WWII ammo thread

[WWIIBUFF]

So, I was wondering what you think was the best rifle ammo from WWII. Service ammo, not 50 cals or anti tank rifles. And you can judge from stopping power to velocity, lightness to availablity. Go crazy.

[RJay]

I don't think there's any question, all the participants ammo killed equally well.

[Charlie the sniper]

6.5x55 Swedish.......Superb round.

[RJay]

and all this time I thought Sweden was neutral in WWII

[17thfabn]

Originally Posted by Charlie the sniper

6.5x55 Swedish.......Superb round.

The 6.5 X 55 Swedish/Norwegian is a great round. But it saw only limited service with the Norwegians in World War II.

The U.S. with its 30-60, the Brits with their .303, the Germans with their 7.92mm, and Russians with the 7.62mm all used a bullet in World War II that was a carry over from World War I and was roughly around 30 caliber as their standard infantry caliber. All four calibers were adopted between the late 1880's and 1906. Power wise all four cartridges are fairly close. Any would be effective out to the range at which most soldiers could be accurate.

For the standard soldier I would think the U.S. M-1 rifle which was the only standard issued semi-auto rifle would be best. The Brits, Germans, and Russians all used good bolt action rifles as their standard issue.

The Japanese and Italians used 6.5mm bolt action rifles as their standard infantry weapon. The Japanese started to convert to a 7.7.mm rifle during the war, but many if not most of their soldiers continued to carry 6.5mm weapons.

I would have thought 6.5mm would have been about the perfect caliber for a military rifle. It is powerful enough, and it is easy to designe a high velocity round for a nice flat trajectory. Both the U.S. and the Brits looked at adopting a smaller caliber before World War II, but many factors prevented this.

[Nighthawk]

Originally Posted by RJay

and all this time I thought Sweden was neutral in WWII

I believe it was Switzerland.

[RJay]

Sweden was also neutral, both sides used the Bofors 40MM AA and both sides used ball bearings made from good Swedish steel. Isn't history strange

[17thfabn]

If I'm not mistaken the only 40mm Bofors that the Germans would have used in World War II would have been captured ones.

[Big ugly]

The 8mm mouser was what my grandpa said was the most feared round for the infantry. He told me that most German snipers were using the 8mm and the damage and the range that was fired was what scared them the most. My uncle(granpas older brother) told me a story about three of his fellow soldiers had been picked off from 900 yards. When the sniper was finally dispatched 3 were killed and 5 wounded, 2 were in pretty bad shape.

[RJay]

I was under the impression that Krupp owned a one third interest in Bofors. However on further reading the Germans did rely on captured Bofors for the most part and they had a number of them for use. One interesting note is that Bofors collaborated with Krupp on the design of the 40 MM AA gun. whether true or not is still up for debate. However Sweden did furnish war materials to both sides during WW II. Chrysler was the primary manufacture of the U S Army's Bofors.