Scott Vernon wrote:

What were 'metal piercing bullets' made from before? My 30-06 Springfield
(military model) came with some clips full of MPBs.

I know that some were made from a high molybdenum steel with surface hardened
tips. There are different ways of doing it, the above is 1960s era technology.

The bullet needs to be dense enough to carry a lot of energy into the target
surface, and enough harder to not get distorted (so that the energy of impact
stays in a small area) and yet surface hardening also makes metal brittle, so if
you overdo that part, the bullet just shatters. Depleted uranium is much simpler
(once you figure out how to make it in the first place) but as Martin said, the
dust & debris around the target are not healthy.

It doesn't do much for our "good guy" image to leave low-level radioactive
debris all around a country we've liberated. Future generations will not toss
flowers in our path for elevating their cancer rate! Just my humble opinon.... I
wonder if the US has really stopped using depleted uranium, or if they've found
something almost as good?

BTW did you see the clips of Carolina beating UConn?

DSK