The "Geneva Convention" Myth and other Bullroar  



Open-tip Military Ammunition FAQ 

One of the most lamentable traditions among members of the 
firearms community is the tendency to latch on to a piece of 
misinformation and endlessly circulate it as authoritative. 
Nowhere is this more prevalent then on the subject of "dum-dum 
hollow point bullets" and their being "banned by the Geneva 
Convention."

Sound familiar?

It's not accurate, of course, but few, if any, ever make the 
effort to find out the true facts for the simple reason that 
the foregoing has so often been casually repeated by "gun 
persons," that, in keeping with "Goebbels' Big Lie" theory, it 
has taken on the aura of a verity.

For openers, "dum-dum bullets," named for their arsenal of 
origin in a town near Calcutta, India, are soft-nosed 
projectiles, not hollow points¹. And their deployment under 
the "Laws of War" is proscribed by a "Declaration on the Use 
of Bullets Which Expand or Flatten Easily in the Human Body" 
adopted at the First Hague Peace Conference of (29 July) 1899 
which states:

  The Undersigned, Plenipotentiaries of the Powers represented 
  at the International Peace Conference at The Hague, duly 
  authorized to that effect by their Governments,

  Inspired by the sentiments which found expression in the 
  Declaration of St. Petersburg of the 29th November (11th 
  December), 1868,

  Declare as follows:

    "The Contracting Parties agree to abstain from the use of 
    bullets which expand or flatten easily in the human body, 
    such as bullets with a hard envelope which does not 
    entirely cover the core, or is pierced with incisions."
 
  The present Declaration is only binding for the Contracting 
  Powers in the case of a war between two or more of them.

  It shall cease to be binding from the time when, in a war 
  between the Contracting Parties, one of the belligerents is 
  joined by a non-Contracting Power.

Although not a party to this accord, as a matter of policy the 
United States has acknowledged and respected its applicability 
in conventional combat operations since its adoption more than 
one century ago.

Where the U.S. did sign on, however, was with the Hague 
Convention IV of 1907, Article 23(e) of which Annex states:

  "...it is especially forbidden - 
    To employ arms, projectiles, or material (sic) 
  calculated to cause unnecessary suffering;"

In observance of this, for many years U.S. Military snipers 
went afield with M-118 ammo, a 7.62 X 51mm 173-grain 
solid-tipped boat tail round manufactured to much closer 
tolerances than M-80 "ball."

This practice began to change subsequent to a 23 September 
1985 opinion issued by the Judge Advocate General, authored by 
W. Hays Parks², Chief of the JAG's International Law Branch, 
for the signature of Major Hugh R. Overholt, which stated:

  "...expanding point ammunition is legally permissible in 
  counterterrorist operations not involving the engagement of 
  the armed forces of another State."


On 12 October 1990, another Memorandum of Law from Parks at 
the request of the Commander of the United States Special 
Operations Command (USSOCOM) and coordinated with the 
Department of State, Army General Counsel, as well as the 
Offices of the Judge Advocates General of the Navy and Air 
Force, concluded that:

  "The purpose of the 7.62mm "open-tip" MatchKing bullet is to 
  provide maximum accuracy at very long range. ... Bullet 
  fragmentation is not a design characteristic, however, nor a 
  purpose for use of the MatchKing by United States Army 
  snipers. Wounds caused by MatchKing ammunition are similar 
  to those caused by a fully jacketed military ball bullet, 
  which is legal under the law of war, when compared at the 
  same ranges and under the same conditions. (The Sierra 
  #2200 BTHP) not only meets, but exceeds, the law of war 
  obligations of the United States for use in combat."

Whether it is the overall excellence of the Sierra MatchKing, 
or its virtual endorsement within the upper echelons of the 
military, the #2200 boat tail hollow point was the round of 
preference for snipers and .30 caliber High Power competitors 
alike. Aside from Federal, Remington and Samson (IMI) both 
load it in their commercially available "match" rounds, while 
Winchester uses it in their Ranger line of law enforcement 
ammunition.

More recently (1993), another Parks-authored opinion cleared 
the way for the U.S. Special Operations Command to procure a 
Winchester 230-grain JHP ("Black Talon," yet!) for issue with 
its H&K-manufactured Mk 23 Mod 0 pistol.

Now, when the fat guy with the greasy beard who always seems 
to be leaning on the end of the counter at the local gun 
store, starts blathering about the Geneva Convention banning 
hollow point bullets, you can educate him with the right 
information.

  "I believe you mean the Hague Peace Conferences of 1899 and 
  1907," you can suggest, and then nail him beneath the bill 
  of his CAT Diesel cap with the JAG's recent opinions that 
  168-grain (and 175-grain) BTHPs and 230-grain SXTs are in... 
  and the Hague accords are o-u-t!



Excerpted from Military rifle bullet wound patterns by Martin L. Fackler

The principal provision relating to the legality of weapons is 
contained in Art. 23e of the Annex to Hague Convention IV Respecting 
the Laws and Customs of War on Land of 18 October 1907, which 
prohibits the employment of "arms, projectiles, or material of a 
nature to cause superfluous injury." In some law of war treatises, 
the term "unnecessary suffering" is used rather than "superfluous 
injury." The terms are regarded as synonymous. To emphasize this, 
Art. 35, para. 2 of the 1977 Protocol I Additional to the Geneva 
Conventions of August 12,1949, states in part that "It is prohibited 
to employ weapons [and] projectiles . . . of a nature to cause 
superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering." Although the U.S. has 
made the formal decision that for military, political, and 
humanitarian reasons it will not become a party to Protocol I, U.S. 
officials have taken the position that the language of Art. 35(2) of 
Protocol I as quoted is a codification of customary international 
law, and therefore binding upon all nations.



¹.- In an erudite riposte (brilliantly entitled "Will 
the real Dum Dum projectile please stand up?") to a 
rec.guns gadfly named Paul Saccani, regular TGZ 
contributor D.E. Watters wrote:


  The Indian Army's Dum Dum Arsenal near Calcutta 
  produced a soft point variant of the Mark II, with the 
  design credited to a Captain Clay. This variant was 
  created in response to complaints about the 
  Lee-Metford's lack of "stopping power" during the 
  Chitral campaign of 1895. While the Dum Dum soft point 
  was never adopted by the British Army as a whole, 
  clearly the name stuck.

  Independently, Woolwich Arsenal had been developing a 
  hollow point projectile for the .303, which was 
  adopted as the Mark III in 1897. However, the Mark III 
  was reportedly not manufactured in any large 
  quantities before it was replaced by Mark IV .303 
  service cartridge later the same year. Due to problems 
  with jacket/core separation (sometimes within the bore 
  itself), the Mark IV hollow point was replaced by the 
  Mark V hollow point in 1899.

Saccani had taken issue with the text on this page which 
read: For openers, "dum-dum bullets," named for their 
arsenal of origin in a town near Calcutta, India, are 
soft-nosed projectiles, not hollow points, terming it 
"completely incorrect."

  The so called "dum dum" bullet was the hollow point 
  "cartridge, S.A,. .303" Mk. IV." The hollow was 
  approximately .18" in diameter, and extended for 
  nearly half the length of the bullet. The jacket does 
  not extend to the tip of the hollow, but that does not 
  make it not a hollow point!


².-Colonel W. Hays Parks, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, 
Retired, served in Vietnam in infantry and judge 
advocate assignments and was a legal adviser for the 
1986 Libyan air strike. An expert with small arms, he 
has trained and qualified as a sniper. He has lectured 
on rules of engagement at the war colleges and staff 
colleges, the Navy Fighter Weapons School, and Naval 
Strike Warfare Center and authored Deadly Force Is 
Authorized.








Sidebar:

In the 1920s and '30s the military was testing bullet shapes 
to determine ballistic efficiency. They were using hard lead 
cast bullets as it was easy to make a mold and pore a few 
bullets to test. The final winning design ended up weighing 
180 grains in solid lead. When this shape was converted to a 
FMJ with a guilding metal jacket (or cupro-nickel) the final 
weight ended up being 173 grains. That's how we ended up with 
the 173 FMJ match bullet which was also used in the field in 
later years.

Sierra produced a FMJ bullet for competition shooting in the 
late '50s that had a similar shape to the 173 FMJ, but weighed 
200 grains. Eventually Sierra found that they could make 
better more accurate bullets by forming a solid base and 
hollow point with the jacket. They decided to try to make 
bullets with approximately the same form as the old 173 FMJ, 
which when made as a hollow point bullet ended up at 168 
grains. Voila! The 168 Matchking became the standard bullet by 
which all others were judged.

Then, in NRA High-Power competition, a curious thing 
happened... the puny little 5.56mm round (.223 Remington) 
started outperforming the mighty .30 caliber at ranges in 
excess of 300 yards. Of course the 5.56mm competitors were 
using 77-grain and 80-grain VLD ("Very Low Drag") projectiles 
manually loaded one at a time (their overall length precluded 
their use in magazines) in their tricked out Colt's/Stoner 
pattern rifles, but disorder and uncertainty was rampant 
throughout the 7.62mm community.

To the rescue came Picatinny Arsenal and Sierra Bulletsmiths 
at the request of the U.S. Military Ordnance Corps, and before 
too long the .30 caliber was back in the saddle, led by a 
super match bullet, the 175-grain BTHP. And while its older 
168-grain sibling is still around, the handwriting is on the 
stat-shack wall: the #2275 175-grainer rules!

 




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MEMORANDUM FOR COMMANDER, UNITED STATES ARMY SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND 

SUBJECT: Sniper Use of Open-Tip Ammunition 

1. Summary. 

This memorandum considers whether United States Army Snipers may 
employ match-grade, "open-tip" ammunition in combat or other special 
missions. It concludes that such ammunition does not violate the 
law of war obligations of the United States, and may be employed 
in peacetime or wartime missions of the Army. 

2. Background. 

For more than a decade two bullets have been available for use 
by the United States Army Marksmanship Unit in match competition 
in its 7.62mm rifles. The M118 is a 173-grain match grade full 
metal jacket boat tail, ogival spitzer tip bullet, while the M852 
is the Sierra MatchKing 168-grain match grade boat tail, ogival 
spitzer tip bullet with an open tip. Although the accuracy of 
the M118 has been reasonably good, though at times erratic, 
independent bullet comparisons by the Army, Marine Corps, and 
National Guard marksmanship training units have established 
unequivocally the superior accuracy of the M852. Army tests noted 
a 36% improvement in accuracy with the M852 at 300 meters, and 
a 32% improvement at 600 yds; Marine Corps figures were 
twenty-eight percent accuracy improvement at 300 m, and 20% at 
600yds. The National Guard determined that the M852 provided 
better bullet groups at 200 and 600 yards under all conditions 
than did the M118. (citation omitted.) 

The 168-grain MatchKing was designed in the late 1950's for 
300 m. shooting in international rifle matches. In its competitive 
debut, it was used by the 1st place winner at the 1959 Pan 
American Games. In the same caliber but in its various bullet 
lengths, the MatchKing has set a number of international records. 
To a range of 600 m., the superiority of the accuracy of the M852 
cannot be matched, and led to the decision by U.S. military 
marksmanship training units to use the M852 in competition. 

A 1980 opinion of this office concluded that use of the M852 in 
match competition would not violate law of war obligations of 
the United States. (citation omitted) Further tests and actual 
competition over the past decade have confirmed the superiority 
of the M852 over the M118 and other match grade bullets. For 
example, at the national matches held at Camp Perry, OH in 
1983, a new Wimbledon record of 2--015 X's was set using the 
168-gr. MatchKing. This level of performance lead to the question 
of whether the M852 could be used by military snipers in peacetime 
or wartime missions of the Army. 

During the period in which this review was conducted, the 
180-gr. MatchKing (for which there is no military designation) 
also was tested with a view to increased accuracy over the M852 
at very long ranges. Because two bullet weights were under 
consideration, the term "MatchKing" will be used hereinafter 
to refer to the generic design rather than to a bullet of a 
particular weight. The fundamental question to be addressed 
by this review is whether an open-tip bullet of MatchKing 
design may be used in combat. 

3. Legal Factors. 

The principal provision relating to the legality of weapons 
is contained in Art. 23e of the Annex to Hague Convention 
IV Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land of 18 October 
1907, which prohibits the employment of "arms, projectiles, 
or material of a nature to cause superfluous injury". In 
some law of war treatises, the term "unnecessary suffering" 
is used rather than "superfluous injury." The terms are 
regarded as synonymous. To emphasize this, Art. 35, para. 
2 of the 1977 Protocol I Additional to the Geneva Conventions 
of August 12, 1949, states in part that "It is prohibited 
to employ weapons [and] projectiles . . . of a nature to 
cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering." Although 
the U.S. has made the formal decision that for military, 
political, and humanitarian reasons it will not become a 
party to Protocol I, U.S. officials have taken the position 
that the language of Art. 35(2) of Protocol I as quoted is 
a codification of customary international law, and therefore 
binding upon all nations. 

The terms "unnecessary suffering" and "superfluous injury" 
have not been formally defined within international law. 
In determining whether a weapon or projectile causes unnecessary 
suffering, a balancing test is applied between the force 
dictated by military necessity to achieve a legitimate 
objective vis-ą-vis suffering that may be considered 
superfluous to achievement of that intended objective. 
The test is not easily applied. For this reason, the degree 
of "superfluous" injury must be clearly disproportionate 
to the intended objectives for development and employment 
of the weapon, that is, it must outweigh substantially the 
military necessity for the weapon system or projectile. 

The fact that a weapon causes suffering does not lead to 
the conclusion that the weapon causes unnecessary suffering, 
or is illegal per se. Military necessity dictates that weapons 
of war lead to death, injury, and destruction; the act of 
combatants killing or wounding enemy combatants in combat 
is a legitimate act under the law of war. In this regard, 
there is an incongruity in the law of war in that while it 
is legally permissible to kill an enemy combatant, 
incapacitation must not result inevitably in unnecessary 
suffering. What is prohibited is the design (or modification) 
and employment of a weapon for the purpose of increasing 
or causing suffering beyond that required by military 
necessity. In conducting the balancing test necessary to 
determine a weapon's legality, the effects of a weapon 
cannot be viewed in isolation. They must be examined 
against comparable weapons in use on the modern battlefield, 
and the military necessity for the weapon or projectile 
under consideration. 

In addition to the basic prohibition on unnecessary suffering 
contained in Art. 23e of the 1907 Hague IV, one other treaty 
is germane to this review. The Hague Declaration Concerning 
Expanding Bullets of 29 July 1899 prohibits the use in 
international armed conflict: 

". . . of bullets which expand or flatten easily in the 
human body, such as bullets with a hard envelope which does 
not entirely cover the core or is pierced with incisions." 

The U.S. is not a party to this treaty, but U.S. officials 
over the years have taken the position that the armed forces 
of the U.S. will adhere to its terms to the extent that its 
application is consistent with the object and purpose of Art. 
23e of the Annex to the Hague Convention IV, quoted above. 

It is within the context of these two treaties that questions 
regarding the legality of the employment of the MatchKing 
"open tip" bullet must be considered. 

4. Bullet Description. 

As previously described, the MatchKing is a boat tail, ogival 
spitzer tip bullet with open tip. The "open tip" is a shallow 
aperture (approximately the diameter of the wire in a standard 
size straight pin or paper clip) in the nose of the bullet. 
While sometimes described as a "hollow point," this is a 
mischaracterization in law of war terms. Generally a "hollow point" 
bullet is thought of in terms of its ability to expand on impact 
with soft tissue. Physical examination of the MatchKing "open tip" 
bullet reveals that its opening is extremely small in comparison 
to the aperture in comparable hollow point hunting bullets; for 
example, the 165-grain GameKing is a true hollow point boat tail 
bullet with an aperture substantially greater than the MatchKing, 
and skiving (serrations cut into the jacket) to insure expansion. 
In the MatchKing, the open tip is closed as much as possible to 
provide better aerodynamics, and contains no skiving. The lead 
core of the MatchKing bullet is entirely covered by the bullet 
jacket. While the GameKing bullet is designed to bring the 
ballistic advantages of a match bullet to long range hunting, 
the manufacturer expressly recommends against the use of the 
MatchKing for hunting game of any size because it does not 
have the expansion characteristics of a hunting bullet. 

The purpose of the small, shallow aperture in the MatchKing is 
to provide a bullet design offering maximum accuracy at very 
long ranges, rolling the jacket of the bullet around its core 
from base to tip; standard military bullets and other match 
bullets roll the jacket around its core from tip to base, 
leaving an exposed lead core at its base. Design purpose of 
the MatchKing was not to produce a bullet that would expand 
or flatten easily on impact with the human body, or otherwise 
cause wounds greater than those caused by standard military 
small arms ammunition. 

5. MatchKing performance. 

Other than its superior long range marksmanship capabilities, 
the MatchKing was examined with regard to its performance on 
impact with the human body or in artificial material that 
approximates human soft tissue. It was determined that the 
bullet will break up or fragment in some cases at some point 
following entry into soft tissue. Whether fragmentation occurs 
will depend upon a myriad of variables, to include range to 
the target, velocity at the time of impact, degree of yaw of 
the bullet at the point of impact, or the distance traveled 
point-first within the body before yaw is induced. The MatchKing 
has not been designed to yaw intentionally or to break up on 
impact. These characteristics are common to all military rifle 
bullets. There was little discernible difference in bullet 
fragmentation between the MatchKing and other military small 
arms bullets, with some military ball ammunition of foreign 
manufacture tending to fragment sooner in human tissue or to 
a greater degree, resulting in wounds that would be more severe 
than those caused by the MatchKing. [FNaaa1] 

Because of concern over the potential mischaracterization of 
the M852 as a "hollow point" bullet that might violate the 
purpose and intent of the 1899 Hague Declaration Concerning 
Expanding Bullets, some M852 MatchKing bullets were modified 
to close the aperture. The "closed tip" MatchKing did not 
measure up to the accuracy of the "open tip" MatchKing. 

Other match grade bullets were tested. While some could 
approach the accuracy standards of the MatchKing in some 
lots, quality control was uneven, leading to erratic results. 
No other match grade bullet consistently could meet the 
accuracy of the open-tip bullet. 

6. Law of War Application. 

From both a legal and medical standpoint, the lethality 
or incapacitation effects of a particular small-caliber 
projectile must be measured against comparable projectiles 
in service. In the military small arms field, "small caliber" 
generally includes all rifle projectiles up to and including 
.60 caliber (15mm). For the purposes of this review, however, 
comparison will be limited to small-caliber ammunition in the 
range of 5.45mm to 7.62mm, that is, that currently in use in 
assaultor sniper rifles by the military services of most nations. 

Wound ballistic research over the past fifteen years has determined 
that the prohibition contained in the 1899 Hague Declaration is of 
minimal to no value, inasmuch as virtually all jacketed military 
bullets employed since 1899 with pointed ogival spitzer tip shape 
have a tendency to fragment on impact with soft tissue, harder 
organs, bone or the clothing and/or equipment worn by the 
individual soldier. 

The pointed ogival spitzer tip, shared by all modern military 
bullets, reflects the balancing by nations of the criteria of 
military necessity and unnecessary suffering: its streamlined 
shape decreases air drag, allowing the bullet to retain velocity 
better for improved long-range performance; a modern military 
7.62mm bullet will lose only about one-third of its muzzle 
velocity over 500 yards, while the same weight bullet with a 
round-nose shape will lose more than one-half of its velocity 
over the same distance. Yet the pointed ogival spitzer tip shape 
also leads to greater bullet breakup, and potentially greater 
injury to the soldier by such a bullet vis-ą-vis a round-nose 
full- metal jacketed bullet. (See Dr. M. L. Fackler, "Wounding 
Patterns for Military Rifle Bullets," International Defense 
Review, January 1989, pp. 56-64, at 63.) 

Weighing the increased performance of the pointed ogival 
spitzer tip bullet against the increased injury its breakup 
may bring, the nations of the world-- through almost a 
century of practice--have concluded that the need for the 
former outweighs concern for the latter, and does not result 
in unnecessary suffering as prohibited by the 1899 Hague 
Declaration Concerning Expanding Bullets or article 23e of 
the 1907 Hague Convention IV. The 1899 Hague Declaration 
Concerning Expanding Bullets remains valid for expression 
of the principle that a nation may not employ a bullet that 
expands easily on impact for the purpose of unnecessarily 
aggravating the wound inflicted upon an enemy soldier. 
Such a bullet also would be prohibited by article 23e of the 
1907 Hague IV, however. Another concept fundamental to the 
law of war is the principle of discrimination, that is, 
utilization of means or methods that distinguish to the extent 
possible legitimate targets, such as enemy soldiers, from 
noncombatants, whether enemy wounded and sick, medical 
personnel, or innocent civilians. The highly trained military 
sniper with his special rifle and match grade ammunition 
epitomizes the principle of discrimination. In combat, most 
targets are covered or obscured, move unpredictably, and as a 
consequence are exposed to hostile fire for limited periods 
of time. When coupled with the level of marksmanship training 
provided the average soldier and the stress of combat, a 
soldier's aiming errors are large and hit probability is 
correspondingly low. While the M16A2 rifle currently used by 
the United States Army and Marine Corps is capable of acceptable 
accuracy out to six hundred meters, the probability of an 
average soldier hitting an enemy soldier at three hundred 
meters is ten percent. 

Statistics from past wars suggest that this probability 
figure may be optimistic. In Would War II, the United States 
and its allies expended 25,000 rounds of ammunition to kill 
a single enemy soldier. In the Korean War, the ammunition 
expenditure had increased four-fold to 100,000 rounds per 
soldier; in the Vietnam War, that figure had doubled to 
200,000 rounds of ammunition for the death of a single 
enemy soldier. The risk to noncombatants is apparent. 

In contrast, United States Army and Marine Corps snipers 
in the Vietnam War expended 1.3 rounds of ammunition for 
each claimed and verified kill, at an average range of 
six hundred yards, or almost twice the three hundred 
meters cited above for combat engagements by the average 
soldier. Some verified kills were at ranges in excess of 
1000 yards. This represents discrimination and military 
efficiency of the highest order, as well as minimization 
of risk to noncombatants. Utilization of a bullet that 
increases accuracy, such as the MatchKing, would further 
diminish the risk to noncombatants. 

7. Conclusion. 

The purpose of the 7.62mm "open-tip" MatchKing bullet is 
to provide maximum accuracy at very long range. Like most 
5.56mm and 7.62mm military ball bullets, it may fragment 
upon striking its target, although the probability of its 
fragmentation is not as great as some military ball bullets 
currently in use by some nations. Bullet fragmentation is 
not a design characteristic, however, nor a purpose for 
use of the MatchKing by United State Army snipers. Wounds 
caused by MatchKing ammunition are similar to those caused 
by a fully jacketed military ball bullet, which is legal 
underthe law of war, when compared at the same ranges and 
under the same conditions. The military necessity for its 
use-- its ability to offer maximum accuracy at very long 
ranges--is complemented by the high degree of discriminate 
fire it offers in the hands of a trained sniper. It not 
only meets, but exceeds, the law of war obligations of 
the United States for use in combat. 

This opinion has been coordinated with the Department of 
State, Army General Counsel, and the Offices of the Judge 
Advocates General of the Navy and Air Force, who concur 
with its contents and conclusions. 

An opinion that reaches the same conclusion has been issued 
simultaneously for the Navy and Marine Corps by The Judge 
Advocate General of the Navy. 

FNa1. The M118 bullet is loaded into a 7.62mm (caliber .308) 
cartridge. In its original loading in the earlier .30-06 
cartridge, it was the M72. 

FNaa1. While this review is written in the context of the 
M852 Sierra MatchKing 168-grain "open-tip" bullet and a 
180-grain version, the MatchKing bullet (and similar bullets 
of other manufacturers) is also produced in other bullet 
weights of 7.62mm rifles (.308, .30-06, or .300 Winchester Magnum). 

FNaaa1. For example, 7.62mm bullets manufactured to NATO 
military specifications and used by the Federal Republic 
of Germany have a substantially greater tendency to 
fragment in soft tissue than do the U.S. M80 7.62mm 
ammunition made to the same specifications, the M118, 
or the M852 MatchKing. None fragment as quickly or easily 
upon entry into soft tissue as the 5.56mm ammunition 
manufactured to NATO standards and issued to its forces 
by the Government of Sweden. Its early fragmentation leads 
to far more severe wounds than any bullet manufactured to 
military specifications and utilized by the U.S. military 
during the past quarter century (whether the M80 7.62mm, 
the M16A1, M193 or M16A2 5.56mm) or the opentip MatchKing 
bullet under consideration. 






Related News:

The Department of Defense and the U.S. Army 
Operations Support Command have selected Alliant's 
Reloder 15 as the new propellant for the 7.62 (.308), 
M118 Special Ball Long Range Sniper Round. This 
cartridge will feature Reloder 15 with a 175 grain 
Boat-Tail bullet. It will become the standard issue, 
long range, .308 round for use by all military services. 
In addition to the 15, the newest powder in the series, 
Reloder 25 is the slowest burning powder and ideally 
suited for heavy magnum loads with large case capacity 
such as .30-.378 Weatherby Magnum. 










--------------------------------------------------------------------------
According to the above criteria, heavy match ammunition used for long range 
shooting in 5.56 mm (.223) rifles should also be allowed. My favorite long 
range round is a Speer .223 70 Gr soft tip semi-spitzer. I guess that I will 
just have to use this until I am issued a military weapon with ball ammo. 
I wish abide by the rules of land warfare and not cause any un-necessary suffering.