.50 cal,a bit different.

[christhurston]

Hello Chaps,I'm afraid that being a total technodork has always prevented me from posting "what's this" piccies,and I'm usually reduced to blundering around on Google until I accidentally stumble across my own answer.

So it has been with a .50 cal round I acquired a while back,what threw me a bit with this particular round was the TW 45 h/stamp.Purely by chance,I discovered this afternoon that this round is,in fact,a 50/30 Salvo Squeeze Bore,and what it's doing in such a case,I don't know.

All I have found out,so far,is that these rounds were used by US Navy river boats in Vietnam,and that they were not entirely successful.There were,also,several different types,and they may well have been used in other situations.

Regards Chris.

 

[TonyE]

.50 cal

That sounds like one of the several variations of the Project Salvo squeeze bore rounds that were developed by the US.

As you cannot post pictures i will try to find a photo so that you can compare.

Regards
TonyE

 

[christhurston]

Great stuff,Tony,maybe someone else has one or two of these that they have yet to identify.

 

[christhurston]

I have found several pics of .50 cal Salvo Squeezebore rounds,but sadly my attempts to work out how I might attach these to this post have,so far,been remarkably unsuccessful.As these,to me at least,seem much more interesting than my other .50 cal ball cartridges,perhaps I could try to describe the round that I have.

It's in a 45 dated Twin Cities case,and has two conical projectiles,one on top of the other,in a semi transparent plastic wrap.There are,I believe,three more,the same, under these first two,the whole arrangement being held in place by four heavy stab crimps in the case neck.

It seems that a barrel attachment reduced these projectiles from .50 cal to .30 cal,I'm unsure if the intention was to produce a shotgun type effect,if so,there must be simpler ways of achieving this.There were several different types of these rounds,and I don't know if they are in any way uncommon,does anyone else have any of these?

Regards Chris.

 

[TonyE]

.50 ssb

I think the origins of the Salvo Squeeze Bore project was possibly the massed charges that US troops face in Korea, but certainly the object of the program was to develop ammunition with the greatest hit potential per round. It was developed in a number of calibres, right down to 9x19mm pistol ammunition.

Over the years I have had a number of different types of SSB rounds, but have always traded them on as I only collect British military ammo.

One of the persons involved with the development was Russell Robinson, a British designer who had worked at Enfield and who had among many other things designed an excellent short receiver .50 HMG for use in armoured vehicles. Unfortunately it was never adopted for service.

Russell worked in the US on the SSB program and retired to Tucson in Arizona. I visited him there in 1985 and he still had boxes of the .50 cal SSB rounds in his garage. I brought a handful back to the UK with me, but they have long gone.

Regards
TonyE

 

[christhurston]

There are some of these SSB rounds about somewhere,then,Tony,your old ones,if no others.No one else seems to want to add anything about any similar rounds they may have.

I acquired several other interesting .50 cal rounds with this SSB,one of which,I'm thinking,might be a practice SLAP type.It doesn't have the tungsten alloy penetrator,instead,having what looks like a normal jacketed bullet.This is in a black plastic sabot,unlike the amber and red versions that,it seems,SLAP rounds are normally fitted with.

It has an '86 dated Lake City case,which sounds right from what I've read so far about the development of these rounds.I've been unable to find any reference,however,to a practice type,so this one is still a little bit of a mystery.

Regards Chris.

 

[TonyE]

Ssb & slap

The .50 SSB rounds are not that rare in collector circles. There are usually a couple at the ECRA meetings at Bisley.

What we are all waiting for is Volume 3 of the Hackley, Woodin, Scranton book that will cover US ammo from 1945 to probably 1990. It has only been twenty years in the making so far, but they promise me it will be out in the next ten years!

As they are not British, I do not have a great deal of detail about the SLAP rounds, but I seem to remember that there was a practice version, but I may be wrong.

Why don't you ask on the IAA forum. That is more US centric so will stand a better chance of a detailed answer.

Regards
TonyE