Wooden Bullets?

NYlakesider · Mar 29, 2015

tlay said:
I have some wooden dowel hardwood rods close to .358 in size. I thought of using them for practice bullets. I would use 3 GRS. of bullseye with a hollow base wadcutter. I didn't know if I should make the bullets undersize or stick to .358 in my 38 special guns.
My buddy suggested filling the hollow base with phosphorus or powdered magnesium for a tracer bullet! I would think that is a little illegal!

Well before I figured out a powder load for something like that, I would weigh different lengths that appear to be about the right projectile length and see what you have.

6string · Mar 29, 2015

There was an article on using wooden bullets in revolvers. It was in American Hangunner or Guns magazine back in the 1980s. It was titled "Dracula Droppers"! I think they used Oak dowels and they got some pretty awesome velocities!
I may still have the back issued stored away.....

DWalt · Mar 29, 2015

Long. long ago I made up some 8mm Mauser cartridges using blank fire powder taken from .30-'06 military blank cartridges and wooden plugs cut from arrow shafts using a hacksaw, which were about the right diameter. They were fired in a bring-back 98K Mauser I had at the time. I remember the wooden bullets seemed to break up before they ever reached the target which was not that far away, maybe 25 feet or so.

tlay · Mar 29, 2015

I would think if I kept the velocity low, maybe 800fps or less then maybe the bullet will stay together. If not it would make a nasty shotgun!

rwsmith · Mar 30, 2015

I was surprised..

Nemo288 said:
plastic training bullets
I once used these and now consider them as dangerous as the real thing and like the above posters prefer wax.
Remember Mr. JE Hexum "accidently" killed himself with the cork wad from a "blank".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon-Erik_Hexum

===
Nemo

I used magnum primers and was really surprised at how powerful they were. I set up enough layers of cardboard in my house to stop a flat nosed plastic bullet, or so I thought. Put some good dents in the sheet rock. I don't know about deadly, unless they hit a vulnerable spot, but I know they would HURT.

fodder · Mar 30, 2015

Guns magazine Dec. 1984 had the article on "Dracula Droppers"
I just dug it up reading it again. Using oak it lists a 17 gr. 44 magnum @3427 fps.using 20 grs. of WW231 powder.
The article had data for 38 special. 44 magnum, & 45 acp(didn't cycle in autos)

Robert Palermo · Mar 30, 2015

"Wood" I?

If I was inclined to make such a bullet then I wood (pun intended) lathe turn bullets made from Epe' a very dense brazillian hardwood that should hold up with a coating placed on the outside. It certainly "wood" be lethal especially with a flat on the nose.

DWalt · Mar 30, 2015

One problem with lightweight wooden bullets of any length is that they are unlikely to be stable when fired from typical slow-twist barrels, and beyond fairly short distances you will have trouble hitting anything. I would imagine the ballistic drag coefficient would approach zero.

Arik · Mar 30, 2015

DWalt said:
All military cartridges I know of loaded with wooden bullets were intended for use as blanks or for rifle grenades. The Danish Schouboe Automatic Pistol of the early 20th Century used an 11.35mm jacketed wooden-core bullet at a very high velocity. It wasn't too successful.

"When I was kid I herd that enemy caught with wood or clay bullets would be shot on spot."

At least in the Pacific theater, it was a common practice for U. S. forces to shoot captured Japanese soldiers on the spot, no matter what ammunition they had on them. Taking prisoners was frowned upon. Ask any Pacific vet.

Wasn't there a GI who took like a thousand Japanese prisoners

DWalt · Mar 30, 2015

"Wasn't there a GI who took like a thousand Japanese prisoners?"

I have no idea. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_prisoners_of_war_in_World_War_II

bobf · Mar 30, 2015

My cousin was shot with a wooden bullet by a Japanese soldier during WWII. Surgeons gave him the bullet he kept it for years, lost it when his house burned down.

Arik · Mar 30, 2015

DWalt said:
"Wasn't there a GI who took like a thousand Japanese prisoners?"

I have no idea. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_prisoners_of_war_in_World_War_II

There was a guy who was American but was adopted and raised by Japanese family. He served in the Pacific and after seeing his friend get killed he went out and killed as many Japanese as he could, often by himself. Later he took a General and his whole division prisoners. ...by himself. It was something like that. Let me see if I can find the info

Here you go. Guy Gabaldon.

Japanese, they were ordered by their superiors on Saipan to kill seven American Marines or soldiers for every soldier they lost, or commit suicide

Gabaldon was reprimanded by his superior officers, and threatened with a court-martial for leaving his post. However, according to him the next night he went out and did it again. He carefully approached a cave, shot the enemy guards outside, moved off to one side of the cave, and yelled in Japanese, "You're surrounded and have no choice but to surrender. Come out, and you will not be killed! I assure you will be well-treated. We do not want to kill you!"
The next morning he says he returned with 50 Japanese prisoners. As a result, Gabaldon was permitted by his commanding officer to act as a "lone wolf" operator

July 8, Gabaldon captured two more enemy guards. He convinced one of them to return to his cave, with an offering of surrender. Shortly thereafter, a Japanese officer showed up. After speaking to Gabaldon, the officer accepted the conditions of surrender—and over eight hundred Japanese soldiers and civilians surrendered to Gabaldon, who turned them over to the U.S. military authorities. For his exploits, according to Gabaldon, he became known asThe Pied Piper of Saipan

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Gabaldon

RMC1 · Mar 30, 2015

My father was given an old black powder 45-70 that had the bullet molds and some other equipment but I was to young to remember what it was. It also had some wooden bullets and a few cartridges loaded with them. The bullets were hollow with thin walls and filled with lead shot.

Qball · Mar 30, 2015

MichiganScott said:
They Swedes had an adapter that fit over the muzzle and shredded the bullets when fired.

You beat me to it

Look's like this..
Swedish rifles 1894 to 1960

rwsmith · Mar 30, 2015

Were wood bullets.....

Drm50 said:
In the little town I grew up in our postmaster was a disabled vet
of WW2, Italy. He was shot with wooden bullet. When I was kid
I herd that enemy caught with wood or clay bullets would be shot
on spot.

Were wood bullets particularly damaging?

rwsmith · Mar 30, 2015

DWalt said:
At least in the Pacific theater, it was a common practice for U. S. forces to shoot captured Japanese soldiers on the spot, no matter what ammunition they had on them. Taking prisoners was frowned upon. Ask any Pacific vet.

Due to outrage and the fact that there were no facilities for the American soldiers, much less Japanese prisoners, they were shot even if they DIDN'T have any ammo on them. It happened in Europe at certain times too, for the same reasons. There were vets in a documentary telling these stories after years of silence and they were in agony living with the fact that, at least at one time, they had become like animals. Another blow to the 'romance' of war.

DWalt · Mar 31, 2015

Growing up in the 1950s, I came to know quite a few vets who served in the Pacific and heard stories of brutality most would hardly believe. Later in life, for several years in the 1970s I had a good friend who had spent three years island-hopping in the Pacific campaign as a Navy Corpsman who hit the beaches with the Marines on numerous invasions, including Tarawa and Iwo Jima. The stories I heard from him surpassed anything I have ever read. According to him, living captured Japanese prisoners just didn't exist, at least not very long. In the rare instances when some enemy soldiers were captured, they were questioned to get whatever intelligence they could provide, then taken over the hill to be shot or get their throats cut - just like ISIS does now. He had what would today be called PTSD, but he and I got along very well, as I think I was about the only one who would listen to him, and he really needed someone who would listen non-judgmentally.

tlay · Mar 31, 2015

Man, I just wanted to do some target practice!

BE Mike · Mar 31, 2015

tlay said:
Man, I just wanted to do some target practice!

If you really want to hit something when you target practice, then I'd go another route. What's wrong with cast or swaged lead bullets?

tlay · Mar 31, 2015

I have plenty of them. But I also have some wood dowell rods laying around. I just wanted to know if anyone has tried making and shooting wood bullets and how it turned out.

Wooden Bullets?

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