MERCURY BULLET

[kenmurray]

William Turner Book:http://www.amazon.com/Rearview-Mirror-L ... 1883955211

[dankbaar]

Does anybody know if William Turner is still alive?

[kenmurray]

As far as I know he's still alive.

[Dealey Joe]

I would think Fulminate of Mercury would be too unstable but id love to see how it is done, I think Liquid Mercury would be easier and safer to handle?http://youtu.be/CyA1mJTV3WY

[dankbaar]

I think so too, Joe. The bullet that Files used was just liquid mercury. There are other myths that mercury amalgates with lead, but I think that's all bull. I found this on the net: Has anybody here, besides me, ever tried this? I've tried it, and it works. When I was a teenager, my buddy and I shot a variety of pistol and rifle ammunition into a fifty pound block of clay in the desert and measured the resulting "wound cavities." We started with .22 LR fired from a bolt action rifle. We tested .22 LR solids, hollowpoints, mercury-tipped, and exploding. We made the mercury tipped by drilling out a .22 LR hollowpoint bullet to make a bigger cavity, then filling it with mercury, and capping it with wax. The exploding .22s were made in the same way, except that powder from a firecracker was used instead of mercury. Both the mercury and exploding bullets made much larger cavities in the clay than solids or hollowpoints. So, it does work with .22 LR. We didn't try it with larger calibers. Is it legal? Probably not. Many of the experiments we did as teenagers were not.Just my two cents,-Will

[Dealey Joe]

if it does amalgam it would be simple to either coat the lead or I think a capsule to contain the Mercury would work well.

[RobertP]

Mercury will form an amalgam with many metals, the most notable of these being gold. However, it must be understood that a large piece of gold or lead, or any other metal that amalgamates with mercury, when immersed in mercury will not dissolve. The mercury will bond to the surface of the other metal in a thin film, forming an amalgam, but will not go beyond this. The remaining mercury will not harden, as seems to be the belief of many. Also, if the mercury or the other metal is "dirty", they must be cleaned before amalgamation will take place. This is very similar to soldering copper or brass fittings onto copper pipe. If the fittings and pipe are not cleaned with sandpaper or steel wool first, and flux added to the joint, the solder will not adhere. In the case of mercury and gold, the mercury must be distilled in a retort or cleaned with nitric acid, and the gold bearing placer sands scarified in a rock tumbler to remove oxides of the other metals always found in placer gold, such as silver, copper, tin, etc.In making a mercury tipped bullet, I would imagine drilling a cavity in the nose of the bullet would be sufficient to expose the unoxidized lead inside the bullet nose. However, if the drilled bullet was left in an oxidizing environment, and the mercury was not distilled or purified, there is a very good chance they would not even form an amalgam, and it would only be necessary to plug the cavity's nose. I would use a malleable lead plug to cap the mercury with, or some type of epoxy putty, but this bullet would not work very well if, after capping, it did not still have some type of hollow point in its nose. Just like the frangible hunting bullets marketed by DRT Ammo, the hollow point is essential to the explosive force of the mercury tip. It is the hollow point that fills with liquid and semi-liquid matter, travelling through something like the brain. It is this liquid matter that fills up the hollow point and exerts an incredible hydraulic pressure on the mercury core, causing it to come apart with such explosive force.P.S.The Hague Peace Conference of 1899 did not outlaw a "dum dum mercury fulminate hollow nose" bullet, as the British Army never possessed such a cartridge. They did outlaw the dum dum bullet, developed by Capt. Bertie Clay at the Dum Dum Arsenal in Dum Dum, India. They also outlawed the .303 British Mk. IV and V hollow point bullets, developed at the Woolwich Arsenal in Btitain. The "dum dum" bullet developed by Capt. Clay was nothing more than a full metal jacket, round nosed .303 British Mk. II bullet with 1 mm of the metal jacket at the nose removed, exposing the lead tip at the nose, and essentially making it the world's first soft tipped jacketed bullet. The Mk. IV and V went beyond this and incorporated a large hollow point in the nose. See diagram below:http://pfoa.co.uk/uploads/asset_image/2_498.jpgOnce the dum dums and hollow points were banned from combat, the inadequacies of the .303 British round nosed FMJ bullet once again became glaringly apparent. A very effective bullet was developed, and is seen labelled as the Mk. VII spitzer point in the diagram above. The round nose was swapped for the spitzer point, and the front 1/3 of the core made from aluminum, while still retaining the rear 2/3 of the core as lead. This was a deadly combination as, when striking bone, the spitzer point induced tumbling, and the imbalance in mass between the aluminum and lead greatly enhanced this tumbling; making for far more grievous and lethal wounds than the round nosed FMJ could inflict. This bullet was used by the British Army since 1907, through two world wars and the Korean War, right up until the .303 was discontinued in the late 1950's.http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_cODTxzY0ZGg/T ... mall.jpgAt left, .303 British Mk. II bullet converted to "dum dum" tip. At right, .303 British Mk. V hollow point.To demonstrate how successful the Mk. VII was, it was copied by the Italians AND the Japanese in WWII. In 1938, the Italians, completely unhappy with the lack of stopping power in the 6.5mm Carcano round nosed FMJ bullet (the ones allegedly fired at JFK), abandoned the 6.5mm calibre bullet and replaced it with the 7.35x51mm cartridge. The new 7.35mm bullet was a slavish copy of the .303 British Mk. VII spitzer bullet, and possessed the same spitzer nose and aluminum front end to its core. Unfortunately for the Italians, the 7.35x51mm cartridge was short lived, and, in 1940, the Italians returned to the 6.5x52mm catridge. Its lack of stopping power, and the bullet's tendency to pass straight through enemy combatants without inflicting serious damage, were the main inspiration for the "Humanitarian Rifle" nickname given to the 6.5mm Carcano.

[RobertP]

I believe the confusion over "mercury fulminate bullets" stems from the fact that the primers in rifle cartridges in the 19th and most of the 20th Centuries utilized mercury fulminate, a highly sensitive primary explosive, to begin the detonation of the gunpowder inside the cartridge. It has the advantage of being a non-corrosive compound but the disadvantage of tending to weaken over time.

[dankbaar]

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/4763 ... lExplosive mercury bullets are discussed at 1:10 minutesHere you can see the effect of a mercury bullet: http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/4763 ... osta-.html

[Slav]

Wow amazingWhy wasn't the question ask why his head exploded ? There should of been questions it's obvious it's not a regular bullet that did this .