Help on .50 cal incendiary rounds

[flibbity]

Does anyone have a god link on how US .50 cal incendiary rounds are made... or how white phosphorous might be made inert or safely removed from such a round? I ask as part of my research for a writing project.

[CharlesBronson]

Honestly I dont think the WP could be safely removed from the bullet.

[Tony Williams]

The drawing shown is of an M8 API, in which the tip in front of the armour-piercing core is filled with a small quantity of incendiary material.

There was also a .50 M1 incendiary, which was a scaled-up and simplified version of the British Dixon ("De Wilde") .303. This consisted of four elements: the bullet jacket which enclosed the whole bullet except for the base; a hollow steel sleeve fitting inside the jacket for the central helf of its length; the incendiary mixture which filled all of the nose, plus the inside of the steel sleeve; and a base plug, usually of lead. To get at the incendiary material while preserving the appearance of the bullet, it would be necessary to drill through the base plug. This would be risky as you might ignite the material. I also don't know how you'd get it out.

Incidentally, they didn't use WP but a mix of 50% barium nitrate and 50% powdered aluminium/magnesium alloy (known as IM#11).

[Wayne Little]

Mmmm....interesting info...

[CharlesBronson]

Thanks Tony and this...

To get at the incendiary material while preserving the appearance of the bullet, it would be necessary to drill through the base plug. This would be risky as you might ignite the material. I also don't know how you'd get it out.

Risky as hell I may say. the heat made by the rotation and friction of the hard steel ( drilling tool) would ignite the incendiary component for sure, a recipe for injury.