Mauser bullet

“ They were not Mauser bullets, they were not expanding bullets, they were explosive bullets pure and simple, and the Boers have confessed to their use. Therefore, I think it would only have been fair had Mr. Baillie Grohmann waited to know on what grounds people out here have made these assertions, before writing a somewhat conclusive letter in which the main point appeared to be that there was no such thing as an explosive Mauser bullet. ”

“ There can be no doubt that a considerable number of the most severe injuries we saw were produced by the various soft-nosed or expanding forms of bullet, also that others of an equally serious nature were produced by Martini-Henry or large leaden sporting bullets. Allowing for this, however, I think a considerable proportion were the result of deformation from bony impact, or ricochet deformities external to the body acquired by regulation Mauser bullets, and I think these bullets can be quite as formidable as any of the sporting varieties met with. ”

“ The problem, then, seems to be to combine the shock, or killing power, of the old, big, lead bullet with the high velocity and extreme accuracy of the modern military rifle. With the Mauser and the Lee-Enfield one can hit his man or his beast at a great distance, but the shock of the bullet is much less than that of the old, round, lead one. The military bullet simply drills a little clean hole which disables the soldier, but does not bring down the beast, unless it passes accurately through some vital spot. ”

“ Fig. 33. Grooved Mauser removed from anterior abdominal wall after crossing the ribs. I saw several such removed from the thoracic wall, and am inclined to attribute the grooving to impact with the margin of the ribs
Lastly, the question of actual spluttering or breaking up of the bullets must be considered. It is extraordinary into how many fragments either a Lee-Metford or a Mauser bullet may break up if it strike a hard body while travelling at a high rate of velocity. Fragmentation is exhibited in the skiagram forming the subject of plate XI. p. ”

“ With a thousand rifles rattling; with the field-guns booming in your ears; with the diabolic Colt automatics clacking; with the roar of the Marblehead coming from the bay, and, last, with Mauser bullets sneering always in the air a few inches over one's head, and with this enduring from dusk to dawn, it is extremely doubtful if any one who was there will be able to forget it easily. The noise; the impenetrable darkness; the knowledge from the sound of the bullets that the enemy was on three sides of the camp ”

“ When suppuration of the wound in the soft parts occurred, however, the remarks made as to the injuries classed under the third heading also apply here in a lesser degree.
With regard to the retention of the bullet, in the case of bullets of small calibre this was a distinctly rare occurrence. I never happened to see an instance of retention of either a Mauser or Lee-Metford bullet in an articulation. It is only possible with bullets practically spent, or travelling at a very low rate of velocity and making irregular impact. ”

“ And what a wonderful bit of mechanism this Mauser rifle is. How wretchedly badly off they were in 1870-71 with their rattletrap needle guns. A single feeble bullet at a time, and after you had fired it came the long, complicated business of reloading.
And yet the war accounted for well over a hundred thousand French and German dead.
I wonder how many dead this war will ac count for? If only every fifth man is left on the field, and if another fifth comes home invalided ... ”

“ Fired within a distance of 2,500 yards there is little doubt that a bullet of the Lee-Metford, Mauser, or Krag-Jörgensen types, passes straight between the apertures of entry and exit when these are of the type outline, even when the bones are implicated. By reason of the small size of the projectiles, their shape, and the spin and velocity transmitted to them, there is no reason why at a sufficiently short range they should not traverse the body from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot. ”

“ This may be due to the compression into the grooving of the rifle, or as the result of passing impact of the bullet with an obstacle previous to entering the body or contact with a bone within it. Small scales of metal set free in one of these ways are seen in a very large proportion of Mauser wounds, and although they are so small as usually to be of little importance, the presence of such in, for instance, the substance of one of the peripheral nerves which has been perforated cannot be considered a desirable complication. ”

“ They are derived (1) from the Turkish pointed bullet weighing approximately 15.0 grams—it is fired from the German Mauser and has all the ballistic values of the projectile from this weapon; (2) the Bulgarian bullet, blunt nosed or ogival headed and the same as the steel-jacketed bullet of the Austrian Mannlicher; (3) shrapnel balls and fragments of the shrapnel, and (4) fragments of steel shells from field artillery.
During the evolution of reduced caliber rifles experiments were made on cadavers at different ranges. ”

“ It has been pointed out that the Lee-Metford bullet turns on its own axis once in a distance of ten inches, while the Mauser revolves once in a distance of eight and eleven-sixteenths inches; hence not more than at most two revolutions are made in tracks crossing the trunk, and not more than half a full revolution in the perforation of a limb. None the [Pg 46] less, no one can deny the influence of the one half turn of supination in entering a perforating tool of any description, both as preventing splintering, and in preserving the surrounding parts from damage. ”

“ Its importance naturally consists in the manner in which it affects the possibility of covering objects on a wide area of ground and thus creating a broad 'dangerous zone.' A bullet fired on level ground from any one of three of the rifles referred to later (Lee-Metford, Mauser, Krag-Jörgensen) , sighted to 500 [Pg 45] yards and fired from the shoulder in the standing position, will cover some part of an erect man of average height during the whole extent of its flight. ”

“ A weekly illustration appears in the advertisement sheet of the 'Field,' showing the deformity of some of them shot into animals, which bear a strong resemblance to the Mauser figured earlier (fig. 31) , and which we have seen can be produced in the human body by contact of a regulation fully cased bullet with a bone like the malar. A tendency on the part of the longitudinal slits to become caught in the rifling of the barrel militates against the use of this bullet. ”

“ The dum-dum bullet is a soft-nosed missile which, when it strikes a bone, flattens out and splatters, creating a jagged wound which it is almost impossible to treat or heal. The Germans, in ordinary, use a steel jacketed bullet which possesses high penetrative powers, while the French at the beginning of the war were using the ordinary lead bullet. ”

“ A foul murky cloud of dust and smoke formed and went with the thinning companies, a cloud lit with red flashes and full of howling death.
The silent ridge to the left awoke with machine-guns and rifles, and sibilant rushing flights of nickel-coated missiles from Maxim and Mauser struck down where the shells spared. An increasing trail of crumpled brown figures lay behind the battalion as it went. The raw smell of blood was in men’s nostrils. ”

“ The tremendous range of the modern rifle, single arm, or rapid-fire gun, and the development of more powerful explosives for ammunition have wrought this change. The bullet will travel a longer distance at a horizontal position than in the old days when ordinary black powder and a smooth-bore gun were used, and so at hundreds of yards distance the soldiers can aim direct to kill, without making elevation allowances. ”

“ However, there exist dum-dum bullets, as I mentioned before. They are manufactured by the soldiers themselves. If the point is filed or cut off a German infantry bullet, so that the nickel case is cut through and the lead core is laid bare, the bullet explodes when striking or penetrating an object. Should a man be hit in the upper arm by such a projectile the latter, by its explosive force, can mangle the arm to such an extent that it only hangs by a piece of skin. ”

“ It is true that the modern Lee-Enfield and Mauser claim to be the most precise and deadly weapons of destruction ever devised. But they were intended for proper, gentlemanly warfare, with the opposing sides set out in straight lines, a convenient distance apart. In the hand-to-hand butchery which calls itself war to-day, the rifle is rapidly becoming démodé. For long ranges you require machine-guns; for short, bombs and hand-grenades. Can you empty a cottage by firing a single rifle-shot in at the door? ”

“ The pressure of gas at each explosion does all the work of pushing back the closing piece of the breech through the recoil of the shell, extracts and ejects the shell, cocks the hammer, and also compresses recuperative springs, which effect the reloading and closing of the weapon, all of these functions being performed in proper sequence at each explosion in a fraction of a second. The act of firing thus prepares the pistol for the next shot automatically. In Fig. 278 are shown two makes of pistol of this type. No. 1 is known as the Mauser (United States patent No. 584,479, June 15, 1897) ”

“ I think the general trend of the observations goes to show that the employment of bullets of small calibre is all to the advantage of the men wounded, except in so far as the increased possibilities of the range of fire may augment the number of individuals hit; also that such variations as exist between wounds inflicted by bullets of the Martini-Henry and Mauser types respectively, depend rather on the form and bulk of the projectile than on any inherent difference in the nature of the injuries. ”

“ The main point is that we Infantry do not fire nearly enough ammunition when delivering an attack. Of course we see no enemy: we only hear the crack of his rifle and the whiz of his bullets: but we sometimes see the splash of the bullet on the ground, and can from that obtain some slight idea of his position at the time. Having found that, a constant hail of bullets should be directed at all parts of the position, high and low, at rocks, at bushes and at all places likely to afford a hiding spot, with the object always in view of making the enemy keep his head down behind his cover. ”

“ There is a peculiar sound or thud when a bullet enters a human body, different from that which it makes when striking other objects—a sound, once heard, not easily forgotten. I ordered two men to take the wounded man a few yards to the rear, down the incline, out of the line of fire, where they left him in the shade of some bushes and saw to it that he had his canteen handy, and then they took their places again in the firing line. When the wounded man was removed I picked up his rifle, took off the bayonet and affixed it to mine, thinking I might need it if we came to close quarters. ”

“ He took his revolver and fired at it, aiming to hit it just in front and below the hammer, its most vulnerable part. Instead, the bullet hits the ground and ricocheting enters the breast of the dead man. He shudders as the body stirs from the force of the shot, although he knows that life has been gone for hours. Everything is plain to him now why his other shots had not taken effect. He was unnerved. How could a man with a hole through his body hope to hit anything. He had heard of men shot through the heart killing their assailants, and had often wondered if he could do it. ”

“ A small part of the gas generated by the explosion of the individual cartridge operates the mechanism, discharging the bullet, throwing out the empty shell and making ready for the next shot.
A machine gun is designed to enable one man to fire the equivalent of a volley, or series of volleys, discharged by an entire platoon (one-third of a company) of infantrymen. As at present developed, it represents a step toward the evolution of a shoulder-rifle that will throw a continuous stream of bullets. ”

“ You then discover that although you can see the dim shadow of your game, your bullet will have to cut its way through at least twenty twigs before it can reach its goal. A solid bullet may deflect slightly, but it will generally deliver its message direct, unless the opposing objects are more formidable than ordinary small branches. A hollow bullet from an Express rifle will fly into fragments should it strike a twig the size of the little finger. This is quite sufficient to condemn the hollow projectile without any further argument. ”

“ The bursting of a shrapnel shell and its spray of low-velocity bullets is also theoretically most destructive, but a roof of 6-inch boards will furnish perfect protection from the bullets. Mother Earth remains the best protection there is from fire. No rifle bullet can penetrate through a 3-foot thickness of sandbags. A 6 or 8-inch high-explosive shell, which is the largest caliber (p. 067) practicable for trench warfare, may burst near a double layer of bags of stone rubble without hurting anyone in a cellar 30 feet underneath. ”

“ Machine-guns and shrapnel did the damage mostly, but the Mausers took their share. Only in one thing had we the advantage—the bayonet. When we got to hand grips with them the Turks couldn't stand up to our chaps, who went for them with the cold steel like devils red-hot from hell.
No man who took part in that retirement will ever forget it. Overhead burst the shells, underfoot the dust rose and the twigs snapped as the unending rain of rifle, machine-gun, and shrapnel bullets zipped! and spattered around. Men fell fast, killed and wounded ”