4.73x33mm Caseless (no ontology)
From Mazeworld
The 4.73x33mm Caseless (also known as 4.73x33mm DM11 or simply referred to as 4.7mm Caseless) is an unique caliber of caseless design, created and designed by Winchester for Heckler & Koch, and it designed for the G11 series of rifles. It is considered a high-tier caliber.
Real-life data
The story of the 4.73x33mm caliber is closely tied to that of the G11 rifle.
In the late 60s, the West German military was researching a brand new weapon design to replace their battle-proven, but aging G3 rifles. A conglomeration of companies were tasked on the job, which was named the Gesellschaft für Hülsenlose Gewehrsysteme (Corporation for Caseless Systems, in German). This conglomerate was composed of Heckler & Koch, Dynamit Nobel and Hensoldt Wetzlar. H&K was in charge of the weapon design, Dynamit Nobel designed an all-new caliber design, and Hensoldt created the optics to be integrated within the new weapon system. This, along with the participation of Winchester for the production of ammunition, resulted in one of the most avant-garde and audacious gambles in the history of firearm technology, and one of H&K's most prized brainchilds: the G11 assault rifle, which would fire the brand new 4.73x33mm DM11 round, of caseless design.
The 4.73x33mm DM11's design was very much in advance for its time. It wasn't the first firearm that attempted using caseless ammunition, but the G11 is certainly the most well-known, and technologically speaking the most accomplished. Caseless ammunition makes ammunition cheaper to produce, eliminates the need to extract and eject empty casings during normal operation, and is generally thought as less polluting. It is, however, known to be more sensitive to heat and damage, though several refinements of the DM11 round eliminated most of those problems.
The round was slated to be West Germany's service caliber, replacing 7.62x51mm NATO, but with the adoption of the new standard NATO caliber, the 5.56x45mm NATO, and the reunification of Germany, the G11 never entered full production, nor did 4.7mm caseless ammunition, despite both being technologically mature and ready for mass-production; the decision being political and economical in nature. The newly reunified Germany and its Bundeswehr turned to the cheaper and NATO-compliant G36 rifle instead, which went on to become the Bundeswehr's service rifle.
Mazeworld overview
Type | Unarm | Light | Hardskin | Kevlar-2 | Kevlar-3 | Kevlar-4 | HEV |
Bullet | 86% | 83% | 80% | 68% | 57% | 45% | 26% |
- Available for purchase in a gun shop or a weapon shop, in boxes of 45 or 180 rounds
- Costs 495 P$ for 45 rounds, and 1980 P$ for 180 rounds
- Value of a single round is 11 P$
- Recoil level of this round is 2 - Light
- Availability of this caliber:
- Can be found at random in the rooms
Weapons compatible
Class 1 weapons
Gallery
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Cutaway diagram of a round. | Dismantled round. |