Inexplicable Wounds made by Special Bullets

[Bob Prudhomme]

Now that we have described all of the wounds, and I'll admit that these are my interpretations and others may see them differently, we can discuss these wounds and see just how bizarre each one of them was, if it is to be believed they were all inflicted by full metal jacket 6.5mm Carcano bullets.

Before we go there, here are some photos of 6.5mm Carcano "frangible" range bullets, designed as safe bullets for indoor ranges and made as late as 1953 and possibly into the 1960's. As discussed earlier, frangible range bullets were fired indoors, often at targets with a solid concrete backstop behind them. When they struck this backstop, or anything a regular bullet would ricochet off of, these bullets would disintegrate into a cloud of powder and leave nothing solid behind except the copper alloy jacket.













Both of the bullets shown above are referred to as the M.37 frangible bullet for the 6.5mm Carcano. As seen, the forward section of the jacket nose is a separate piece of metal from the rest of the jacket, and on both bullets, there is a heavier than usual groove or "cannelure" near the base of the bullet. There is no way of knowing for sure but, I would imagine this groove to be there to encourage the base of the jacket to separate on impact with solid things like steel or concrete. Seeing the possibility of this jacket becoming three pieces on impact, I think about the various sections of bullet jacket found in the limo, and the story of the section of bullet jacket supposedly seen outside the skull in x-rays of JFK's head.

Inside the bullet jacket is where things really get interesting in these bullets. In the top bullet, at the tip, can plainly be seen a small solid projectile, made of an alloy called "maillechort" (copper, nickel and zinc); followed by the middle section of the core made from powdered lead. Whether or not this lead powder was compressed into a solid form, I have been unable to find out, as information on these bullets is sketchy at best. Below the powdered lead middle, the base of the bullet is filled with sand.

The bottom version is essentially the same, other than the solid projectile at the nose being slightly larger and made from lead, instead of maillechort. Both bullets have another interesting feature, seen on the nose. There is about a 1 mm section of the jacket missing at the nose, exposing the lead or maillechort beneath. This is a very important feature that is likely necessary to begin the disintegration of these bullets.

The bases of these bullet jackets were not open, like the FMJ bullets, but were solid copper alloy instead.

I don't have the numbers handy but, these bullets were somewhat lighter than the standard 162 grain Carcano lead bullet, and the gunpowder load was reduced accordingly. I believe the end result was a muzzle velocity equal to the 162 grain bullet, but I have been unable to verify this.

Now that we have had a chance to study these Carcano frangible bullets from sixty years ago, let's take a look at modern technology, and see how frangible bullets have moved from the realm of indoor range bullets to being possibly the most lethal, non-exiting bullets available. Below is a cutaway view of a rifle bullet made by Dynamic Research Technologies or DRT Ammo for short.



http://www.drtammo.com/

Although the bullet is a different design (spitzer point boat tail instead of round nosed flat based) the basic concept is roughly the same. Instead of a small solid projectile, followed by powdered lead and then sand, the entire core of these bullets is made from a compressed metal powder that returns to being powder when the bullet strikes steel or concrete; making these still a "safe" bullet in urban environments when ricochets might hit bystanders.

The most important difference between the DRT frangible bullets and the Carcano frangible bullets is the small hollow point seen on the DRT bullet. Just as a refresher, a hollow point bullet works by penetrating bone, such as skull bone, the same as any other bullet. Once the bullet begins travelling through brain matter, the hollow point fills up with semi-liquid matter and this matter begins to exert an incredible hydraulic pressure on the inside of the hollow point cavity. This pressure has the ability to tear the cavity open, often tearing it right down to the base of the bullet and fragmenting the lead core. Needless to say, a tremendous amount of damage is caused by this bullet coming apart. Often, hollow point bullets come to a full stop inside a skull cavity, even though an "exit" wound can be seen. Many times these large exit wounds are the result of a huge pressure wave made by the expanding and arresting bullet, and are more of a pressure blowout than anything else, with no bullet actually exiting at this site.

The DRT Ammo frangible bullet uses the same hollow point technology. However, instead of the jacket merely peeling back and the bullet fragmenting into large fragments, the hydraulic pressure exerted on the compressed powdered metal core is strong enough to make the core disintegrate into a large cloud of powdered metal, guaranteeing it comes to a complete stop two inches into the skull and transfer all of its energy to the brain. The results, to say the least, are devastating.

Pictured below is the result of firing, from 100 yards, a DRT Ammo .223 calibre frangible rifle bullet into a block of lye soap. Note that there is no track showing the bullet exiting the block.


Sorry, the photo does not seem to want to come up. Try Googling "drt ammo lye soap block" and click on Images. It is the first image shown.

I have to go get some work done right now. Be back tonight with more.