.45 hardball with wired little ball on nose?

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Owen Sparks

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My Dad had a box of WW II surplus .45 ball that puzzles me. The 230 grain bullet was in every way conventional except that there was a slightly flattened round bead on the nose about the size of a #4 shot. It was part of the jacket and served no obvious function as the bullets proved to be non expanding.
Could this "nipple" thing be an aid to feeding? I wish I could find one to photograph but we shot up the last of them in the late 1970's. I have never seen this before or since.

Just curious, OS
 
Man, ya didn't! I remember reading about that in an old RIFLEMAN without a cover in a single-chair barbershop in Butler Center, New York in 1961. That was an uberscarce, experimental, BB-augmented, Scarenkrappenouttenderkrauten Uniform Tunic Penetration Assassination Specialty Round (SUTPASR) that was for issue to the French Resistance for use in the scarce French Resistance Operations Gun (FROG) which was made of stamped parts which could be carried in a wallet and fastened together with the Classified Helical Expanded Application Plier (CHEAP). The lands of the bore cut the spings compressed under the jacket that were attached to the small shot which was then projected slightly ahead of the bullet. The spinning, jagged ends of the wire springs cut through the tough outer layer of SS uniform tunics allowing deeper pentration of the main bullet. Only about 1,942 rounds were produced before they discovered it didn't work as designed. I believe they were only manufactured during 1942 in the Smith Corona Ammunition and Typeface Development Plant in Killinderjerries, Pennsylvania. The little 'shot' piece was actually made out of platinum to make sure no SS were able to zombify and join the elite Oberdeathenverisen Regiment. I saw some selling for $1945 apiece on gunbroker.

:D -sorry Owen, couldn't resist. Slow day in the store. Hope you get a serious answer soon.
James
 
Sounds suspiciously like the steel-cored .45 ammo I've seen before - don't have any pics, though.
 
Nope, no steel core. Just like regular ball except for that little nose bead that is shaped like the button on a baseball cap and is about 1/8" in diamiter. My guess is that it's purpose was to slightly lengthen the round for reliable feeding in something other than a 1911. But again, that is just a guess.

OS
 
If it was wartime production, could it have been just an accidental artifact from the manufacturing process? Maybe like a slightly damaged mold or something? It wouldn't be hard to imagine that folks stateside would've been trying to crank out as much supplies as possible as fast as possible, and would've overlooked any cosmetic flaw. Just guessing though. I really have no idea.

Jason
 
No, The bead is too well formed to be a flaw. It could be a shortcut in manufacturing the jacket though, like a stem on an old antique bulb. Whatever it is for, it is obviously a deliberate feature. I don't know why it bugs me, just must be overly curious.

OS
 
Like the button on a ball-cap - no, then that's not familiar to me at all either; I'd be very interested to hear what it was, then.
 
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