Parade Magazine Nonsense

[DigMe]

As I was perusing the Sunday paper this past weekend I was reading the section on the inside front page of the Parade Magazine insert called "Walter Scott's Personality Parade." There was a question asking who else John Hinckley wounded in his attempt to assassinate President Reagan.

Scott replies with the following:

On March 30, 1981, Hinckley, now 48, fired six explosive bullets from a .22-caliber pistol, hitting the President in the chest. He also wounded Reagan's press secretary, James Brady, now 63; Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy, 54; and policeman Thomas Delahanty, 68. All survived, but Brady suffered serious brain damage.

So does anyone know where I can get me some of that explosive .22 ammo? That'd be pretty freakin' cool.

brad cook

 

[Mark Tyson]

If I'm not mistaken . . .

That's correct. Hinkley was using an explosive bullet. The explosive actually proved counterproductive in that particular attack, destroying a most of the bullet.

 

[azrael]

IIRC they were called "devastators"

I could be wrong

 

[DigMe]

Really?! I thought this was just some media bs sensationalism. My bad...I've never really looked into the whole incident. Thanks for the info.

brad cook

 

[Mal H]

Nope, they got it right for once. An ME friend once told me that it was possible that if the bullet had been a regular solid one, James Brady may have died from his shot. She said .22's have a habit of running around inside the brain cavity causing extreme damage and usually death if the entry angle is fairly straight on.

 

[foghornl]

Hinckley used ammo known as "Devastators" I don't remember all the details, but those were some sort of liquid-filled hollow point, unless I am grossly mistaken.

not like I have ever been wrong though! HA!

 

[DigMe]

Actually I'm kinda glad I was wrong because I've always liked the little extra comments Walter Scott puts into his answers sometimes... he often seems to be pretty conservative and I was dissappointed when I first read this and thought it was just a sensationalistic way of describing regular .22 rounds. I guess it's a good thing that Hinckley fell for the "Devestator" marketing gimmick. Obviously they don't work too well since all 4 people that were hit are still alive today. Hmmm...were these perhaps the "Extreme Shock" rounds of the 80's? I mean they are completely different in composition and operation but does anyone remember any marketing or ads for these "Devestators." The name just makes me think of "Extreme Shock Anti Terrorist Fang Face."

brad cook

 

[HankB]

Back then, there was a short fad for "explosive" ammo . . . I remember seeing .38s with the imaginative name "Exploders" being sold in small packages for inflated prices. They were more or less conventional JHPs, but the hollow point was drilled out a bit and a primer inserted, the whole being sealed with a dab of yellow paint. There MAY have been a little extra black powder or something under the primer. Sales literature of the day was loaded with hyperbole, and pictures showed a distinct flash as the bullets were fired through sheets of plywood. In softer media, the explosion was "iffy."

"Devastator" was the .22 rimfire variant, but I don't know what kind of fuze was used. I imagine the explosive payload was tiny.

I once ran into a guy at the range who was making his own. He took a JHP, drilled it out, and then scraped the compound out of primers - according to him, he used many, MANY primers - stuffed it into the nose of the bullet, and seated another primer on top. (uhhh . . . this really doesn't sound like something I want to try.) They WERE making a significant bang when they hit the backstop.

He offered me a few to try out - I declined.

And I was glad there was a bulletproof partition between shooting lanes.

 

[Henry Bowman]

The more severe brain damage was inflicted on Jim brady's wife.

 

[BluesBear]

They were called "Devistators" and they were made by the same people who made "Exploders".

In the late 1970s I became a distributor of them. And I also loaded complete ammo under license from them.

The early Exploders were indeed seals with yellow paint, which was changed to a maroon lacquer around 1981 I believe. They did indeed explode. If you fired them at a steel silhouette you could hear them go Bang-twang! and see the "stain" from the impact. It contained a charge that was barely enough to fragment the bullet.

I did a lot of testing on the .22 rounds In some mediums they were awsome and on others they were a dud. But they were fairly cheap and they were a lot of fun. The centerfires however were expensive for their day.

Yes they were a gimmick. And I would have chosen them for my personal self defense ammo, even though they seemed to work fairly well. But I'd sure hate to be shot with one, especially in the larger centerfires. I just wish I had access to gelatin back then.

 

[HankB]

It has been illegal since 1934 to make any explosive ammo for civilian sale.

I believe it has only been illegal if the bullet contains more than 1/4 ounce of explosive. Note that "bird bomb" shotgun shells are still available.