4.73x33mm Caseless (no ontology)

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The 4.73x33mm Caseless (also known as the 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; for more in-depth information about the weapon, please visit its article.

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%

How to read this?

Among the most interesting and powerful rifle calibers available in Mazeworld, 4.73x33mm Caseless's primary trait is its exotism; it is the only caseless caliber in the Mazes. Performance-wise, it may be unable to kill unarmored or lightly protected targets in one shot, but thanks to its relatively flat damage curve, most targets will succumb with 2 to 4 shots, depending on armor class, and more if facing stronger resistance. Nevertheless, despite it has tremendous power, 4.7mm Caseless is practically designed for short bursts or controlled automatic fire; properly calculated, it becomes an irresistible killing tool.

Being a caliber exclusive to one weapon only, 4.73x33mm rounds are understandably rare. When bought, gun shops and weapon shops sell 4.73x33mm in boxes of 45 or 180 rounds, for the very high price of 11 P$ per round. Exotism and power come at a price, but it is the price to pay for an extremely-well performing round.

.44 AMP ammunition may also be found in the fourth reward chest of Mission C4 (270 rounds) along with its intended weapon; the Heckler & Koch G11K2.

Weapons compatible

Class 1 weapons

Gallery

(image) (image)
Cutaway diagram of a round. Dismantled round.

See also