Bullet is the leaden projectile discharged from any kind of small-arm. Formerly all bullets were spherical, and cast in moulds. Now all rifle-bullets are elongated, and cut and stamped by machinery from rods of lead. The forms are singularly numerous. Robins's bullet was egg-shaped, with the centre of gravity at the larger end; Beanfoy's was ovoid, with a hemispherical cavity at one end; Greener's was oval, with a plug of mixed metal driven into a hole barely large enough for it; Norton's, Delvigne's, and others were of various shapes, generally with some kind of plug, which, driven
This expanding or dilating action has been claimed by many inventors; but the government in 1857 awarded Mr Greener £1000, as the person who had practically solved the difficulty as far back as 1836. Its effect is to communicate a twist to the bullet, thus steadying it, and causing it to travel point first. This enables a heavier, because longer, projectile to be fired with accuracy from a smaller bore than was formerly used; thereby presenting less surface to the resistance of the air, and so increasing the range.
The Prussian bullet does not touch the grooves; the sabot takes them and communicates the twist to the bullet. The shoulders of the Chassepôt bullet and the slight taper in the Martini-Henry are for the same purpose. Hollow-headed explosive bullets are only used for shooting big game, such as elephants and tigers. Their use in war is forbidden by the Convention of Geneva.
The bullet of the Lee-Metford rifle (see RIFLE), which consists of a lead core covered with a nickel casing, weighs only 217 grains, as compared with the 384 grains of the Enfield-Martini of 1888. The dum-dum bullet was devised and made by the Indian military authorities in their arsenals at Dum-dum, near Calcutta, and is similar to the ordinary Lee-Metford bullet, with the point flattened and the lead exposed instead of being covered by the nickel casing. This caused it to expand when it struck, and made it much more effective than the original bullet. The soldiers in the Indian frontier wars filed off the points of the bullets themselves in imitation of the dum-dum. A Lee-Metford bullet (Mark IV.), with a hollow in the front end, intended to have the same 'stopping' property as the dum-dum, was issued for service in the British army in 1899; but it was not used in the Transvaal war (1899-1900) on account of its being considered an 'explosive bullet.' It is shown in the figure. See CARTRIDGE, RIFLE; and, for steel bullets, MACHINE GUNS. SHOT is treated in a separate article.