Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnews!military
From: ut-emx!walt.cc.utexas.edu!cyrius@cs.utexas.edu (Juan Chen)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Exploding bullets
Message-ID: <7473@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 15 Jun 89 03:53:17 GMT
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From: ut-emx!walt.cc.utexas.edu!cyrius@cs.utexas.edu (Juan Chen)

In article <7452@cbnews.ATT.COM> henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) writes:
>
>
>From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
>>How are they constructed and how do they work?  Why were they
>>invented?  Are they like little grenades? ...
>
>Exploding bullets are not explosive bullets, despite the confusing
>terminology.  The latter would have explosive charges in them; nobody
>has bothered with such, as the charge wouldn't be big enough to have
>any useful effect.  The former are a more drastic form of expanding
>bullets.  There are several varieties, but one version has a small
>cavity containing a drop of mercury inside a soft-nosed bullet.  When
>the bullet hits something, the mercury slams forward in the cavity
>and the nose of the bullet bursts outward under the impact.  Lots of
>of fragments and a big messy wound.  They are illegal for civilian
>hunting use in most places, and I think one of the Geneva conventions
>theoretically outlaws them for use in warfare.
>
>                                     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
>                                 uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu

  I just found part of the Hague Treaties and also some war "lwas"
from the Internationsl Red Cross. They ban the use of weapons that
will cause unnecessary suffering (I'd like to see that defined),
also found that all ammunition under 400grams (Haven't figured out
how many grains that would be) cannot be hollow point and have to be
fully coverd by a metal jacket. There's also mention about how 
bullets should not be able to expand to a flat disk while
penetrating.
  Overall the "rules of war" seem a lot more complicated than I
ever imagined. As someone posted you'll use whatever is effective,
but then again you'd be a war criminal (then again a lot of people
have been just slapped in the hand).





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Juan G. Chen                            cyrius@dopey.cc.utexas.edu
University of Texas@Austin              (or grumpy, or doc, or happy...)
P.O. Box 8362
Austin, TX  78713
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