From: [b--o--h] at [mdd.comm.mot.com] (Greg Booth) Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns Subject: Armor Piercing Handgun Ammo Date: 3 Jan 1994 09:28:00 -0800 17. "Cop Killer" Ammunition o The "teflon-coated armour-piercing bullet" does not exist. A company called KTW developed a teflon-tipped bullet for penetrating car doors, but when fired into standard Kevlar body armour, it was even less effective than ordinary bullets, contrary to the claims of fanatical anti-gun lobbyists who trumpeted that this "new bullet rendered cops helpless, even with body armour." No police officer in the USA has been ever shot with armour piercing handgun ammunition. KTW was setup in the early 1980's by police Sergeant Don Ward, police Lieutenant Turcus, and scientist Dr. Paul Kopsch. They sold their KTW round to the military and a handful of police departments and have never sold it to the public. NRAction newsletter, Volume 4, Issue 5 May 1990 "Interview with Dr. Paul Kopsch" The NRA helped draft the final legislation which was adopted, which banned the sale of the KTW ("armor- piercing") bullet to anyone but police and military organizations. The ORIGINAL legislation, which the NRA opposed, would have banned any ammunition which could pierce a ballistic vest. That includes the smallest caliber (.22), which can slip between the fibers of the kevlar vest. It also includes most rifle ammunition, but very little handgun ammunition. In short, the legislation as proposed would have banned most calibers, including ones like .270 Winchester and .30-30, which have been used since the turn of the century for hunting. o The following text is an interview with one of the inventors of the KTW bullet; this is a subset of a larger article. It was copied from the NRAction newsletter, Volume 4, Issue 5 - - May 1990. -- 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 detract 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. o o Article 11858 of rec.guns: Path: mdivax1!mdisea!uw-coco!uw- beaver!zephyr.ens.tek.com!uunet!europa.asd.contel.com!darwin ..sura.net!haven.umd.edu!mimsy!cpsc.ucalgary.ca From: [j--k--n] at [cpsc.ucalgary.ca] (Dwight Jackson) Newsgroups: rec.guns Subject: (null) Message-ID: <[4--4--8] at [mimsy.umd.edu]> Date: 5 Nov 91 23:00:40 GMT Sender: [m--gn--m] at [mimsy.umd.edu] o Three Articles on KTW ammunition: (warning, LONG!) o From: Gun World, April 1971, "Teflon For Bullets" By Chuck Taylor o The men who formed KTW: Dr. Paul Kopsch, Sgt. Daniel Turcus (Lorain Police Dept), and Don Ward (coroner's investigator). KTW formed around 1967, after the three were somehow involved in a gun battle, where the Lorain, Ohio Police Dept. .38 Special regular issue ammuntion just "bounced" off the fugitive's car "like BB's". They came up with a 200gr .38 Special loading that had up to a 600% greater penetration through metal, than any other AP load sold commercialy at the time. They also kept the pressure down to 14,500 psi (they quote a maximum recommended load in .38 Special as 20,000 psi). A super hard metal alloy, coated in teflon. The teflon coating, hardness of the bullet and its special ogive shape all contribute to the effectiveness of the loading. A test rack of .035" car body metal plates, spaced about 1/2" apart produced the following results, when fired at a distance of 5 feet, with a six inch barrel, 90 degrees from plates: o .38 Spl AP Load (commercial) Penetrate 1 plate, dent or hangup on second plate o .357 Mag AP Load (commercial) Penetrate 4 plates, inconsistant in its performance, very heavy recoil, lead core or base would deform or seperate. o .38 Spl KTW Load Penetrate 6 - 8 plates, no deformation of bullet o Tests at 45 degree angle from plates: o .38 Spl AP Load (commercial) No penetration o .357 Mag AP Load (commercial) No penetration (according to the article) o .38 Spl KTW Load Penetrate 6 - 7 plates, no deformation o Unscientific tests with these loads on the old Ford engine block had predictable results: .38 Spl (commercial) loads bounced off. .357 Mag loads cracked block walls, penetrated after 2-3 shots in same place. The KTW loads penetrated each time, measured 3/8" cast iron wall thickness. Tests reported with the .30 M1 Carbine load were the same sort of results, and they produced a 160gr teflon coated projectile that would penetrate 1/4" homogenous armor plate (tests conducted by H.P. White Laboratories). o ------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------- o From: Article by Francis C. Allan, Alaska Cartridge Club, May 1981 o (This article is more for cartridge collectors than any one else, as it lists a history of the rounds, all different types encountered, bullet shapes & colors, etc.) o He gives the name of the initial metal used in the construction of the KTW bullets as: "Kennertium", a sintered tungsten alloy having a weight greater than lead and a hardness greater than steel. The material is lathe turned to proper shape, coated with the pea-colored teflon, than the treated projectile is seated and crimped into a thin copper cup, which is to engage the rifling when fired (the teflon does not touch the barrel!). These early loads had a warning on the box "Do Not Use In Weapons With Polygonal Twist Barrels" as the bullets would not conform to the reshaping process that takes place in these barrels. US Patents: 3553804, 3580178. By 1971, the tungsten was becoming cost- prohibitive to both purchase and machine. Under new owners, the company changed to plain machine steel (no grade or alloy given) and to a brass-like material. This caused a reduction in the weight by almost half. The company prefers this weight reduction as it also reduces maximum range (640 yards). o Calibers produced and weight: (later and exper. series) 25 Auto 40 grains ..30 M1 Carbine 80 gr . 32 Auto 71 gr . 380 Auto 105 gr ..38 Special 105 gr ..38 Colt Super 105 gr 9mm Luger 105 gr . 357 Magnum 115 gr ..44 Special 162 gr . 44 Magnum 162 gr . 44 Auto Mag 162 gr (one test run, black teflon used, scarce) ..45 ACP 183 gr o Two penetration tests, all done with the 9mm Luger ammunition on 1/2 inch plywood panels, and water soaked phone books, distance 21 feet: o MFG Velocity Wood Penetrated Books o Remington 115gr HP 1,158 fps 5 panels 5.5" W-W 115gr Silver Tips 1,178 3 4.375" S&W 115gr HP 1,209 6 5.625" W-W 100gr SP 1,239 5 7.375" W-W 100gr HP 1,293 7 5.375" W-W 95gr SP 1,331 5 7.126" Remington 95gr SP 1,333 6 6.125" KTW 105gr 1,356 12 12.000"++ o (I do notice that no FMJ ammo appeared to have been tested) o The KTW bullets penetrated all 12 inches of books, and was lost in the backstop. Other tests showed the 9mm KTW round penetrating a plate of 10 gauge cold rolled steel. The hole was clean, with a slight smear of the green teflon around the hole. Another test fired at a piece of 18 layer kevlar body armor, backed with 2 water soaked phone books, at a distance of 45 feet. The body armor was penetrated, as were the phone books and 6 1/2 inches of pine backstop. No visable deformation of the fired bullet was noticed (after it was dug out of the backstop). o ------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------- o From: Law Enforcement Handgun Digest (1972) o Chapter 11 "The Useful And Comforting Item Of Equipment Will Help The Officer To Do His Job - And Survive!" o A chapter mostly covering body armor and other useful things like that. There is a description of firing various caliber handgun ammunition thru a body armor vest manufactured by Davis Aircraft Products, Inc. This Police Vest uses a "bullet resistant" steel alloy plate .0455" thick surrounded by a material they call Shokcloth (treated, layered, pliable nylon). A .22LR bullet at 18" will fail to go through the Shokcloth itself, forgetting the plates. They tested various calibers from .221 Rem Fireball to .45 ACP, some of which penitrated, but that's not the point. Their tests of placing a portion of the vest ontop of a (dry) 3" telephone book, and firing into the plate from a slightly angled standing position (maybe 3 feet). They used factory .38 Special loads, getting a dent but no penetration. The .357 Mag loads didn't penetrate, but the author felt that they should have by the size of the dents. They then tried some 200gr KTW (early loads) loads, with the following result: "From a six-inch barrel, this load punched a neat hole through the alloy plate, through the nylon padding, through the three inches of phone book and into the gravel for just over another inch before coming to rest. Understating it a bit, we were flabbergasted." o --------------- o #From the same book: Chapter 16 "Special Purpose Loads & Ammo" o They have a picture of an engine block with various .357 Mag holes in it. The show a star shaped "splash" smear left by a conventional metal-piercing load, and two holes through the side of the block caused by KTW bullets. ----------------------------------------------------------- -- Greg Booth BSc />_________________________________ BCAA-PCDHF-BCWF-NFA-NRA-IPSC [########[]_________________________________> /\/\OTOROLA Wireless Data Group, \> I don't speak for Motorola / \Subscriber Products Division, [b--o--h] at [mdd.comm.mot.com]