DUM-DUM BULLETS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 10, 29 August 1914, Page 4

DUM-DUM BULLETS.

The use of “dum-dum” bullets by tire Germans lias been the cause ot protest by France, though it is feared such protest will not avail much in face of the reported atrocities German troops have been guilty of. “Dum-dum” bullets get their name from a town in India, where they wore manufactured. They are of various kinds, but in all cases the lead core is left exposed at the point instead of being fully covered by the nickel*, jacket. In some types the nose has a hole in it, and 111 others the nickel jacket is slit for some distance back. The object of these modifications of the ordinary bullet is to cause the projectile to spread when it strikes even a soft body. At the tremendously high velocity of a small-bore rifle bullet, the lead is soil enough to behave as putty would when thrown by band, and the dumdum expands into a ragged metal lump, which causes terrible injuries. They were adopted, for the hill-fighting in India because the clean-boring military bullet failed to stop the fanatical rushes of the enemy. They were used

against similarly impetuous savages in the Soudan and elsewhere; being made very often by simply filing the nickel from the points of the ordinary bullets. Explosive bullets, with which the dum-dum is sometimes confounded, are quite a different matter. They are charged with a detonating compound, and are not suitable for small-bore rifles. They were at one time used for fighting big , game, but ware found very dangerous to the user.