From: Mike Tighe <tighe@convex.COM>
Subject: Re: Kevlar Body Armour vs. Kevlar Rounds
Organization: Convex Computer Corporation, Richardson, Texas
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 12:33:47 GMT


From Mike Tighe <tighe@convex.COM>


>From Tigger <greg@pomona.claremont.edu>
>In article <BtHwzH.Bpy@lawday.DaytonOH.NCR.COM>, doi@tartarus.uwa.edu.au (Daniel Kuan Li Oi) writes:
>>
>> 	Folklore has it that teflon coated bullets have good penetration
>> characteristics, they can slip past the fibres, but as to the truth, I
>> can only speculate.

>If I recall correctly, the teflon has nothing to do with it.  The bullet
>itself is made from a much harder than normal metal and so does not
>deform as much on impact.  This greatly reduces the Kevlar's stopping
>power.  The teflon coating is there only to protect the barrel of the
>gun.

Incorrect. Here are the facts on Teflon bullets. It is slightly political,
but it does give the facts surrounding teflon bullets, so it has value to
sci.military. Followups should probably go to talk.politics.guns.
(Moderator can decide).

The following text is from the NRAction newsletter, Volume 4, Issue 5 (May
1990); it is an interview with one one of the inventors of the KTW bullet,
and is a subset of a larger article.

We decided to go to the source, to track down the inventor of the original
"cop-killer" bullet, originally marketed as the "KTW" bullet. We found the
"K" of "KTW," Dr. Paul Kopsch told us that the bullet was made exclusively
for police and military use. And had nothing to do with protective vests.

Kopsch: "There were a couple gunfights, police versus criminal, here in
Lorraine County, [Ohio]. The ordinary .38 Special service bullet would not
get through the car door. And with any degree of obliquity, it bounced off
the windshield.[Police] Lieutenant Turcus, Don Ward and I thought maybe we
could design a bullet which would get through the car door, and get through
the windshield and get the crook out of the car ...

Kopsch explained that the teflon coating, which a host of media and
lawmakers alleged was the key to penetrating body armor, served one
purpose. It helped bullets go through smooth surfaces, like windshields and
car doors, especially at oblique angles. The former Army medical officer
likened it to the teflon tip of a walking stick. It simply grabs better.

Kopsch: "Adding a teflon coating to the round added 20% penetration power
on metal and glass. Critics kept complaining about teflon's ability to
penetrate body armor. That was nonsense typical of do-gooders. In fact,
teflon cut down on the round's ability to cut through the nylon or kevlar
of body armor."

Thus, Kopsch and police officers Turcus and Ward invented the "KTW" round.
It was designed to be shot by police and military through car doors and
windshields at criminals, terrorists -- not, as Chief McNamara would have
people believe -- through ballistic resistant vests worn by police
officers.

Could the round penetrate such vests?  Again, Dr. Kopsch ...

Kopsch: "It'll defeat the ordinary ballistic nylon or Kevlar vest, but as I
said, the teflon gives away its purpose and detracts from it's ability to
penetrate body armor. Moreover, no armored police officer has been killed
by the round, and interestingly enough the man who brought this to national
attention ws the Honorable Rep. Mario Biaggi, who was in the U.S. House of
Representatives at the time. When he called attention to the fact that the
police were wearing bullet-resistant garments, the criminals started to
shoot for the head. So Biaggi may have gotten quite a few policeman
killed...

"We never sold [KTW] to the public. Sales were always limited to the police
and the military. It had been available to the police and military for
roughly five years before Biaggi started this ...it was a hoax on
[Biaggi's] part that got him national publicity.

In bumper sticker language, Kopsch's much-maligned invention was a
cop-saver bullet.
-- 
Mike Tighe, (214) 497-4206
tighe@convex.com

Newsgroups: sci.military