HK 4.6×30mm
Introduced 1999Heckler & KochCIP standard
Also known as 4.6×30mm — the same cartridge under different names, all of which find this page.
Dimensions and pressure
Generated from the schema, like every specification table on this site, so a figure recorded on this entry cannot be missing from the table.
Identity
- Designed by
- Heckler & Koch
- Introduced
- 1999
- Production
- not recorded
- Standards body
- C.I.P.
- Case type
- Rebated rim
- Case shape
- Bottleneck
Dimensions
- Bullet diameter
- 4.65 mm0.1831 insource
C.I.P. G1, maximum bullet diameter.
- Bore diameter
- not recorded
- Case length
- 30.5 mm1.201 insource
C.I.P. L3, maximum case length.
- Overall length
- 38.5 mm1.516 insource
C.I.P. L6, maximum cartridge overall length.
- Rim diameter
- 8 mm0.3150 insource
C.I.P. R1.
- Neck diameter
- 5.31 mm0.2091 insource
C.I.P. H2.
- Base diameter
- 8.02 mm0.3157 insource
C.I.P. P1.
Pressure
- Maximum pressure
- 400 MPa58,015 psisource
C.I.P. Pmax 4000 bar; 1 bar = 0.1 MPa exactly.
- Pressure standard
- C.I.P.
SAAMI and C.I.P. measure pressure differently and their figures are not interchangeable, which is why the body is always named beside the figure.
Loads
Velocity is recorded per barrel length as published. A gun page interpolates between these points and never projects beyond them.
DM11 ball
Heckler & Koch
- Bullet mass
- 2 g30.86 grsource
Ballistics table of the cited article, which publishes bullet mass in grams.
- Cartridge mass
- not recorded
- Bullet type
- Copper-plated steel
- G1 BC
- not recorded
- G7 BC
- not recorded
| Barrel | Velocity |
|---|---|
| 180 mm7.087 in | 720 m/s2,362 fps |
2.7 g full metal jacket
- Bullet mass
- 2.7 g41.67 grsource
Ballistics table of the cited article.
- Cartridge mass
- not recorded
- Bullet type
- FMJ
- G1 BC
- not recorded
- G7 BC
- not recorded
| Barrel | Velocity |
|---|---|
| 180 mm7.087 in | 600 m/s1,969 fps |
Chambered in
Computed from every entry that lists this cartridge. Nothing here is hand-maintained.
- Heckler & Koch MP7
Heckler & Koch
Gallery
Image credit
- Title
- File:4,6x30 SP.jpg
- Author
- XIMO at municion.org
- Licence
- Public domain
- Source
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:4,6x30_SP.jpg
Detail
The direct competitor to FN’s 5.7×28mm, submitted against the same NATO requirement and losing the 1999 evaluation to it on points that both manufacturers still dispute. It is the smaller of the two by every measure: a 4.65 mm bullet weighing two grams, in a case five millimetres shorter.
It runs at 400 MPa, which is rifle pressure in a cartridge the size of a fingernail, and that is what buys the velocity. The bullet is a copper-plated steel cylinder rather than a lead-cored jacketed design — at this diameter there is no room for a conventional core, and the whole projectile is effectively a penetrator.
Its C.I.P. datasheet was last revised in 2025, the most recent of any cartridge on this site, which is a small reminder that these standards are living documents and that a citation without an edition date is worth very little.
References
- C.I.P. TDCC datasheet — 4,6 x 30 · 2025-05-13 · read 2026-08-31
- HK 4.6×30mm · 1347648528 · read 2026-08-31
Last verified 2026-08-31 · review status: agent-populated