We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Wound Ballistics: Minié Ball vs. Full Metal Jacketed Bullets--A Comparison of Civil War and Spanish-American War Firearms.
- Authors
Dougherty, Paul; Collins, Herbert
- Abstract
Objective: The advent of the full metal jacketed bullet in the late nineteenth century was thought to cause less severe battlefield wounds. This study compares the wounding characteristics of a reproduction rifle from the American Civil War to one of the Spanish-American War using the wound profile method, Methods: A 0.58 caliber rifled musket using Minié bails and a 0.30 caliber Krag-Jorgenson rifle using full metal jacketed bullets were fired into calibrated 10% ordnance gelatin blocks at a distance of 3 meters. Measured parameters included maximum temporary cavity, muzzle velocity, and the permanent track. Results: Maximum temporary cavities were significantly larger using the musket averaging 121 mm (±5.4) vs. 38.6 mm (± 8.8) (p < 0.001 ). Bullet weights were also significantly larger. totaling 29.7 grams (± 1.3) for the musket vs. 14.18 grams (± 0.01 ) for the rifle (p < 0.01 ). Using grains, bullet weights were 458.3 grains (±20 grains; range 435.2-86.1 ) vs. 218.8 grains (± 0.15: -range 218.7-219). Muzzle velocities of the musket were significantly less when compared with the rifle, averaging 944 fps (± 116) vs. 1852 fps (± 22.5), respectively (p < 0.001 ). Conclusions: The rifled musket produced more severe wounds when compared in the Krag-Jorgenson rifle. as was clinically apparent to observers at the time of the Spanish-American War.
- Subjects
GUNSHOT wounds; BULLETS; CIVIL war; SPANISH-American War, 1898; FIREARMS; RIFLES; MUZZLES (Firearms)
- Publication
Military Medicine, 2009, Vol 174, Issue 4, p403
- ISSN
0026-4075
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.7205/MILMED-D-02-2307