Shooting Ranges in US causing lead poisoning.

[YorkNecromancer]

nonlethal rubber bullets.

As probably this forum's premier gun enthusiast (and one who gets annoyed when the gun hobby is misrepresented on this forum), I am surprised to see you use this term.

I thought rubber bullets were now described as 'less lethal'? Because I remember a number of cases over here in the UK during The Troubles, when rubber bullets were discovered to be very lethal indeed. They're nonlethal in the same way a kitchen knife is; no, they're not designed to kill, but they're still quite capable of it. I mean, yes, it was mostly when headshots occurred, true, but that's why 'less lethal' replaced 'nonlethal', because they're safer than regular bullets but still, well, lethal. It was part of the reason we stopped using them; they became a serious embarrassment for Westminster; the IRA used the shootings for serious political leverage.

[Anthrax ion pusscabe]

I watched a documentary on the production of less lethal crowd control ammunition and it said your average rubber bullet is more then capable of sesiously wounding or killing someone if fired directly at them (they tested it against ballistics jel blocks and it got a good 3inches or something penetration) and that the correct procedure was to "bounce" it off the ground to reduce its total velocity so it will hurt like a kick from a horse but not penetrat the skin

[Gotthammer]

Rubber bullets:

[Morgrim]

Do we still use Lead bullets at all? I'm confused.

Apparently, Silver is too soft for dakka - but lead isn't>

Silver is harder than lead but softer than copper. The trick is that silver, for some reason that I've never seen explained, tends to be really bad at accepting the rifling in the barrel. So silver bullets do not like travelling in a straight line and also have lower penetration.

Amusingly gold bullets work better than lead does. It's just that they're gold and wildly expensive.

[Wolfshade]

The denser the metal the better,

[Gotthammer]

Silver is quite brittle, especially at temperature, so I would imagine would be prone to flaking and shattering if forced through rifling at very high speeds.

[Mr Mystery]

Silver is quite brittle, especially at temperature, so I would imagine would be prone to flaking and shattering if forced through rifling at very high speeds.

Make even more sense!

Stupid chemistry and physics and that. Now how am I meant to knack those Werewolves?

[DarkLink]

Right, bullets require a unique mix of ductility, strength, and high density. Lead just happens to be an ideal material that falls right in the sweet spot and isn't super expensive like gold.

As probably this forum's premier gun enthusiast (and one who gets annoyed when the gun hobby is misrepresented on this forum), I am surprised to see you use this term.

Actually a good point. I just kind of randomly threw it out there. I think I posted from my tablet, which I don't check my wording as much on since the keyboard is more awkward than a physical one. Less than lethal is definitely a more accurate term.