RE: RE: [DL] Gun + Water = ???

[Frempath2@netscape.net]

Actually the first self contained shotgun shells were all metal.  Very durable, but very expensive.  The paper and brass rounds were created later and worked very well for sporting use.  However, as you pointed out, paper swells when it gets wet.  For this reason the troops using shotguns in the south pacific in WWII were issued the old all brass cartridges.  Jungle humidity + paper cartridge = shiney club.  By Vietnam many shotgun cartridges were made of brass and plastic.  Though the plastic did not swell when wet or exposed to humidity, they had a shortcoming.  Plastic melts when exposed to heat such as builds up durring a firefight.  A shotgun with a gummed up action or plugged barrel once again is just a shiney club, and the WWI surplus all brass cartridges were once again in demand.

Shotguns were popular for jungle fighting as they spread out as well as a submachine gun and a large boom is more intimidating than pap-pap-pap.

g'day
frempath


"Jeff Yates" <jyates@primaryfunction.com> wrote:

>Several replies have already been made, so I'll add these:  Weren't very
>early shotgun shells made of paper? Water very easily ruins that.  And
>wouldn't a barrel full of mud be very bad when you pull the trigger too --
>if you havent' ruind the ammo, it goes off into a pretty plugged barrel...
>
>Jeff Y.



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