What's Wrong With This Picture

[jwmay]

If the pierced bullet was inside a magazine, tucked into a breast pocket, I think the odds are significantly improved . After all, it can be assumed the pierced bullet would be perpendicular to the fired bullet, and also on target.

 

[Provincial]

If the receiving bullet was seated in a cartridge case and laying against a nearly vertical bank, the dirt might support that bullet enough to result in the pictured effect. In a heated battle, situations occur that no one would think could happen.

The large number of bullet strikes presented make me wonder just where and how they were discovered.

 

[verbotenwhisky]

The lack of rifling doesn't bring a question of the rifle it was fired from as these were smooth bore rifles, it does however make me thing it was taped to a board and used for target practice. Those were swagged soft lead cores with copper, final shape produced in a press, the pointy end should be slightly compressed and the small diameter would have diverted the point up or down, I believe had they both been traveling at 1800 to 2200 ft/s they would simply not have made it to their intended target. Just my 2 cents worth....

 

[lordbeezer]

Most jacketed bullets were used in rifled barrels. Early black powder rifles and handguns were smooth bore. Later BP rifles and handguns were rifled but still used lead bullets.

 

[Provincial]

By the time jacketed spitzer (pointed) bullets came into fashion, smooth bores were only used in shotguns. Those bullets would almost be certainly newer than 1900, and the earlier posts indicate they date to WWI.

 

[RaisedByWolves]

I guess I am a bit more cynical than you are.

Just go to a gun range and dig around in the berm.

I collect and smelt down lead and scavenge our range often.

Shoot enough bullets into the same area, whether its a battlefield or gun range and its bound to happen.

 

[RaisedByWolves]

I’m throwing the skeptical flag on this one. No way do I believe one bullet would have pierced the other without the pierced bullet having some kind of solid backup to keep it for deflecting.

Tom

Dirt.

 

[MikeInOr]

Just go to a gun range and dig around in the berm.

I collect and smelt down lead and scavenge our range often.

Shoot enough bullets into the same area, whether its a battlefield or gun range and its bound to happen.

I have a friend that mines the berms at the local range for lead to melt since lead wheel weights are getting harder to come by. He has plenty of smooshed bullets but nothing like what is shown in the pictures. But I am confident I could manufacture something similar in less than an hour.

I am still skeptical!

 

[verbotenwhisky]

I have a friend that mines the berms at the local range for lead to melt since lead wheel weights are getting harder to come by. He has plenty of smooshed bullets but nothing like what is shown in the pictures. But I am confident I could manufacture something similar in less than an hour.

I am still skeptical!

Bismuth seems to be a healthier option these days (sarcasm intended)

 

[RJSakowski]

By the time jacketed spitzer (pointed) bullets came into fashion, smooth bores were only used in shotguns. Those bullets would almost be certainly newer than 1900, and the earlier posts indicate they date to WWI.

Jacketed bullets were invented in 1882. By 1890, they had seen widespread military adoption because of improve handling characteristics.

The bullets in question, if not a hoax, could have come from a number of late 19th or early 20th century wars.