10.20.44 76, 85 mm AP test vs. Tiger I plate

[Peasant]

I guess there just isn't much interest in terminal ballistics of low velocity/high caliber guns attacking low T/D armor, that's why people, usually, dont give a second thought to the numbers listed in the official firing tables for this gun:

Unfortunately I do not have any data on live tests of these low velocity guns against german tanks and the high velocity soviet guns shooting same projectiles do not reach low enough striking speeds even at maximum distance tested.

I have good news: my current estimates place the upper limit on thickness of MQ RHA the soviet blunt tipped projectiles can perforate intact(as in literally virtually undeformed) at low obliquity somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3 of their caliber. Unfortunately this places the most interesting cases (76mm proj vs 50mm plate and 45mm proj vs 30mm plate) just outside of the zone of uncertainty, so there isn't much to say here.

On the other hand the table above is now completely disproven, as the usual target of 30mm RHA of frontal/side armour on may german tanks can likely be perforated by this gun, even at 30° angle, at any practical range.

[KillaKiwi]

Man that's some pretty poor performance for the Soviet 85.
They require more velocity to go through the Tigers front than even the US 75mm.

However it shows that good enough gets the Job done. You don't need a 75 or 88mm with +160mm penetration when the enemy tanks have 100mm at best and the majority of them have 30-45mm of side armor.

Going for large caliber flat nosed shells was clearly the right call.

[Thoddy]

Going for large caliber flat nosed shells was clearly the right call.

Technically flat nosed shells had the lowest shatter velocities. And worst pentration characteristics against armor above 1 cal.

there is a window in between about 0.3 cal and about 0.8 cal in wich flat nosed armor piercing projectiles perform better then more usual shaped projectiles, because of punching.

[Peasant]

Case closed, this test is laid out in detail in this document here: viewtopic.php?f=79&p=2462834#p2462834
As I've mentioned elsewhere, the ballistic limits presented in the summary are not actually such, but rather the Highest Partial Penetration and the Lowest Complete Penetration figures.