Sabot
As a sabot , in modern shells also sabot (engl. Sabot ) is referred to in the weaponry a between projectile and propellant charge of a firearm ammunition component used, which serves to seal the barrel and separation of the most subcaliber projectile against the propellant gases.
history
The sabot was originally developed to better seal the still very imprecise stone balls or lead balls from large-caliber muzzle loaders . Usually a wooden plug was used. In the case of handguns, the bullet was instead wrapped in a piece of greased canvas ( plaster ball ). In addition, this was the only way of guiding the bullet in the pulls with pulled muzzle-loaders . With the development of Minié bullets for muzzle-loaders and the spread of usable breech- loaders , the plaster ball became superfluous in the course of the 19th century.
For historical reasons, the sabot is referred to in French and English as “sabot”, which means “wooden shoe”.
In individual cases, wooden sabot was still used in the middle of the 20th century, for example in the HARP project.
function
The sabot or cage seals the charge in the barrel and offers the powder gases a larger effective surface for the sub-caliber projectile used. Due to the smaller projectile mass, the muzzle velocity increases. The sabot cartridge combines the advantages of a large caliber with the higher speeds of smaller calibers with less recoil. The sabot separates from the bullet after leaving the barrel due to the higher air resistance. If it does not release immediately and symmetrically after leaving the barrel, this leads to a lower accuracy of hit.
In cartridges and shotgun cartridges , a sabot is used to seal the propellant charge against the bullets, which the powder gases would otherwise partially let through without being accelerated by them.
Sabot bullets can be fired in firearms with barrels that are smooth on the inside or spirally drawn . Rifles with a smooth barrel are shotguns and guns are analogously referred to as smooth-barreled guns .
Sabot ( sabots ) are used in modern sub-caliber ammunition like the flechette for guiding the projectile in the larger, rifled barrel of the gun.
The sabot is used extensively in armor-piercing , fin-stabilized sabot bullets . The English abbreviation is APFSDS - "Armor Piercing Fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot" - see bullet .
APFSDS
Example of a rifle cartridge ( .30-06 Springfield ) with a 5.56 mm sabot
Legal classification in Germany
According to the Weapons Act (WaffG) of the Federal Republic of Germany , handling is u. a. prohibited with the following ammunition:
"Cartridge ammunition for firearms with rifled barrels whose projectiles are smaller in diameter than the field diameter of the associated firearms and which are surrounded by a propellant and guide sleeve that separates from the projectile after leaving the barrel."
The background to this is the low possibility of assigning a projectile to a weapon in the event of a crime.
