La balas explosivas tuvieron su apogeo en la I y II GM, Los alemanes desarrollaron la 7,9 mm B-Geschoss (incendiaria) y los soviéticos la 7,62 ZaRa Zazhigano-Razrivnaya. Los Japoneses desarrollaron por su lado una que contenía Tetril ( 2,4,6-trinitrofenil-N-metilnitramina) altamente insegura.
Las balas explosivas e incendiarias fueron desarrolladas en la I GM para atacar a globos de observación, dirigibles y aviones. Esto fue totalmente en contra de la Declaración de San Petersburgo de 1868 que prohibió el uso de balas explosivas (de hecho, todos los proyectiles explosivos de menos de 400 gramos de peso), pero después de terminada la guerra hubo acuerdo general en que, dado que estas balas no estaban destinadas a su uso contra personas, se podía usarlas en aviones y ametralladoras antiaéreas.
1: Explosive charge
2: Priming (& booster) charge(s)
3: Copper alloy priming capsule
4: Safety sleeve, brass
5: Striker, steel
6: Striker capsule, "bimetal"
7: Striker support plate, brass
8: Striker capsule cover, "bimetal"
9: Bullet's jacket, "bimetal"
10: Lead core/ sheath; extends to the charge (1).
"Bimetal" is mild steel, plated with copper or copper alloy by hot rolling. Both sides of material sheet are plated. Drawn by P.T.Kekkonen in 1994.
COMPOSITION OF THE EXPLOSIVE CHARGE:
Powdered aluminium................ 24 % (by weight)
Micro-flaked magnesium.............22 %
Powdered potassium chlorate........50 %
Shellack or carpenter's glue....... 4 %
(Analysis was carried out by Finnish Professor ARTTURI I. VIRTANEN in 1941. Nobel-prized in 1945).
Izquierda:"P154" (Polte-Werke en Grueneberg Zielona Gora /. Hoy en Polonia), "* S" (caja de latón mejorada), "4" (lote de loadind en abril) y "39" (año de carga ). Derecha:"P413" (Deutsche Waffen & Munitionsfabrik en Luebeck-Sclutup, Alemania), "* S" (caja de latón mejorada), "6" (lote de carga en de junio) y "40" (año de carga).
EXPLOSIVE/ INCENDIARY SHELL OF VON DREYSE "WALL RIFLE"
A cast iron shell with discarding sabot of paper mass, caliber 22 millimeters. Details, N: percussion primer, L: lead safety weight, J: striker. On drawings 1. and 2. the fuze is in "safe" position; lead plug cast on the striker point. On drawing 3. the shell is moving forwards in bore of a rifle (three arrows). Inertia of lead plug tends to keep this "safety weight" motionless. So it moves backwards (arrow on right) until it meets a bottom cover of the shell. Point of the striker protrudes now from lead plug and the shell is "armed".
Lead plug is expanded somewhat and stuck to the walls of fuze space. Air resistance, rain or light obstacles are unable to retard velocity of the shell enough to pull the plug loose. More solid target shall cause forceful inertia, which thrusts point of the striker to percussion cap, directly into it's sensitive potassium chlorate & antimony sulphide mixture. Fragmentation (anti-personnel) shells had blackpowder filling; incendiary shells were charged with mixture of black powder and coal tar (90 % and 10 % by weight). PLEASE NOTE: Drawing is done from a memory. Some details may be incorrect, but principle of functioning is easy to understand.
Hoy en día es habitual encontrar munición para el SVD 7.62x54r API
CWSC ShKAS B-32 API
CWSC ShKAS PZ incendiary bullet
CWSC B-32 API
BC B-32 API