Ammo Soldier-modified ammunition

[KHyatt]

I'm curious to know whether or not soldiers of the ACW (or foreign conflicts during the same period, for that matter) were ever known to alter their ammunition or weapons in such a manner as to increase their lethality. I'm thinking specifically of homemade dumdums but I admit I don't know enough about weaponry to know if there exist alternate methods for modifying bullets, except for the purported practice of Mafiia hit men of rubbing their bullets with garlic in the belief that the contamination would lead to infection if the victim was not killed outright.

 

[thomas aagaard]

The led bullets where already pretty much a dumdum.

 

[poorjack]

I'm curious to know whether or not soldiers of the ACW (or foreign conflicts during the same period, for that matter) were ever known to alter their ammunition or weapons in such a manner as to increase their lethality. I'm thinking specifically of homemade dumdums but I admit I don't know enough about weaponry to know if there exist alternate methods for modifying bullets, except for the purported practice of Mafiia hit men of rubbing their bullets with garlic in the belief that the contamination would lead to infection if the victim was not killed outright.

A bullet that is already nearly 60cal, heavy and made from soft lead hardly needs any modification. Read up on the effects of the slow moving, heavy minie on tissue and bone and you'll quickly realize there's no need to modify it at all. To relate it to a modern alternative, nobody will dispute the effectiveness of a shotgun slug. The standard minie of .577 is essentially a 20ga slug and the minie from the .69 is a 14ga slug.

For some interesting reading- Declaration of St Petersburg of 1868 and Hague Declaration of 1899.

 

[JOHN42768]

You probably have seem a whole lot of carved bullets. Most were done out of boredom, but a few were inspired by a deep hateful thinking more harm could be done.

 

[Racing]

Cap n ball TV

Seeing your question this rather new vid by Balázs Németh came to mind. Cap n ball TV as the channel is often called is actually rather informative and what´s more rather correct. His english in turn rather charming
Anyways.
That vid shows the temporary and permanent wound channel both - for "our" type of guns,and let´s just agree that it´s ample. For any task given really,apart from penetrating armour i guess.
A tad astonishing i´d say is the result by the musket is. Ie;the smoothbore one. I for one at least didn´t know it was THAT effective.

There´s a plethora of x-rays online in turn of people having been hit by an ACW slug,ie;a "577" one. I believe them to this day to be the most lethal boolits ever designed.

 

[Rebforever]

I'm curious to know whether or not soldiers of the ACW (or foreign conflicts during the same period, for that matter) were ever known to alter their ammunition or weapons in such a manner as to increase their lethality. I'm thinking specifically of homemade dumdums but I admit I don't know enough about weaponry to know if there exist alternate methods for modifying bullets, except for the purported practice of Mafiia hit men of rubbing their bullets with garlic in the belief that the contamination would lead to infection if the victim was not killed outright.

Yes, both sides used loaded bullets. It can be found on the web. I am on my iPad or I would post it.

 

[Stone in the wall]

The Jacobs and the Gardiner were exploding bullets. But they didn't seem to be popular with the troops.