# Blended metal bullets: would they perform as advertised? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 26, 2004, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blended-metal-bullets-would-they-perform-as-advertised/281636 "2004-12-26T02:33:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2004, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blended-metal-bullets-would-they-perform-as-advertised/281636/1 "2004-12-26T02:33:58Z")
[a cite here to get the ball rolling](http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-2426405.php) Now, I know virtually nothing about ballistics or the various metals involved, but are these blended metal bullets really the next generation super-bullet? If so, could someone please explain to me how the bullet ‘knows’ to fragment in warmer targets? It seems to me that a difference of a mere 60 degrees wouldn’t be enough to cause any real structural changes in the metal casing of a round. Also, would ammo like this, a one-shot-one-kill with ‘untreatable wounds’ be in violation of any international treaties or regulations? ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2004, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blended-metal-bullets-would-they-perform-as-advertised/281636/2 "2004-12-26T05:00:31Z")
It’s certainly not becuase of the temperature of an object. The bullet would get much hotter than a human body from both the propellant and friction in the air. The only thing I can think of is that somehow the softness of a body compared to steel somehow causes the bullet to explode. It said that it didn’t perform any better in balistics jelly testing so something is amiss here. The guys claim might be bogus, the testing might be faulty or it might somehow depend on the temperature. I am gonna go with the guys claim might be exaggerated a bit. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2004, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blended-metal-bullets-would-they-perform-as-advertised/281636/3 "2004-12-26T05:09:20Z")
I am not at all sure how or whether the BDSM round does what the article claims for it. Regarding the later question about treaties, it would seem to violate the _spirit_ (not necessarily the letter) of the 1899 and 1907 Hague conventions that prohibited the use of soft-nosed bullets or bullets that have been “pierced with incisions” to cause them to expand or shatter in the body. (Interestingly, even the proponent of the weapon quoted in the article discourages it being issued to the infantry, making a case that it is a special use round.) ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2004, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blended-metal-bullets-would-they-perform-as-advertised/281636/4 "2004-12-26T05:31:43Z")
> [@treis](#): > > It’s certainly not becuase of the temperature of an object. The bullet would get much hotter than a human body from both the propellant and friction in the air. The only thing I can think of is that somehow the softness of a body compared to steel somehow causes the bullet to explode. It said that it didn’t perform any better in balistics jelly testing so something is amiss here. The guys claim might be bogus, the testing might be faulty or it might somehow depend on the temperature. I am gonna go with the guys claim might be exaggerated a bit. Well, would you place any weight in the claim that we need to have live-animal tests for the rounds, or from your understanding of ballistics and metalurgy, the whole thing is bunk? > [@tomndebb](#): > > I am not at all sure how or whether the BDSM round does what the article claims for it. BDSM rounds? The article refrenced APLP rounds made by RBCD of San Antonio… Did I miss something, or was someone in the military silly enough to have a round named, well… BDSM? (And would the bdsm rounds come complete with leather restraints or would you have to buy those seperately? ~rimshot~) And, what I guess I’m wondering is: could the round work as advertised? I mean, it’s new technology and all, but is the science sound? Surely there’re a few dopers well versed in metalurgy? > [@tomndebb](#): > > Regarding the later question about treaties, it would seem to violate the spirit (not necessarily the letter) of the 1899 and 1907 Hague conventions that prohibited the use of soft-nosed bullets or bullets that have been “pierced with incisions” to cause them to expand or shatter in the body. Interesting. I wonder what the reaction of the international community would be? Or, for that matter, our military. IIRC, and I may very well not as I can’t find a cite, we had developed a gun which fired flechettes, but decided not to put it into service both because of the way high velocity plastic darts kill a man, and because of the threat of the weapon being turned on our own troops. Perhaps a reason that this hasn’t been tested is because the military itself doesn’t want to see a round like this being developed? ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2004, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blended-metal-bullets-would-they-perform-as-advertised/281636/5 "2004-12-26T05:40:32Z")
[A better bullet -Blended-metal ammo rates realistic testing](http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/bullets/) [Interesting MB discussion here - Glock Talk \> The Armory \> Caliber Corner \> 10mm “RBCD” Brand Ammo](http://glocktalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=312823) The suspicion amoung the more technically minded gun geeks in the Glock group MB is that the warm/cold body temp argument is BS, and that it’s basically a cleverly designed friable nylon-lead bullet that works as advertised (but not as explained) re penetration and tissue destruction. > [@](#): > > As can be seen above, in addition to a typical copper jacket, the RBCD bullets analysed were fabricated with a nylon core (that gets variably squished and deformed during manufacture, resulting in inconsistent bullet CG) and metal nose portion that turns out to be composed of LEAD, with slight amounts of antimony. In other words, the RBCD bullets are lightweight, high-velocity, lead nosed JSP’s—so much for lead-free, programmable, heat sensitive “blended metal technology”… ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2004, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blended-metal-bullets-would-they-perform-as-advertised/281636/6 "2004-12-26T05:53:41Z")
> [@](#): > > BDSM rounds? > The article refrenced APLP rounds made by RBCD of San Antonio… > Did I miss something, or was someone in the military silly enough to have a round named, well… BDSM? Simple brain malfunction. I’d just gotten a nasty e-mail with a bunch of four-letter acronyms and BDSM spilled off my keyboard instead of RBCD. ---
**Author:** ![FinnAgain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finnagain/32/12500_2.png) [@FinnAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinnAgain)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2004, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blended-metal-bullets-would-they-perform-as-advertised/281636/7 "2004-12-26T06:03:15Z")
**astro** : Intersting, but why then is there a difference between a cold roast and a hot one? And, I don’t quite understand the technical terms… was the guy saying that essentially there’s just a lot of inertia behind the bullet so it produces massive hydrostatic shock? ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2004, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blended-metal-bullets-would-they-perform-as-advertised/281636/8 "2004-12-26T21:47:54Z")
> [@FinnAgain](#): > > Well, would you place any weight in the claim that we need to have live-animal tests for the rounds, or from your understanding of ballistics and metalurgy, the whole thing is bunk? I don’t know the first thing about ballistics and metalurgy but I know that the claim that the bullet ‘knows’ when it hits a warm body is bunk. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2004, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blended-metal-bullets-would-they-perform-as-advertised/281636/9 "2004-12-27T06:10:22Z")
There are mixed media rounds available now (the Glaser safety slug, for example) that claim to deliver the stopping power of a conventional round, but the round contains smaller lead shot in a composite bullet. The idea is a round that won’t travel through your neighbor’s wall and daughter after leaving your target human.