Cool beans. It’s always interesting to see what new ammo the guys are using out there. It sounds like this MK 318 round is just a military version of a similar hunting round called the Federal Trophy Bonded Bear Claw, which is great. I have never shot this round, so I really can’t comment on the thing. I like the 77 gr. Sierra Matchking MK 262 round, just because it is a little heavier for the long distance stuff. But there is some question as to it’s barrier penetration I guess, and barrier penetration is what the Marines are wanting. What all of these ammunitions have in common is that they all have a hole in the bullet tip as well.
That little open tip on the bullet continues to cause controversy when it comes to the legality of the ammunition. It was intended to make the bullet more accurate. The confusion is wether or not this little hole constitutes a ‘hollow point’ or dum dum bullets, which is illegal according to the ‘law of land warfare’. (eyes rolling) My personal thoughts are that ammunition will cause pain and death, regardless, and this idea of somehow making warfare less horrible or painful is just dumb. I wonder what the Hague has to say about drone strikes? Oh wait, they didn’t have UAV’s a hundred years ago. lol
Either way, the round ‘has been approved’ for today’s war fighting, and I hope to high hell that it actually translates into more Taliban and Al Qaeda deaths. I still think we should just go to a bigger round for today’s battle rifles, or utilize the 7.62 in Afghanistan. That would make more sense, as opposed to trying to squeeze out every last bit of magical lethality out of a round that is more suited towards varmint hunting. Also, check out this publication called ‘Increasing Small Arms Lethality in Afghanistan: Taking Back the Infantry Half-Kilometer’ here. Pretty interesting. –Matt
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Corps to use more lethal ammo in Afghanistan
By Dan Lamothe
Tuesday Feb 16, 2010
The Marine Corps is dropping its conventional 5.56mm ammunition in Afghanistan in favor of new deadlier, more accurate rifle rounds, and could field them at any time.
The open-tipped rounds until now have been available only to Special Operations Command troops. The first 200,000 5.56mm Special Operations Science and Technology rounds are already downrange with Marine Expeditionary Brigade-Afghanistan, said Brig. Gen. Michael Brogan, commander of Marine Corps Systems Command. Commonly known as “SOST” rounds, they were legally cleared for Marine use by the Pentagon in late January, according to Navy Department documents obtained by Marine Corps Times.