 is also chambered in 7.62 NATO and fires 3,000 rounds per minute. The standard loadout on a vehicle equipped with an M134 is 9,000 rounds, so the True Velocity ammunition yields a 240-pound weight savings per basic load. The M134 reliably cycled the ammunition, a claim that no other polymer-cased ammunition can make.A worrisome trait about the M134 is the way it can cook-Âoff live rounds with brass-cased ammunition. A cook-off occurs when a cartridge sits in a hot chamber and spontaneously fires because the powder inside the case becomes hot enough to ignite. Dillon has a 1,500-round test they run on the Minigun and brass-cased ammunition will cook-Âoff after sitting in the chamber anywhere from 3 to 60 seconds. Dillon recorded a 20-percent lower bore temperature using True Velocity ammunition (thanks to the case insulating the chamber), so they ran a 2,200-round test on the ammunition. Dillon had to wait 5 minutes before one case got hot enough to melt — but the bullet never left the barrel. The absence of cook-offs in a Minigun should bring a welcome sigh of relief from special operations soldiers and aviators alike.United States' Special Operations Command (SOCOM) has been aggressively monitoring the individual health hazards associated with shooting thousands of rounds per year. SOCOM first became aware of the problem when soldiers working and training in shoot houses tested positive for dangerously high lead levels. SOCOM's testing showed that 30 percent of the toxins any shooter is exposed to came from the gases emanating from freshly fired brass. Arsenic, cyanide and a bunch of nasty stuff is used to make copper and brass products. Super-heating brass in a chamber causes those elements to burn out of the brass for up to an hour after the cartridge fires. Those gasses accumulate in shoot houses and indoor ranges where patrons gain exposure. True Velocity indicated that none of this is a problem with their ammunition.
