14.5×114mm

The 14.5×114mm (.57 calibre) 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, and 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 and for heavy anti-materiel sniper rifles.

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, semi-automatic rifles, and heavy machine guns alike, under extreme conditions.



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

Americans define the shoulder angle at alpha/2 = 22.5 degrees. The common rifling twist rate for this cartridge is 455 mm (1 in 17.91 in), 8 grooves, ⌀ lands = 14.50 mm, ⌀ 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 be certified for sale to consumers.

Ammunition types









 * BS: Armour-piercing incendiary original anti-tank round. The projectile weighs 64.4 g and is 51 mm long with a 38.7 g core of tungsten carbide with 1.8 g of incendiary material in the tip. The overall round weighs approximately 200 g and is 155 mm long. The projectile has a muzzle velocity of approximately 1006 m/s and can penetrate 30-32 mm of RHA steel at an incidence of 0 degrees at a range of 500 m, or 40 mm at a range of 100 m.
 * B-32: Armour-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: Armour-piercing incendiary tracer full metal jacket round with a steel core. Projectile weight is 59.56 g and muzzle velocity is 1006 m/s. Tracer burns to at least 2000 m.
 * MDZ: High-explosive incendiary bullet of instant action. Projectile weight is 59.6 g.
 * ZP: Incendiary tracer round

Cartridges use lacquered steel cases and percussion primers. 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 has a conventional bullet jacket with a boat-tail. These have a long engraving portion that causes considerable barrel wear. The newer bullet types have a smaller engraving portion with a rounder boat-tail and were used from about 1957 onward.

The cartridge has been manufactured in Bulgaria, China, Egypt, Hungary, Iraq, North Korea, Poland, Romania, Russia, and the former Czechoslovakia. There are new Chinese armour-piercing types:


 * DGJ02: APIDS-T cartridges use 45 g tungsten penetrators, wrapped in discarding sabots (similar to the US military SLAP cartridges) with dual colour tracers to aid ranging. The sabot splits and leaves the penetrator between 150 m and 200 m from the muzzle. It has a muzzle velocity of 1250 m/s and is quoted as being able to penetrate 20 mm of armour plate set at an angle of 60° at 1000 m.
 * DGE02: APHEI cartridges weigh between 175 g and 188 g. At 1000 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
 * Cadex CDX-X145
 * Denel NTW-20
 * Gepard M-3
 * Istiglal IST-14.5
 * Mambi-1 AMR
 * PDSHP
 * PTRS-41 (anti-tank rifle)
 * PTRD-41 (anti-tank rifle)
 * Shaher
 * Snipex T-Rex
 * Snipex Alligator
 * Truvelo 14.5×114mm
 * Vidhwansak
 * Şer rifle (home made anti-materiel rifle)

Machine guns
 * Slostin machine gun (heavy variant)
 * KPV heavy machine gun
 * Chinese Type 56 (KPV) and Type 58 (KPVT) heavy machine guns
 * Type 02/QJG-02 heavy machine gun

Other
 * ZPU anti-aircraft guns
 * 2Kh35 inserted unified self-loading gun

In addition, the Ukrainian "Horizon's Lord" sniper rifle fires a 12.7×114HL round made by necking down a 14.5×114mm cartridge case to accept a 12.7mm/.50 BMG bullet.