Ricochet test small arms ammunition, ststus report December 2011

Authors:

  • Sofia Hedenstierna
  • Patrik Appelgren
  • Melker Skoglund
  • Urban Widing

Publish date: 2011-12-30

Report number: FOI-R--3373--SE

Pages: 27

Written in: Swedish

Keywords:

  • Weapon danger areas
  • WDA
  • Ricochet
  • Small calibre projectiles

Abstract

This status report describes primarily the ricochet trials conducted at FOI Grindsjön during the autumn of 2011. The project also included some literature review and analysis regarding the methodology for translating ricochet data into weapon danger areas (WDA). The aim of the ricochet trials was to develop a dataset of traceable ricochet parameters describing the ricochet behaviour in various shooting range environments. The results should form the foundation of a database used for risk area assessments of small calibre ammunition following the WDA design described in SäkI. The parameters studied in these series of trials were two types of 5,56 mm ammunition hitting three different target materials at a total of four impact angles from a shooting range of 50 m. in two consecutively placed witness screens and the ricochet velocity was measured from high speed film of the impact. The results showed that the greatest deflection as well as the greatest reduction in velocity was obtained for impacts against sand. A slight difference in deflection and in fragmentation behaviour was observed between the two types of projectiles. At 50 m shooting range the projectiles fragmented on impact at impact angles below 10°. The resulting test data form the basis of the ricochet database that is created as part of this project. The database is planned to be expanded during 2012-2013 through new trials with increased number of parameters regarding distance, impact angle, target material, and calibres.