Wooden Bullets

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They're for blank firing adaptors that shred the wood and send it out as tiny particles that quickly lose velocity.
 
They're for blank firing adaptors that shred the wood and send it out as tiny particles that quickly lose velocity.
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Ditto; in fact, if you pull one of these bullets, they're hollow-cored, so that the high-pressure gas practically blows them apart as soon as they exit the muzzle.
 
Yeah, I doubt that a wooden bullet (probably very light) would go very far.


Vampires?

Pssshhht, everyone knows that for Vampires, you need a S&W .500, with home-made silver hollowpoints. For added killing power, stick a HB pencil down the barrel (lodged in the hollow-point) for the final killing shot, to the heart.
 
Isn't silver only for Werewolves?

Anyway, yeah, if I understand correctly, they don't do much except go "bang."
 
We have used these for training. Ammo with wooden bullets doesn't need the blank firing adaptor, the expanding gas shreds the bullet and basicly a wooddust exits the muzzle, and it's ashed fast. If you shoot someone at 5 m distance he/she won't feel a thing (we tried that on inanimate targets, of course). Bullet is just for offering enough resistance to build up the pressure that is needed for recycling the action, after that the bullet is made into small cloud of ash. Hope it helps.
 
Well, there used to be something called forager rounds for the sharps 45-70. these had a wooden round-nosed bullet shaped sabot covering a #8 shot charge. They issued them to soldiers to hunt small game to eat.

I've taken this idea, replaced the round nosed softwood sabot with a pointed oak sabot, and replaced the lead shot with silver casting grain (small balls of silver intended to be melted down and made into jewelry, available from Rio Grande jewelers' supplies). Thus far, it has proven very effective against werewolves and vampires, as well as against the stubborn hybrid creature that results when a werewolf bites a vampire, or vice versa.

Interestingly enough, in my state, a werewolf is considered a non-native canid, and can be shot anytime with a valid hunting license, as long as it's in wolf form when you shoot it. A vampire, however, must invade your house before you can legally shoot it under the castle doctrine, and yet vampires won't come into your house unless you invite them. so that's tricky.
 
Why not just fire blanks?
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A lot of times a simple blank can't develop enough pressure to cycle the action. Putting the wood projectile in place allows the weapon to function more normally.
 
Why not just fire blanks?
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My BAR for example. Standard 30-06 blanks will not cycle a BAR regardless of the diameter of the blank adapter orifice.

Most 06 blanks will run a Garand just fine but will leave the BAR sputtering.

I have found a couple of sources for hotter blanks that WILL cycle it, but they cost more and I had to get a special blank adapter made.

Back before the world changed in 86 the balsa wood blanks for my BAR were pretty common. There WAS a blank adapter for them however, it went inside the flash hider and consisted of 3 parallel razor blades that shredded the balsa wood as it came out. I always wondered what would happen if one of the wooden bullets had gotten too hard to be shredded. Never happened however.

I probably fired 500 of them through over the years. Have not seen any in a very long time though. Last batch I bought was probably in '83 or '84.

Cycled the gun just fine, didn't make any mess or cause any harm.

As for taking a shot from one I would not recommend it. I saw a guy take a shot in the arm from 5 or 6 feet and he bled like a stuck pig for a while. Not deep, but lots of splinters.


ETA: I never cut one open to see if they were solid or hollow. I always assumed hollow because there was not much sawdust.
 
In WWII, American troops discovered wooden bullet blanks used by both the Germans and Japanese. They were, as noted, hollow shells that blew up on exit, but the story was circulated, and widely believed, that the dirty, nasty, low-down enemy used wooden bullets so they would not show up on x-rays and a wounded GI would die of infection.

Nonsense, of course, but, as I say, it was widely believed and some WWII vets and people who have heard the story from vets still believe it. I had occasion to show a sectioned German wood bullet blank to one guy who called me a liar and said that he KNEW they used solid wood and it was done so, etc. He had heard the story from his father and nothing anyone could say would change his mind that the Germans were vicious, cruel, etc.

Actually a solid wood bullet is far too light to travel more than a few yards and has no accuracy at all.

Jim
 
And further to what Jim Keenan said, Vincent Di Maio reported in his book "Gunshot Wounds" that traditional metallic bullets are not sterile after firing. Bacteria on the surface of the bullet prior to firing, could be cultured from the retrieved bullet. So if somebody really wanted to cause an infection he might just as well dip his metal bullets in chicken faeces. No need for wood at all.
 
I've taken this idea, replaced the round nosed softwood sabot with a pointed oak sabot, and replaced the lead shot with silver casting grain (small balls of silver intended to be melted down and made into jewelry, available from Rio Grande jewelers' supplies). Thus far, it has proven very effective against werewolves and vampires, as well as against the stubborn hybrid creature that results when a werewolf bites a vampire, or vice versa.

Interestingly enough, in my state, a werewolf is considered a non-native canid, and can be shot anytime with a valid hunting license, as long as it's in wolf form when you shoot it. A vampire, however, must invade your house before you can legally shoot it under the castle doctrine, and yet vampires won't come into your house unless you invite them. so that's tricky.
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Heh. Best post of the day.
 
In fact, infected bullets are a real problem in warfare, not because they were infected before firing but because they drag pieces of dirt and filthy clothing into the wound. That was a very serious problem in WWI, where a soldier's clothing was likely to be contaminated from weeks in the trenches, covered with human and horse waste, etc. It was less of a problem in WWII, which rarely saw extended trench warfare, but it was still serious.

Jim
 
That reminds me of the story of Humphrey Howarth, former army surgeon, who was challenged to a duel by Lord Barrymore in 1806:

Howarth appeared at the appointed venue stark naked. His challenger, understandably nonplussed, asked what he thought he was doing. Howarth solemly explained that if any bit of cloth is carried into the body by gunshot, festering inevitably follows. His opponent averred it would be ridiculous to fight a naked man and the duel was called off.
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I have heard that there were rifle grenades that had a hollow tube through which the bullet that was fired would travel...and arm the grenade.

This type of grenade makes a LOT of sense on the battlefield where Joe Grunt may be so involved in the goings on that he forgets to load a blank to fire the grenade. Without it being a 'through firing' type, firing a live round into the grenade would probably be a bad thing.

The wooden rounds were intended for practice on bases where they didn't have sufficient free-fall area for rifle bullets fired at very high angles. Grenades didn't have really great distance and so could be practiced safely with the wooden projectiles. On the battlefield, launching a grenade with a live round wasn't thought of as a problem.

Of course, I could be wrong.
 
Wow, something I actually know.:eek: Wooden bullets were used for training during WW2 by the Germans. I feel so smart now....;)
 
But Q: will they actually work in an AK w/o damage?

Would they be substantually quieter than a regular round? (i.e. I assume they are subsonic).

How do you think they'd work for varmiting in an area that requires ::cough:: discretion?
 
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