At this point in the history of guns. Weapons could now be loaded from the breach, had smokeless powder, and a good ignition source. Now its the bullets turn for a rewrite. Until this point bullets where round on the top. Yes they where much better for accuracy then a ball. The bullets where round so they could be staked in a tubular magazine, just like a shot gun. If the round was pointed it could set off the other rounds, and that would be a very bad day. In 1905, a new bullet design was introduced. It was called the Spitzer, this a aerodynamic bullet witch would travail at higher velocities for a greater range. (The bullet on the right is a Spitzer bullet). All rifle rounds made today have the same pointed design. These new bullets required a change in magazine design. bullets could now be staked on one another just like modern magazines. After this round was invented, every country around the world started adopting it for their rifles. In my opinion this is a very well thought out design, i feel that without this bullet guns wouldn't be what they are today. Long range marksmanship wouldn't be possible either. Now that this new cartridge was being taken up by every country, a new way of locking the bolt needed to be made. The bolt action rifle soon fallowed. The Mauser rifle, used by the German military in both world wars, was made in 1870 but wasn't at its full potential till it was introduced with the Spitzer round. This rifle was very accurate and most hunting rifles today have the same bolt design. In my opinion this rifle was way ahead of its time. most rifles of that period where either a one shot rifle or a lever action. This rifle lead the way for the future.bibliography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauser
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spitzer_(bullet)
Nice post, those bullets really look like they can do some serious damage to a body. It's crazy how much bullets have evolved and gotten bigger, better and more effective. I never knew that much thought was put into the design of a bullet, I always just thought as long as it's a piece of metal moving fast enough it would get the job done, but clearly it's more complicated then that.
ReplyDeleteBoth style of bullets hold their own benefits to them. With our new powders available with more than adequate velocities round speed isn't so much of an issue anymore. That being said in hunting and self defence scenario's a pointed round will pass clean through a target not causing optimal internal damage and will keep on going. I often use pointed rounds when hunting smaller game that I don't want to destroy or when hunting animals who's pelts I which to keep as pointed rounds do not create large entry/exit wounds. I use rounded soft nose rounds when hunting larger game that require more energy distribution and more internal damage to bring down as the rounded rounds have a tendency to tumble inside a body and distort more tissue thus causing more damage. Such is the reason why they preferred in home defence to pointed rounds. That being said rounded bullets have been banned by the Geneva convention as they cause too much internal damage.
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