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Stopping the Target The purpose of a projectile weapon is, and has been since prehistory, to stop a target. To stop it from moving, from being able to hurt you, or from breathing. This purpose is not necessarily achieved simply by hitting the target; a sling stone may bounce off a leather jerkin, or a cannonball may bounce off the wooden sides of an Age of Sail ship.1 If this happens, then the projectile has failed in its purpose: no matter how skillful the shooter has been in launching and directing his missileto the chosen target, if the missile does not damage or incapacitate the target, then the whole exercise was a waste of time. As a consequence, since prehistory people have given thought to the effects of a projectileupon the target it hits and how these effects can be maximized. A sling stone made of lead may have a greater impact on an enemy soldier than one of stone, even through a leather jerkin. Heavier or faster cannonballs may have a more destructive effect on the hulls and masts of enemy ships.2 There may be more than one acceptable outcome from a ballistic projectile strike. Age of Sail shipswere valuable prizes, soyou, the captain of a frigate out to make a name and fortune for yourself by capturing enemy "prizes," will destroy the enemy only if you cannot capture him. You do not want to smash his hull and sink him; you make use of specialized 1. The USS Constitution,a "super frigate" constructed by the young U.S. Navy especially to combat the smaller British frigates during the War of 1812, was built from live (evergreen) oak and was resistant to the weight of the British cannonballs . The balls simply bounced off, and this venerable ship (the oldest commissioned warship still afloat) was consequently dubbed "Old Ironsides." 2. It is reported that an early-nineteenth-century 32-pound cannonball (the gun itself weighed over a ton and a half) could smash through 3 feet of solid oak at close range (100 yards). See, for example, Heath (2005, chap. 12). Many of the injuries to ships' crews came not from the ball itself but from the high-speed splinters that were sprayed over the decks. 7 152 THUD! Terminal Ballistics ammunition designed to achieve other purposes. Grapeshot (early shrapnel ; think of a supersized shotgun cartridge) was used to sweep the decks of enemy crew while leaving the ship relatively undamaged; chain shot was used to bring down rigging and damage sails, thus hindering maneuvering by the target ship. Earlier in history, arrows were provided with different heads for different purposes. Flat arrowheads for penetrating flesh were given barbs so that they could not easilybe pulled out.The deep wounds caused by an arrow could be made worse by dipping the arrowhead in dung before firing it, leading to infection. (A hunter after game would not use this tactic; it was suitable only for human prey.) Armorpiercing rounds, to use a modern phrase, took the form of conical bodkins that could punch through mail or plate armor.3 The modern period of gunpowder weapons has seen a proliferation of warheads and of scientific investigation into their penetrating and incapacitating power. The study of this last phase of a projectile's trajectory, dubbed terminal ballistics, is a sufficiently mature discipline to have split into several specialized fields of study. In this chapter we will look at two of the main areas of interest: the terminal ballistics of a projectile (a specialized armor-piercing round) penetrating a metal target, such as a tank hull or turret, and the terminal ballistics of a bullet entering a human or an animal. The first area is part of the arms race that has been going on since World War II between armor-piercing weapons and armored vehicles ; the second area is directed toward understanding the physiological effects of a bullet wound and their causes. In both cases the results of extensive study contain a few surprises and are of great interest to anyone who is curious about ballistics. HITTING METAL Throughout the years of World War II, tanks became heavier and heavier in response to antitank guns' becoming larger and larger. It was found, as you might expect, that harder, tougher, heavier and more oblique monolithic plate armor is more resistant to high-explosive (HE) or solid-sho artillery rounds than softer, less tough, thinner steel plates that arepresented face-on to the...

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