What are the odds?

[DeepSouth]

I have seen some of the pictures of bullets that hit head on and fused together during the war of northern aggression, as a matter of fact I saw one in the Smithsonian years ago when I was 10-12 years. I always thought that was neat but I've never seen this until yesterday, I just had to share it for those of you who haven't seen it.

Sorry about the big, crapy picture it's just a screen shot my brother sent me and for some reason the edit want save.

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[notaglockfanboy]

Astronomical!!!!!! WOW is all I can say. Thanks for showing this.

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

The odds?

As far as I can tell....

1:"All the others"

What a find. I wonder if anyone can positively identify the projectiles?

Todd.

 

[CoRoMo]

I wonder if anyone can positively identify the projectiles?

Oh that's not so hard.

They are both... rifle bullets.

You're welcome!

 

[Midwest]

Interesting, thanks for posting. I wonder if Mythbusters would want to try to replicate this for their TV show.
.

 

[DeepSouth]

I thought the same thing Midwest, I bet they'd have trouble to say the least.

I wish I knew the velocity of the one going through the other, seems to me it should have fully penetrated and then we just would have found a bullet with a hole in it.

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

I gotta wonder, though, looking at the bullets.

I don't think that both bullets were actually in flight when it happened. Take a close look at both bullets. The one on the right, that did the penetrating, still looks cylindrical and has rifling markings.

The one that was penetrated looks like it was probably on the ground or something when it was hit and has no rifling markings at all. If I had to make a bet, I'd say that this was the bullet from an unfired round that was probably still in an ammo can or something at the time it was struck.

Still a really cool picture, though!

 

[Cee Zee]

Gallipoli was one bloody, destructive battle. Lots of machine gun rounds were fired by both sides but my guess is that it was fired by a Turkish gun since they were doing almost all the damage against the Brits and the Aussies who were camped on an unprotected beach. The Turks rained lead down on them for a long time before they finally realized the futility of trying to hold that landing. I could easily see a round hitting an ammo can like for a belt fed machine gun. When you think about it that way it doesn't seem nearly as outrageous as the idea they struck each other in flight. That would really be something.

 

[akodo]

when I was touring Gettysburg many years ago the guide stated that there had been about a dozen 'pairs' of minie balls found where one had smashed into the other.

 

[bannockburn]

DeepSouth

That's one cool battlefield relic! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Wil Terry]

THose two bullets colliding at an angle is just about as rare as "THE WAR OF NORTHERN AGGRESSION" being the truth. I always thought that THE WAR OF SOUTHERN STUPIDITY AND CAPITULATION [Shelby Foote laughed and all but agreed with it...] was a damnsite closer to the absolute unvarnished truth.
And so it goes...

 

[sequins]

I'm a northerner and I prefer war of northern aggression as a term. Fortune favors the bold, and aggressive.

 

[swiftak]

I've seen the miniballs that are smashed together at Gettysburg. They aren't fused, just sort of wrapped around each other.

 

[WestKentucky]

Even if both bullets were in flight during impact, intersecting at approximately 90 degree angle would have put bot bullets off of their normal trajectory by a certain amount. Providing the detail that they fuse into one tells me that they would get a new trajectory approximately 135 degrees away from each original trajectory. They also would likely not pass through since there is basically nothing holding them in place, but would rather push each other and mash together...much like the picture indicates. The more massive round gets less deflection and damage. The fact that the one round penetrated the other in the pic is peculiar though as they would most likely have mashed and mixed rather than penetrate making me agree that it most likely was a fired round hitting an unfired round.

 

[ku4hx]

A War Between The States belt buckle with a bullet stuck it was brought to Pawn Stars to be sold. You never know about these things and their expert may have been wrong. But he said it was a fake based on many factors.

The take-away is you have to get such things authenticated by a known reputable source who will supply not only their credentials, but the basis on which their decision was made and documents supporting their decision. Until that happens, it's just another trinket.

 

[orionengnr]

gotta wonder, though, looking at the bullets.

I don't think that both bullets were actually in flight when it happened. Take a close look at both bullets.

Bingo. Think about it from a physics standpoint:
Why is the "pentrator" bullet tip bent downward?
Why is the "pentratee" bullet bent at what would be the case mouth area?
And if both were in flight at a 90 degree angle the moment of impact, the penetrator angle would end up more like 45 degrees...that would explain some bend in the penetrator, but it would be front-to-rear and not up-and-down.

I'm thinking that either one was stationary or (more likely) this was staged.

 

[jmr40]

I've seen that before, hadn't noticed the lack of rifling. At any rate it is an oddity and I have no doubt that in an intense fight bullets did impact each other in flight. Most probably just knocked each other down without penetrating. The 90 degree angle would be perfectly normal if they did impact in flight. Setting up several machine guns at angles to interlock fields of fire is common.

At Normandy the German guns weren't aimed out to sea, but at angles up and down the beaches to hit as many targets as possible. Had they not been firing from elevated positions many Germans would have been shooting at each other.

"THE WAR OF NORTHERN AGGRESSION" being the truth. I always thought that THE WAR OF SOUTHERN STUPIDITY AND CAPITULATION

In a way both are correct. In 1861 the south was perfectly within their rights to leave the union and form their own country. It was the north that invaded a sovereign nation, defeated them and forced them against their will to be part of the union.

On the other hand the south was morally and ethically wrong. They had no chance of winning, and as a Southerner I'm glad things worked out the way they did. We are all better off this way.

 

[rodensouth]

How many rpm is the rifled bullet spinning, so how do you know the angle of end result is pointing anywhere near where suspected. If hitting a stationary bullet wouldn't more penetration be expected.

I'm not arguing, as I was not perceptive enough to notice lack of rifling of receiving round, just adding variables.

Cool puzzle.

 

[DeepSouth]

The more I look at the picture, the more inclined I am to believe the bullet was on the ground, or at lest stationary, when the other struck it. It's possible one individual took two shots and they collided inside him. I do wish I knew the story behind how this happened, but as with most mysteries it will remain unknown.

On the side note:

In a way both are correct. In 1861 the south was perfectly within their rights to leave the union and form their own country. It was the north that invaded a sovereign nation, defeated them and forced them against their will to be part of the union.

On the other hand the south was morally and ethically wrong. They had no chance of winning, and as a Southerner I'm glad things worked out the way they did. We are all better off this way.

The first paragraph is essentially factually correct, there is little debate about that.
In the second paragraph, we have opinions and assumptions.
That sums it up for me, I'll side with the facts and continue to call a spade, a spade.

 

[WestKentucky]

The only way that the brighter orange bullet would have been fired is through a smooth bore or if it were possibly paper patched...but the time frame is wrong for that. Likely hit in a magazine or storage crate and the force would have pulled the bullet. The brass holding the bullet might also explain the odd kink it has near the base.

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

If hitting a stationary bullet wouldn't more penetration be expected.

I'm not arguing, as I was not perceptive enough to notice lack of rifling of receiving round, just adding variables.

Cool puzzle.

Being questioning isn't being argumentative.

One has to remember that a bullet's history is largely unknown outside of generalities such as calibers which can be traced to a weapon in use be one side or the other, where it was found, etc. Exactly who fired it, the intended target, what all else it may have penetrated, the range it was fired from...all these things are unknown.

Maybe the bullet penetrated an ammo can and passed through a pile of rounds before hitting that particular round just so, for example.

 

[230RN]

I noticed the lack of rifling, too, and figured if the rifled one was spinning at >100,000 RPM, there was no way they would have stuck together.

If one was stationary and struck by the penetrating bullet, the penetrator must have been pretty well spent by the time it hit.