https://www.ebay.com/itm/BULLET-EMB...504710?hash=item48a700fb46:g:gjgAAOSwUoNZ9JsR My limited experience with shooting rifles leads me to believe something is off here. What are your thoughts on this and items of this nature in general?
Interesting item. I have seen coins with bullets embedded in them. Similar appearance. They were target practice peices. But.. To determine if the coin in question is really from the time they say it was is hard to proove.
I've shot more than my share of coins and I have never seen that happen. That said, my experience has been with modern weapons and ammo, dating from the 60's to date. And modern weapons and ammo are quite a bit different from those of the time period in question. Given the time period in question, I have to say yes, that outcome is a distinct possibility.
That is a modern hunting bullet. A Copper clad boat tail hunting bullet. I just wonder how many shots it took the idiots to hit the coin. And that was NOT the bullet that caused the hole. That’s just a prop bullet found at the range when changing targets. Think multiple shots and the grassy knoll. It’s a coin hole conspiracy!
I have a hard time believing the bullet would have stopped in the coin like that. Once it punched through nothing would have grabbed it to stop it other the. Something at the other end but it doesn’t look like a bullet that ran into a wall so to speak.
I don't think so. I know what you're looking at and why you are saying that, but I believe what you are seeing is merely where the mid portion of the bullet has been expanded somewhat by impact - and being stopped. But even if that is not the case, boat tail bullets were first issued as a standard military round by the French in 1901, and they existed for some time before that. Which definitely fits with the time frame of the coin. The reason I think it's contemporary is because ammo back then simply did not have the power that modern ammo does. It's not only possible that a contemporary round would not penetrate, it's even likely it would not.
I’ve shot copper coins before. Lots of them, lots! A bullet went through that coin. Period. If you sharpen a .22 cal bullet and apply epoxy to the finished tapered point it will pierce a copper U.S. cent just like the pictured large copper penny. I’ve done just about everything I could think of to Lincolns when I was a kid. We even blew some up with dynamite when they were blowing stumps at the new school site when I was 10 in 1971 the workmen put a roll of rerolls I had got from the drug store under the dynamite . We never found any of the coins darn it! So it’s just what I see, my uneducated opinion. Reed.
So have I, probably a whole lot more of them than you have seeing as how I started doing it in the 1960's. And yeah they went through the coins in almost every case. BUT - that was with modern ammo. My sole point is this, old ammo, had one heck of lot less power than modern ammo. And it was extremely common for old ammo, even with what was considered to be a high powered rifle at the time - not to penetrate a coin. The bullets were different back then, the powder was extremely different (as in far less powerful), and the guns themselves were different. Think of the case of Lt. George Dixon whose life was saved when he was shot and the bullet only put a dent the coin, a $20 double eagle, and it was not much of a dent ! That coin still exist today. That took place in the Civil War, and yes, by 1900 bullets and guns were different by 1900. But they still didn't have much more power or penetration that they did in the Civil War. In many cases, many bullets around 1900 were still black powder loads. But even smokeless powder back then was a completely different animal than it is today - with but a fraction of the power of modern ammo. Is it possible that was a fake ? Yes. But it is also possible, and even far more likely, that it was completely genuine.
Anything is possible! Battle of Gallipoli during WWI - the immense force of impact fused the two bullets together. Maybe it could happen with a static coin target from a long ways out, but I'm no ballistics expert.
Doug I will concede every bit about old ammo. I went hunting Mule Dear in Eastern Washington on a little family farm. 42,876 Acre wheat farm. One of the party A kid named Dusty a farm hand had 1950’s vintage ammo. Well it took him 4 shots to kill his deer. One of the bullets was found piercing a rib bone and was stuck half way through so yes you could be right. Reed P.s. the other shots were two to the neck below the head and one took a front hoove off. Flyer shot? The Kid was an Annie Oakley usually one to the spine below the head with an old Spanish Mauser with a crappy scope!
