What Is an Assault Weapon?

[woodchip]

Just about all bullets have a thin copper metal jacket. The jacket is to keep the lead core from fouling the rifling. Penetrator rounds have a specialized tip to slow the lead from mushrooming.

[flip]

I seem to recall reading or TV somewhere that armor piercing bullets are made out of harder materials like steel and thus require coatings so they don't completely wreck the rifling when fired?

Not sure about this. At one time, my Dad had a thousand rounds of 30.06 armor piercing. We were shooting clean holes through 1/2 inch steel with it, then one day it took a nice chip out of the crown of that 30.06. They may have improved them since then. This was all preban, and my mother finally hounded my dad enough to sell all of them off, although I think the real motivation was the ruining of his beloved bolt action