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From: jkh@ucbjade.BERKELEY.EDU (Jordan K. Hubbard)
Newsgroups: mod.rec.guns
Subject: engine blocks, exploding gas tanks and SPARKING BULLETS!
Message-ID: <258@ucbjade.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Sat, 18-Jan-86 21:59:06 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbjade.258
Posted: Sat Jan 18 21:59:06 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 20-Jan-86 04:11:52 EST
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 17
Approved: jkh@ucbjade
Author: ucdavis!lll-crg!seismo!cmcl2!lanl!crs@ucbvax (Charlie Sorsby)

Article: 1:16

This is prompted by posting by snell@utzoo.UUCP.  I don't know the answers
to his two questions (will .357 penetrate engine block & does shooting a
gas tank cause it to explode?).  I don't know the answers but they remind
me of one of my favorite annoyances on TV:  SPARKING BULLETS!

I assume that most of the ammunition one sees "expended" on TV and the like
is *supposed* to represent more or less conventional stuff.  I cannot
imagine any conventional bullets generating sparks (such as those produced
by steel on a high speed grinding wheel) when they hit something.

Does anyone know of any instance of reality that may have prompted this
idea or why virtually all TV (and perhaps theater) movies have begun to do
this?

Charlie