Inexplicable Wounds made by Special Bullets

[Bob Prudhomme]

The term "Humanitarian Rifle" was actually begun by Italian troops and the inspiration for this name had nothing to do with accuracy. Jacketed bullets were introduced in the late 19th Century as rifles evolved from large bore, low velocity weapons into small bore, high velocity weapons. As the bores got smaller, and velocities higher, unjacketed lead bullets were found to quickly foul the riflings of the smaller bored barrels, and the copper alloy jackets prevented this. However, as the jackets were full metal jackets, it was quickly discovered that a jacketed bullet went straight through a person without inflicting a lot of damage, as opposed to the earlier large-bore unjacketed chunks of lead bullets that deformed and splattered easily in a wound and did LOTS of damage.

This problem was made even worse by the long narrow design of the 6.5mm Carcano bullet, making it into a "flying drill". Ideally, a bullet should tumble in a wound, making a big mess, but the Carcano FMJ bullet greatly resisted this. Short bullets destabilize and tumble in wounds MUCH better. Hence, the "Humanitarian Rifle" name.

To show just how great this problem was, the British Indian army, in sheer desperation, issued the "dum dum" bullet. This was the .303 British Mk. III cartridge and was essentially the original round nosed bullet with the nose of the jacket removed, exposing the lead core. This was actually the first soft tipped bullet. Later developments in the Mk. IV and Mk. V were actually the same bullet but with a hollow point this time. As all of these designs were expanding bullets, they had far greater stopping power against native tribesmen than did the full metal jacket bullets.



These bullets were SO effective, and made such nasty wounds, they were outlawed at the 1899 Hague Peace Conference as being inhumane. The British were in a dilemma; they wanted to adhere to the rules but they also wanted a bullet that didn't require shooting an enemy four or five times with to knock him down.

The design they came up with and stayed with, through two world wars, is the MK. VII spitzer seen above. The first thing they changed was the round nose bullet; replacing it with a spitzer point. The reason for this is that, while the round nose tends to punch its way through bone and such, the spitzer point, when it hits bone, tends to get deflected easier. This makes the bullet begin tumbling in a wound and tearing up great amounts of tissue. This effect is enhanced in the Mk. VII bullet by making the forward section of the core from aluminum and the rear section from lead, as seen in the diagram above. As the mass of the bullet was disproportionate from nose to base, when the bullet struck bone the heavier base would try to pass the lighter nose and the bullet would tumble.

The long round nosed Carcano 6.5mm bullet was the exact opposite of the Mk. VII, and that is why the Carcano never seemed to kill anyone. When, in 1938, the Carcano was reborn in the 7.35x51mm short rifle, a serious attempt was made to imitate the .303 Mk. VII bullet, as we all know that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. The 7.35mm bullet had a spitzer point, like the MK. VII, and had the same aluminum nose/lead base core as the Mk. VII. Unfortunately for the Italians, production of the 7.35mm Carcanos ended in 1939, and the non-lethal 6.5mm cartridge was brought back.

This is only one reason why the Carcanos received a bad reputation. I will explain a few more in the next post.