Been doing searches on it and don't fully understand how it work when it impacts?

The API bullets that I've been using in my 50 BMG weigh about 647 grains and are a copper/brass jacket with about a .40 caliber steel penetrator inside it.  Between the steel penetrator and the jacket is a powder that flashes when it strikes a hard surface traveling at a high rate of speed IE 2000 FPS or more (my Guess) I did cut one open and the powder just pours out and when you touch a fire to it, it acts just like flash powder.  Poof and you can't see for a few seconds along with a puff of smoke.  When I shoot my 7/8" thick gong it punches a .40 caliber hole straight through it as the copper/brass melts/gets knocked off and the steel penetrator just punches it's way right on through.  As it does that it makes a flash and a puff of smoke and leaves a black mark on the face of the gong.  Hope that helps you.  They are really quite simple and not near as fancy as the Rafous rounds.  They are also a whole lot cheaper but not very accurate.  Especially when they are pulled GI bullets.

As was said above, there's about 20 grains of grey/silvery flash powder in the nose of the bullet between the copper jacket and tungsten carbide .428" (if I remember) diameter AP core.  There is also a lead (pb) plug behind the core.

I have never really played with the powder, beyond burning some, I assume its pressure sensitive.  I've seen some sub sonic api rounds (510 whisper) ignite so it doesn't have to be going too fast.  None the less, when they hit relatively hard objects (not much is "soft" at 1000-2800 fps), the jacket crushes on impact and the core pushes into and ignites the flash powder.  Get between an 8 and 20" diameter ball of fire, just for a flash.

How much more compound do the blue tip M1s have? Seems like its noticeable.

15 grains of incendiary mix in silver tips versus 34 grains in the blue tips. Incendiary mix is called IM-11.

If the tungsten carbide is cemented or bonded to steel or cobalt, it will appear magnetic.  Hardness testing would be needed to determine which is which.

I thought the only tungsten carbide penetrator was in the MK211 and the API/AP was hardened steel.



no???

My fault, I thought all 50 cal APs were tungsten and 30 cals were hardened steel, turns out .50 ap, api, and apit are all hardened steel.

Sorry for the confusion.  Also got the amountt of incendiary filler wrong.

forgot about this.