Stainless casings

[Guest colrmccoll]

A quote from website Defense Tech: (emphasis added) From an article about how much the grunt has to hump in Afghanistan.

Defense Tech: Lighter Loads Heading to the 'Stan

"It’s not only in body armor that the Army is looking to shave pounds. The service is developing a new, lightweight version of the venerable M240B 7.62mm machine gun, a soldiers’ favorite, called the M240L, acheiving a nearly 7 pound weight savings by using lightweight titanium instead of steel (lightweight titanium is so scarce that it takes nearly 12 months from ordering to get the new machine gun). The Army is also moving from brass bullet casings to stainless steel which is 20 percent lighter bullet to bullet, considering that a 30 round M4 mag weighs one pound, lighter ammo can make a big difference. Brass is also getting scarce and more costly while stainless steel is cheap and plentiful. Soldiers also get new lightweight tripods for the machine guns.

[Guest 70below]

Wow.......wonder what a Titanium M240 costs? Wonder why they chose stainless casings rather than the standard coated steel?

[Guest Mugster]

Rust, I'd guess.