Day of the Jackal Ammo

[ArmedLiberal]

Anyone remember a 60s spy novel titled 'Day of the Jackal'? It's been a lot of years since I read it and I know they made a movie out of it that I never saw.

What I'm asking about now is the ammo the assassin hand made. He drilled a length-wise hole in the front of the bullet, put some mercury down the hole and sealed it with wax. It made a fantastic explosive bullet as the mercury flew forward, shattering the front of the bullet when it impacted in the victim.

This sounds like a great myth that makes for good reading in a novel. Anyone know if there is any truth to this? Should we all try it out and report back? Is the Box 'O Truth listening?

Armed Liberal

 

[dogtown tom]

Pure fiction.

Mercury isn't something to be playing around with. Not because it makes bullets explode (it doesnt), but because it is a hazardous material and should be treated as such.

 

[steven58]

I always thought it was mercury fulminate (or fulminate of mercury?) that the rounds were filled with.

Couldn't that cause the movie's desired effect?

 

[9mmepiphany]

while that version of Day of the Jackel was better scripted, the remake of the movie, with Richard Gere, Sidney Portier and Bruce Willis was more realistic

 

[mlaustin]

Mercury fulminate is a very powerful and sensitive explosive and might make more sense, although I'd be worried about it blowing up from the concussion of the powder charge.

If anyone watches Breaking Bad on AMC, Hg Fulminate is what Walt uses in the first season to blow up the drug kingpin's office.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_fulminate

 

[ClemY]

I always thought the idea of using an explosive, like fulminated mercury was kind of silly. In the movie, the cartridges looked like .22 Hornet. If it were .22 Hornet, a garden variety soft point would have had the desired effect.

 

[SharpsDressedMan]

I always thought the mercury was to act as a poison, to insure death, even if the wound was not fatal.

 

[Joe Demko]

Mercury dissolves lead (actually forms an amalgam) so your ammo begins to self-destruct immediately. Mercury is a also pure hell on aluminum, a metal which is used a great deal in modern firearms; one leaky bullet may result in the ruin of a perfectly good gun.
Back in the 70's a friend of mine tried this idea out after seeing the original movie. He used mercury he swiped from the high school chemistry lab. IIRC he used .22 lr's and fired them from a Nylon 66. He shot at a melon just like in the movie. Performance of the modified rounds was in no way remarkable.

 

[ClemY]

As I recall, Hinkley shot Reagan with a .22 revo with "explosive" bullets loaded with fulminated mercury. They didn't explode, even the ones that bounced off the car. They still almost killed him, but not from detonation.

 

[oneounceload]

Funny how we played with mercury in science class, the dentists all used it for fillings in your teeth............

just sayin'............

 

[Tommygunn]

Funny how we played with mercury in science class, the dentists all used it for fillings in your teeth............

just sayin'............

I had a couple of toys as a child which had mercury in them ... and thermometers all used mercury back then.
It is unhealthy, but its toxic effects have IMHO been quite exaggerated.

 

[bob.a]

I worked in a lab back around 1970 that used a Van Slyke apparatus for measuring CO2 in serum. The thig had about 10 pounds of mercury in it, it sat in a cafeteria tray to catch the spilled metal, and we had a bowl of the stuff tha we washed and used to refill the device. There were little beads of the stuff all over.

I'm OK, but a woman who had worked there for years before me had the shakes like you wouldn't believe. I'm not certain, but it's reasonable to assume she was suffering from chronic mercury poisoning.

I on't recall much of the Jackal book, but Charles McCarry, an ex-CIA spook, wrote a book where mercury was encased in plastic making a bullet that would not overpenetrate. He made it sound believable. If it were possible it would be rather interesting, but I doubt it would work against body armor. Probably break a bunch of ribs, though, under sustained fire.

 

[SaxonPig]

Um... It's a fictional book and later movie...

 

[LaEscopeta]

As I recall, Hinkley shot Reagan with a .22 revo with "explosive" bullets loaded with fulminated mercury. They didn't explode, even the ones that bounced off the car. They still almost killed him, but not from detonation.

If I recall correctly (something I’m doing less and less of now-a-days) the newspapers at the time said the rounds Hinckley used were regular 22LR hollow points with an extra primer cap stuck in the open hole at the point. There were a gimmick round that was manufactured for a few years until people realized 1) the primers usually don’t go off on impact and 2) if they do there in not much increased effect on the target. I seem to recall Hinckley did not choose these particular rounds, they were just the ones the pawn shop where he got the revolver sold him.

Corrections to the above are welcome.

Back to the original post, I agree the exploding bullet in Day of the Jackal was a fictional device to make the story more interesting, but not more realistic.

 

[rcmodel]

Pure fiction.

If mercury filled bullet tips did anything at all, Winchester & Remington/UMC would have been selling ammo with them 100 years ago, before California told us mercury was just one step below Plutonium in toxicity.

rc

 

[ClayInTX]

Mercury is toxic but the effect is slow. If it causes death it would have to be over a long period of time—a loooong time.

Mercury was extensively used in the field of Industrial Controls for many years. It was used in test equipment and in measurement devices. This use was extensively used in controls beginning about 1870 and up into the 1980s. (Yes, I know mercury was used prior to this for many purposes.) Mercury is still used, with more precautions than of years ago, in test equipment as a primary standard; i.e.; in manometers as a pressure measurement standard to calibrate test gauges for use in the field. Some industrial facilities still have these on hand to check the calibration of a questioned pressure test gauge. I’ve recently seen a mercury sphygmomanometer used by a physician to check blood pressure.

The Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland is an example. Mercury was used in making hats and after long exposure the hatters would get the shakes. Supposedly it affected their mentality but I never saw, personally, any evidence of this. (Snide remarks about me will be ignored.)

The dangers of mercury have, indeed, been exaggerated in some cases but it is a hazard and should not be routinely handled.

Making a bullet fragment quicker is doubtful because lead is heavier than mercury. Lead at a specific gravity of about 18, IIRC, and mercury at 13 something. Therefore, on impact it seems the mercury would continue forward while the lead bullet would slow up.

If this should become a practice then the kids when playing Cowboys and Outlaws instead of shouting, “Bang! You’re dead!” would then shout, “Bang! You’re a thermometer”.

 

[rcmodel]

Now that right there is funny.
I don't care who ya are!

rc

 

[gym]

That's a super- vel round, more than likely, with the primer in the hollow point

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

I read that book (Frederick Forsyth was the author) many years ago and am virtually certain the bullet had liquid mercury in it that was supposed to create an explosive effect upon impact. This is something out of a work of fiction by someone who really had little knowledge of firearms or their projectiles.

 

[Dr.Rob]

Legend has it that Forsyth was a mercenary at one time, which led to him writing "Dogs of War".

The book was pretty gritty, as was the original film, the remake was barely the same film.

 

[Sage Thrasher]

This is a pervasive myth, good to see it put to rest. The first movie was quite a thriller; the remake...not so much...