Bullet makeup

A friend has the bullet that was removed from his dad in WW II. 8mm German; it has a blue core. What would that core be?

Reply to
aasberry
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I am guessing hardened heat treated steel, test it with a magnet.

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Reply to
Ignoramus885

Weren't German WWII bullets steel-jacketed lead? I'm thinking the blue core could be corroded lead, or maybe copper.

Reply to
Tim Wescott

this is what a magnet is for, inspead of speculating he will know in a minute

Reply to
Ignoramus885

A magnet will not prove either of your theory's. It will prove that steel is present, but was it the core or jacket that caused the attraction.

Robert

Reply to
Robert

Huh! Musta hit a Smurf on the way in.

Reply to
Larry Jaques

I've seen really old copper-jacketed lead which does look sorta blue. Not like blued steel -- more like a medium light blue chalk. I figure that is the result of electrolytic corrosion between the copper jacket and the lead core (which may be inside-out in the example above, though 8mm German would be "hard ball" (that is, solid tip), since the military consider a wound ties up more personnel than a kill does.

Obviously, his dad survived. I wonder what the range was? At close range, I would consider military 8mm to be likely to punch on through.

Enjoy, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols

I'd put it under a microscope or eye lope.

It might be a heavy mineral like Lapus, or some of the coppers. It needs to be examined by a pro or just yourself. It might be a composite mixture like a sealing that is covering up something nasty like tracer bullet. Burn anything.

I'd be careful, but likely it has been already been iD'd by doctors or else. Maybe not if in the field...

We need more than color and a bullet - German is a big hint - all sorts of this and that were tried.

Might be a sniper ID. Our bullets are marked with outside rings of color and some colors indicate core content. But our bullets are FMJ.

Mart> A friend has the bullet that was removed from his dad in WW II. 8mm

Reply to
Martin Eastburn

I believe that the German WW II ammunition was also full metal jacket. But the Germans also used a color coding and blue was used to identify some lots of armour piercing munitions, although in the examples I've seen it was marking on the cartridge base, not the bullet.

Reply to
John B.

This bullet is one of five that hit him. This one passed through his pelvis and was removed from under his armpit.

Here is photo.

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Reply to
aasberry

On 11/20/2015 11:58 AM, snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote: ...

Requires that I have an account.

Reply to
Bob Engelhardt

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