Partial jacketed bullet
A partially jacketed bullet or deformation bullet is a projectile in which the bullet material is not completely encased by a jacket material, but is exposed in the area of the bullet tip, which leads to a desired deformation of the projectile after penetrating a target.
Mode of action and use
The projectiles of modern weapons are usually made of relatively soft lead that is encased in a relatively hard material such as copper or a copper alloy such as tombac . The lead gives the bullet its high specific weight , which is important for its ballistic performance , and the hard jacket means it can withstand the stresses and strains of modern low-smoke powders. The bullet jacket protects the barrel of the rifle from lead and enables higher bullet speeds, since the bullet can still follow the rifle barrel's pulls and fields through which it gets its twist , even at high speed, thanks to the harder outer layer .
In the case of semi-jacketed bullets, the lead core is not surrounded by jacket material at the tip, so that the soft lead is exposed. When hitting a soft target, the resulting less stable tip of the bullet is deformed by the high pressure on impact and when penetrating the target. Depending on the speed and construction of the bullet, the bullet tip is deformed into a mushroom shape (mushrooming) or the bullet is partially or completely broken down into individual parts. As a result, the bullet can transfer its energy to the target medium much more effectively than a full-jacketed bullet , but it has a lower penetration rate . A distinction is made between different projectiles depending on the shape of the bullet tip: "Soft Point" for convex tips, "Flat Point" for flattened tips, "Hollow Point" for concave tips.
Partially jacketed bullets are mostly used in hunting, as these lead more reliably to faster death of the game than full jacketed bullets due to the effective energy release in the body of the game when fired for pasture. For the hunt for big game (elephants, buffalo), however, full-jacket bullets or solid copper or brass bullets are sometimes used because of the higher penetration required. For hunting animals pelzliefernde full metal jacket bullets are also preferred because expanding bullet with a bullet would destroy because of the large outlet opening too much fur.
The use of deformation bullets in wars is prohibited by the Hague Land Warfare Regulations . They fall under the prohibition of “weapons, projectiles or substances that are capable of causing unnecessary suffering” in Art. 23 lit. e of the Annex to the Hague Land Warfare Regulations, because under war conditions they cause injuries that are very difficult to treat and thus excessive suffering due to their deformation and decomposition effects.
Civil use by authorities
Outside of wars, for example to fight terrorism and crime, special deformation bullets made of copper or brass are used by the security authorities of many countries. These bullets often have predetermined breaking points or cavities in order to achieve a mushrooming in the target despite the hard materials without the bullet being dismantled. The interest in the use of such projectiles is based on the fact that the projectile energy is better transferred to the target body. On the one hand, this results in a greater man-stopping effect and, on the other hand, a reduced risk of bullet holes with ricochets, which could injure bystanders or break through the sides of aircraft. Many of these projectile types do not contain lead for reasons of health and environmental protection.
In Germany in 1999 the Interior Ministers' Conference of the Länder commissioned the development of a deformation bullet for use by the police. This was preceded by a controversy about deformation bullets that had been going on since the early 1970s, whereby reference was also made to the Land Warfare Regulations, the validity of which was disputed for the Federal Border Police and riot police . Only serious incidents as a result of the unsuitable target ballistic behavior of the 9 mm full jacketed bullets led to a reassessment of the civilian use of deformation bullets.
Since then, some federal states in Germany have been using a police cartridge in addition to conventional ammunition. Several products are approved in Germany. These projectiles are designed for the greatest possible stopping effect. Upon impact, they deform by up to 1.3 times their original 9 mm caliber. Due to the much lower muzzle energy of pistol ammunition, the controlled behavior in soft tissues developed with modern technology and the guaranteed compact mass, their wound ballistic effect can not be compared with the effect of dum-dum rifle bullets or hunting rifle ammunition.
Dum-dum bullet
The name Dum-Dum-Bullet , which is often used colloquially , is originally derived from the name of the ammunition factory in Dum Dum in the north of Calcutta in India , which in the second half of the 19th century produced a rifle cartridge with a semi-jacketed bullet, also known as " Cartridge, SA, Ball, .303-Inch Mark II C. " In addition, the "Soft Point" (SP) bullet was officially developed as Mark III in 1897 in the Woolwich Arsenal and accepted for use. The "improved" Mark IV bullet was introduced in 1897. Already during the Mahdi uprising in 1889 in Sudan , the bullet tips of the cartridge "Cartridge, SA, Ball, .303-Inch Mark II C." used at that time were filed down by the British soldiers so that the lead core was exposed. In the ammunition factories of the British mainland, however, such ammunition was not manufactured.
Later, makeshiftly converted full jacket projectiles, in which the tip of the projectile jacket was filed down, were referred to as dum-dum projectiles. This modification leads to a strong, uncontrolled deformation up to the fragmentation of the projectile body as soon as it enters body tissue at high speed and, after entering the body, to severe injuries with just a single wound (e.g. disproportionately large blood loss, large exit wounds). In addition, the many splinters of the lead core make effective wound care very difficult. Therefore they are outlawed as weapons of war under Article 23 of the Hague Land Warfare Regulations .
With subsequent modifications, there is a risk that the lead core can "strip off" parts of the jacket, which then remain in the shooter's barrel . Mark III and Mark IV bullets ( hollow point bullets ) were affected by this deficiency . The Mark V bullet was therefore developed, which did not have these problems. The Mark III and Mark IV bullets that had already been manufactured were sold to sport shooters who - in contrast to the soldiers at the front who were under time pressure - were able to check the barrel of the weapon after each shot was fired.
Dum-dum bullets differ from more modern deformation bullets - the latter are also internationally banned as weapons of war - by the fact that the former is broken down into several fragments.
Close range rifle hits can erroneously be classified as being caused by dum-dum bullets as they can lead to similar injuries. A definitive assessment of whether dum-dum ammunition was used in a conflict requires ballistic clarification by experts. Organizations like the ICRC are able to conduct such investigations to identify violations of international humanitarian law .
Different types of deformation bullets
Round head bullet with lead head, partial jacket, hunting
Pointed head bullet with lead point, partial jacket, hunting
Pointed head bullet with hole point, partial jacket, hunting
Pointed head bullet with hole point, two-part D-part jacket, hunting
Deformation bullets for police use.
A: RUAG Action Effect with polymer tip.
B: SWISS P Luger SeCa with sliding hollow body.
See also
literature
- Beat Kneubuehl : Bullets . Volume 1: Ballistics, accuracy, mode of action . 2nd Edition. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-7276-7119-X .
- Beat Kneubuehl: Bullets . Volume 2: Ballistics, effectiveness, measurement technology . Motorbuch Verlag et al., Stuttgart et al. 2004, ISBN 3-613-30501-1 .
- Beat Kneubuehl (eds.), Robin Coupland, Markus Rothschild, Michael Thali: Wundballistik. Basics and Applications . 3rd completely revised and expanded edition. Springer Medizin Verlag, Heidelberg, 2008, ISBN 978-3-540-79008-2 .
- Manfred R. Rosenberger: weapons and ammunition used by the police . Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-613-02246-X .
- David Harding (Ed.): Weapons Encyclopedia. From hand ax to cruise missile . 2nd Edition. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-613-01488-2 .
- Markus Stappen: Police bullets and other deformation bullets, special tape for ammunition in police use and commercially available ammunition , Verlag Sascha Ulderup, 2015, ISBN 978-3-9817001-2-1 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ David Th. Schiller, Siegfried Schwarz: For a sad occasion , Visier, Das Internationale Waffenmagazin, Paul Parey Zeitschriftenverlag GmbH, 01/1999 p. 40 ff
- ↑ Christopher Hocke: Put to the test , Visier, Das Internationale Waffenmagazin, Vogt-Schildt Deutschland GmbH, 05/2008 p. 128
- ↑ Extract from "German Police", 6/2001 - Source: www.gdp.de (PDF file; 196 kB)
- ↑ Brockhaus' Kleines Konversations-Lexikon, fifth edition, volume 1. Leipzig 1911., p. 468, entry: Dum-Dum-Geschoss .