The Box O' Truth #32 - Dum-Dum Bullets and the Box O'Truth

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The Box O' Truth #32 - Dum-Dum Bullets and the Box O'Truth - Page 4

Another method of "improving" a standard ball cartridge was to pull the bullet and seat it backwards in the case.

Elmer Keith, an old gun writer, tried this and even shot big game with the rounds during the Depression when bullets were hard to come by. Keith reported that the bullets seemed to be "just as accurate" out to 200 yards, much to his surprise. He also said that they killed deer and elk just fine.

To pull a bullet, you need to know a little "trick".

Military ball is sealed with an asphalt sealer to prevent moisture leakage into the powder. You must first break this seal or the bullets are very difficult to pull.

To do this, you set your seating die about 1/16 inch deeper than the full length of the round.

Run the round into the die and it will push the bullet back about 1/16th of an inch and break the seal. Then, the bullet is easier to pull.

I then reversed the bullets and seated then over the original powder charge.

Here they are.

We will shoot them into the Waterbox O'Truth and see what happens.

The hydrostatic shock has about ruined the Box.

We were amazed that the bullet not only expanded, but made a pretty good mushroom.

Another look.

Lessons learned:
1. Cutting "x"s in bullets is harder than you might imagine.

2. It might make them slightly more effective than Ball, but not nearly as effective as modern Jacketed Hollow Points.

3. The .45 ACP did not expand at all. This is probably the result of a much thicker jacket than the 9mm.

4. The lead .38 Special shed its petals, but didn't expand at all.

5. Cutting the end off a rifle Ball cartridge will definitely make the bullet expand or break up. Would this make it more lethal? Probably. But not as much as a modern JSP (Jacketed Soft Point) bullet.

6. Reversing a Ball bullet will cause it to expand and break up. Old Elmer said that it killed game just fine. But Elmer didn't have access to modern JSP ammo. If he had, I'm sure he would have preferred it.

Oh well, a fine, if hot, day at the range.

It's still fun to shoot stuff, even with Dum-Dums.

Thanks to Tman for the help and thanks to my buddy Houston Husker for financing the purchase of all that water.