14.5×114mm

The 14.5×114mm (.57 Cal) is a heavy machine gun and anti-materiel rifle cartridge used by the Soviet Union, the former Warsaw Pact, modern Russia, and other countries.

It was originally developed for the PTRS and PTRD anti-tank rifles, but was later used as the basis for the KPV heavy machine gun that formed the basis of the ZPU series anti-aircraft guns that is also the main armament of the BTR series of armoured personnel carriers from the BTR-60 to the BTR-80.

Cartridge dimensions

The 14.5×114mm has 42.53 ml (655 grains H₂O) cartridge case capacity. The exterior shape of the case was designed to promote reliable case feeding and extraction in bolt action rifles and machine guns alike, under extreme conditions.

14.5×114mm maximum cartridge dimensions. All dimensions in millimeters (mm).

Americans would define the shoulder angle at alpha/2 ≈ 22.50 degrees. The common rifling twist rate for this cartridge is 455 mm (1 in 17.91 in), 8 grooves, Ø lands = 14.50 mm, Ø grooves = 14.95 mm.

According to the official guidelines the 14.5×114 case can handle up to 360 MPa (52,213 psi) piezo pressure. In C.I.P. regulated countries every rifle cartridge combo has to be proofed at 125% of this maximum C.I.P. pressure to certify for sale to consumers.

Ammunition types

B-32 API projectile on the left, hardened steel core aside. Tip is black with a thin red band below. On the right, BZT API-T projectile with dark red tip and a wide red band below; hardened steel core and tracer cup on its right. Both jackets and the tracer cup are made from copper-washed steel. Between the cores and the jackets there would be a layer of lead.

• BS: Armor-piercing incendiary original anti-tank round. The projectile weighs 64.4 grams and is 51 millimeters long with a 38.7 gram core of tungsten carbide with 1.8 grams of incendiary material in the tip. The overall round weighs approximately 200 grams and is 155 millimeters long. The projectile has a muzzle velocity of approximately 1,006 meters per second and can penetrate 40 millimeters of steel at an incidence of 60 degrees at a range of 100 meters, or 32 millimeters at a range of 500 meters.^[1]
• B-32: Armor-piercing incendiary full metal jacket round with a hardened steel core. Projectile weight is 64 g and muzzle velocity is 1006 m/s. Armour penetration at 500 m is 32 mm of RHA at 90 degrees.
• BZT: Armor-piercing incendiary tracer full metal jacket round with a steel core. Projectile weight is 59.56 g and muzzle velocity is 1,006 m/s. Tracer burns to at least 2,000 m.
• MDZ: High-explosive incendiary bullet of instant action. Projectile weight is 59.68 g.
• ZP: Incendiary tracer round

Dummy round

Cartridges use lacquered steel cases and a percussion primer. Some countries also use brass cartridge cases. The propellant consists of 28.8 g smokeless powder with seven tubes, designated as 5/7NA powder. Two different versions of bullet series are known, the earlier had a conventional bullet jacket with boat-tail. These had a long engraving portion that caused considerable barrel wear. The newer bullet types have a smaller engraving portion with a rounder boat-tail and were used from about 1957 on.

14.5×114mm ammunition has been manufactured in Bulgaria, China, Egypt, Hungary, Iraq, North Korea, Poland, Romania, Russia, and the former Czechoslovakia. Of special note are the new Chinese armor-piercing types:^[2]

• DGJ02: AP-T cartridge uses a 45 g tungsten penetrator, wrapped in a discarding sabot (similar to the US military SLAP cartridges) with dual colour tracer to aid ranging. The sabot splits and leaves the penetrator between 150 to 200 m from the muzzle. It has a muzzle velocity of 1,250 m/s and is quoted as being able to penetrate 20 mm of armour plate set at an angle of 50° at 800 m.
• DGE02: APHEI cartridge weighs between 175 and 188 g. At 800 m it is quoted as having a 90 percent chance of being able to penetrate 15 mm of armour plate set at 30°. At 300 m after penetrating a 2 mm soft steel plate (representing an aircraft skin) it can further penetrate a 1.2 mm thick steel plate producing 20 fragments. Upon explosion between 75 and 95 incendiary pieces are formed which have an 80% chance of igniting aviation fuel.

Chambered weapons

Anti-materiel rifles

• Anzio rifle
• Denel NTW-20
• Gepard M-3
• Gepard M-6
• Istiglal IST-14.5
• Mambi-1 AMR
• PDSHP
• PTRS-41 (anti-tank rifle)
• PTRD-41 (anti-tank rifle)
• Shaher^[3]
• Truvelo 14.5×114mm
• Vidhwansak

Machine guns

• Slostin machine gun (heavy variant)
• KPV heavy machine gun
• Type 02/QJG-02 heavy machine gun^[4]
• Chinese Type 56 & Type 58 heavy machine guns

Other

• ZPU anti-aircraft guns
• 2Kh35 Inserted unified self-loading gun^[5]

See also

• 12.7×108mm
• .50 BMG
• 20 mm caliber
• 23 mm caliber
• 25 mm caliber
• 30 mm caliber

References

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 14.5x114.

• Koll, Christian (2009). Soviet Cannon - A Comprehensive Study of Soviet Arms and Ammunition in Calibres 12.7mm to 57mm. Austria: Koll. p. 91. ISBN 978-3-200-01445-9. Archived from the original on 19 October 2009. Retrieved 21 November 2009. 

External links

• 14,5x114 large-caliber cartridges