You’ve all seen this ammo on the net and wanted to try some, right?
This ammo:
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=38098145
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=38098151
“…Raufus high explosive ammo. This ammo is built identical to the 50 cal. Raufus and also has the sea green tip color. This ammo is twice as explosive as regular incendiary ammo. Upon impact you will get a bright flash and bang three times more powerful than standard incendiary ammo. This ammo will burn at 5000 degrees upon impact. This ammo was tested by a police agency in Florida and one round shot through the windshirld to the interior of a car caught the car on fire and burnt it to the ground. Use EXTREME CAUTION, this ammo is highly flammable upon impact…”
And this ammo:
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=38388039
“…yellow tip incindiary starburst ammo. This ammo flashes/explodes and then emits a shower of titanium sparks/fragments upon impact. This is some extremely fun, and devastating ammo to shoot…”
I couldn’t resist any longer and the guy has the most enormous collection of positive ratings on gunbroker. But no one has posted how it shoots and wether or not it actually WORKS. I decided to start an evaluation of t myself. Its only money, right…
I finally bought some 7.63x39 in each of 2 types:
They were reloaded steel Wolf cases, no lacquer, just plain steel and headstamped Wolf, even.
So I bought a token amount and split the cores CAREFULLY with a hacksaw after pulling them with an inertia puller.
Pic 1 shows the 2 projectiles side-by-side: on left the 7.62x39 Yellow Tip Incendiary Star Burst; on the right the 7.62x39 Raufus. You can see the ‘raufus’ is much longer accounting for greater volume of SOMETHING inside.
Pic 2 are the bases, again Starburst on left, raufus on right. I was wondering if they were filled with something special. They are not supposed to be tracers. Turns out, they were just lead bases.
Pic 3 is the starburst sawed in half lengthwise. I left what appeared to be the incendiary compound (powder) in the tip of the left half of the core, and the lead half of the core is present in both sides (at the bottom). The right side tip is hollow for comparison. I removed the powder from this side easily and did a little test on it (see below). Of note, the lead portion of the core was very loosely affixed and fell out on its own after sectioning.
Pic 4 is the ‘raufus’ with both lead core halves removed, the core split and emptied, and the chunks of powdered compound to the left of the core. Other than the powder being more compacted and there being more of it- can’t say by how much as I didn’t weigh it- there was nothing different between this and the starburst. The lead appeared to be the same size in both.
I did take the powder from each, separately, and made little piles on the concrete. I applied a butane lighter to it and both piles let off sparks. It sure looks like magnesium or aluminum powder in the way it burns. Unfortunately, I have no other definitive way of knowing. It definitely did ignite, though it required me to keep the flame applied to keep getting sparks, i.e. it wouldn’t ‘take off’ on its own. Perhaps with the heat generated from being fired and impacting a hard surface it would all go off at once and make a nice show.
I wouldn’t doubt it, but I am hoping someone will try it and post it. I have no private range I can go to that will allow me to fire this stuff off.
Just for kicks, I applied the lighter flame to the lead cores: eventually melted and plopped onto the floor and left a nice silvery mark. Yep, just plain Pb++.
Hope that was interesting to you!
C-
p.s. genuine Raufoss is supposed to
“consist of an aluminium nose cap press filled with an incendiary charge on top of the shell body (heat treated steel) which again is press filled with a HE charge and an incendiary charge. The projectile can also be equipped with a tracer and a self-destruct element. The 12,7 mm Multipurpose projectile differs from the standard design by using a tungsten carbide hardcore to increase penetration capabilities and being encased in a copper jacket.“ (http://www.nammo.com/medium_calibre/index.html)
so this is not “built identical to the 50 cal. Raufus “ – which would have a copper jacket, nose filled with an I charge, have a tungsten penetrator, and a body filled with HE- but since manufacturing new AP ammo is a big no-no, I can see why. Still thought I’d mention the difference.
This ammo:
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=38098145
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=38098151
“…Raufus high explosive ammo. This ammo is built identical to the 50 cal. Raufus and also has the sea green tip color. This ammo is twice as explosive as regular incendiary ammo. Upon impact you will get a bright flash and bang three times more powerful than standard incendiary ammo. This ammo will burn at 5000 degrees upon impact. This ammo was tested by a police agency in Florida and one round shot through the windshirld to the interior of a car caught the car on fire and burnt it to the ground. Use EXTREME CAUTION, this ammo is highly flammable upon impact…”
And this ammo:
http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=38388039
“…yellow tip incindiary starburst ammo. This ammo flashes/explodes and then emits a shower of titanium sparks/fragments upon impact. This is some extremely fun, and devastating ammo to shoot…”
I couldn’t resist any longer and the guy has the most enormous collection of positive ratings on gunbroker. But no one has posted how it shoots and wether or not it actually WORKS. I decided to start an evaluation of t myself. Its only money, right…
I finally bought some 7.63x39 in each of 2 types:
They were reloaded steel Wolf cases, no lacquer, just plain steel and headstamped Wolf, even.
So I bought a token amount and split the cores CAREFULLY with a hacksaw after pulling them with an inertia puller.
Pic 1 shows the 2 projectiles side-by-side: on left the 7.62x39 Yellow Tip Incendiary Star Burst; on the right the 7.62x39 Raufus. You can see the ‘raufus’ is much longer accounting for greater volume of SOMETHING inside.
Pic 2 are the bases, again Starburst on left, raufus on right. I was wondering if they were filled with something special. They are not supposed to be tracers. Turns out, they were just lead bases.
Pic 3 is the starburst sawed in half lengthwise. I left what appeared to be the incendiary compound (powder) in the tip of the left half of the core, and the lead half of the core is present in both sides (at the bottom). The right side tip is hollow for comparison. I removed the powder from this side easily and did a little test on it (see below). Of note, the lead portion of the core was very loosely affixed and fell out on its own after sectioning.
Pic 4 is the ‘raufus’ with both lead core halves removed, the core split and emptied, and the chunks of powdered compound to the left of the core. Other than the powder being more compacted and there being more of it- can’t say by how much as I didn’t weigh it- there was nothing different between this and the starburst. The lead appeared to be the same size in both.
I did take the powder from each, separately, and made little piles on the concrete. I applied a butane lighter to it and both piles let off sparks. It sure looks like magnesium or aluminum powder in the way it burns. Unfortunately, I have no other definitive way of knowing. It definitely did ignite, though it required me to keep the flame applied to keep getting sparks, i.e. it wouldn’t ‘take off’ on its own. Perhaps with the heat generated from being fired and impacting a hard surface it would all go off at once and make a nice show.
I wouldn’t doubt it, but I am hoping someone will try it and post it. I have no private range I can go to that will allow me to fire this stuff off.
Just for kicks, I applied the lighter flame to the lead cores: eventually melted and plopped onto the floor and left a nice silvery mark. Yep, just plain Pb++.
Hope that was interesting to you!
C-
p.s. genuine Raufoss is supposed to
“consist of an aluminium nose cap press filled with an incendiary charge on top of the shell body (heat treated steel) which again is press filled with a HE charge and an incendiary charge. The projectile can also be equipped with a tracer and a self-destruct element. The 12,7 mm Multipurpose projectile differs from the standard design by using a tungsten carbide hardcore to increase penetration capabilities and being encased in a copper jacket.“ (http://www.nammo.com/medium_calibre/index.html)
so this is not “built identical to the 50 cal. Raufus “ – which would have a copper jacket, nose filled with an I charge, have a tungsten penetrator, and a body filled with HE- but since manufacturing new AP ammo is a big no-no, I can see why. Still thought I’d mention the difference.
