120mm vs 125mm

[Fury]

Which tank main gun is better the Rheinmetall 120mm or russian 125mm, all you tank experts here tell me. Things I know is that the 120mm has longer effective firing range, I dont know if this a rumor but I read long time ago that some british Challenger 2 MBT in operation desert storm scored the longest tank vs tank hit&kill, the shot was fired from about 5.1 kilometers and the poor bastard was T-62 I think but that was desert storm and Iraqi tanks were crap, what about both cannons with modern ammunition?
Are there any HEAT rounds being used anymore for tank main guns?

[Bill]

Many nations still use HEAT, including the US and Russians.

The 120mm Rhienmetal Gun is obviously extensively battleproven, and has proven to be extremely lethal.

The 125mm in the occasions it has seen battle against other tanks has not fared so well. Ammo and what the gun were attatched to had a big part of that obviously.

With equivelant ammo, they're probably roughly equivelant guns.

[riclcam]

LOL..... Trust me there is no way in hell that a vehicle was hit at 5.1 k's by a tank round. I have been a tanker for over 12 years. Whoever made that one up is really pulling your leg or crazy. You can lase at a target and get a range, but you couldn't get a ballistic solution.

[Bill]

It was a freak shot, i've read about it before too. It is the longest direct fire kill in history.

[riclcam]

I don't believe it. There are to many intangibles that factor in to making a shot like that. If you have the story I would love to check it out. I will explain in detail at a later time why I feel that this is a myth.

[riclcam]

I found the story, but I still don't believe it due to doctrine and a couple of other factors.

[Bill]

I was pretty amazed by the Canadian sniper that made the 2400 meter kill shot with the M-89 too. That is actually outside the effective range of the weapon by a considerable margin.

Still, he did it...

Neither one of us was there, so either we believe the eyewitnesses, or we don't.

What are the other factors, if you don't mind me asking.

[Fury]

You wanna heard an incredible story just see this one.
Few years ago here in north Finland there were three guys hunting in a forest, all of those guys had .308win caliber rifles. After few hours of hunting and getting nothing two of the guys decide to take a break, the other still continued. The lonely guy travels five kilometers and sees nothing but trees until he spots a bird high up on one of those trees. The guy aims at bird a fires blasting the poor bird to pieces.
When that lone guy travels back to the camp to his buddies he finds his brother dead, shot right between the eyes. Later that guy finds out that it was his bullet that killed his own brother, out of five kilometers not even seing eachother, that was a really lucky shot!
Believe it or not but this was in every news paper all over my country.

[Fury]

Oh and if you're thinking that it was the third guy that shot the other then forget it , the police investigated the whole thing down to the bottom of it.

[Bill]

That would definitely qualify as a freak occurance.

[phalanx]

lol gdamn

[riclcam]

Here are a couple of factors. During offensive or defensive operations you are given a trigger line. The reason being is that you want to fire simutaniously and you don't want to give away your position before the enemy is within effective range. Also there is round distribution in a war time situation you would be a gamble engaging targets outside of your max eff. range. Further more, is classification, any gunner that I know would wait until you can atleast get a decent range (ballistic solution) on a target before engaging. Next reason is this, you can lase and get ranges up 9990 meters. But any range over 4000 meters comes up flashing, that means that the computer doesn't have a solution for that range. Don't get me wrong you can hit a target at that distance with a service round but it would take more than one shot. I would love to read the report on this story. Oh and if the weather was bad there is no way in hell that it could have happen. During the Battle of the 73 easting we had trouble acquiring target at far less ranges than that due to weather. I would love to know the specifics on this alleged shot.

[riclcam]

Sorry about the grammer. I am trying to do three things at once. I will proof read the next thread before I send it.

[phalanx]

http://www.clubi.ie/exalted/challeng.htm

Challenger took the record for the longest range kill by a tank in the Gulf War, killing a T-55 at some 5 miles with a HESH round. (Apparently the gunner had to talk the commander into letting him try the shot) The only Western country to stand by rifling barrels, Britain believes that the slight performance drop is counteracted by the variety of ordnance that can be carried. HESH would probably be the only kind of round that could kill, for example, a T-72 frontally at that distance.

[riclcam]

This is what I am talking about. One report read 5.1 k's and this story reads 5 miles I really don't believe it now.