I got together with some friends last night, the topic came up as to why one of our other friends had the burn-looking scar on his wrist.

This scar is close to a perfect rectangle, so I never thought it was some type an accident.

So, I finally broach the subject last night and ask what happened to ####'s wrist. I was told he was injecting mercury into the tip of .357 bullets to make "exploding mercury bullets".

He somehow dropped the syringe of mercury, it sticks in his wrist and he is injected with 3cc's of the stuff.

The doctor had to cut away the skin and muscle tissue in order to make sure all the mercury was out of his body.

I've never heard of mercury injected bullets, but the process sounds dangerous!

[This message has been edited by 82aggieff (edited 10/28/2010 9:12a).]

Sounds like total BS to me.

How would one "inject" mercury into a lead/copper bullet with a syringe?

How would mercury make it "explode"?

I'm no doctor but I would think 3cc of mercury would kill you if injected intravenously pretty quick.




[This message has been edited by hellapark (edited 10/28/2010 9:22a).]

"Injecting", at least to me in this case, would really mean "filling" up the cavity in a HP projectile. Seal the top with wax or some other substance that will hold the mercury in place until impact.

As far as "exploding", I can see where the heavy metal in liquid form would "explode" when it hit something, but not in the fashion that most people think of when they hear of an explosion in the traditional sense. More like a liquid shotgun effect with extremely heavy metal projectiles. Remember, iron will float on top of a pool of mercury. The stuff is very dense.

All in all, it would be a stupid idea.

Im very curious to see some more explination of this

This sounds like BS or a tremendous amount of FAIL.

1. If I recall correctly, 1 cc equals about 20 drops, you’re talking about A LOT of liquid that without a great deal of shoving on that syringe plunger would not quickly go in. But I could be off on that and don’t care to look it up.
2. The only thing I can imagine as slightly beneficial from adding mercury to bullets would be to increase lethality by poisoning. Filling a hollow point w/ mercury (liquid) you’d have to then seal w/ wax or lead. I don’t see making a hollow point into a crude FMJ as increasing damage, only making a flesh wound potentially lethal. Mercury is poisonous but not quick about it, inject with cyanide if that’s your goal.
3. Where are you going to get that much mercury, and at what expense?
4. Zombies, Werewolves and Vampires are unaffected by mercury, try Silver.

Sounds like a bad meth hit to me, I've seen a couple of those and they had cool stories too......and I could be completely wrong too.

Complete BS. You'd die if you had 3cc of mercury injected into your body.

Also, the plunger would not depress unless there was a vaccum inside your body, which there isn't so he would have had to depress it himself and it would have hurt like HELL.

Sounds like a scene from "Jaws" the movie. Didn't the dude in that movie put mercury in hollow points and seal it off with wax?

I think it was cyanide.

Why would you even have a needle in the syringe in the first place??? If all you are doing is filling a HP, you wouldn't have a needle in the syringe!

Sounds like a BS story all the way around.

The ONLY reason I could think of is that mercury is around 20% denser than lead, even though it is a liquid. So you could shoot a heavier projectile for a given volume like if you were limited on the OAL of the cartridge.

That said, there is a reason why it isn't used. And 3cc is a MASSIVE amount, that's around 1.4 oz of mercury! (or 630 grains I think... isn't it 7000 grains/lb?)

[This message has been edited by SWCBonfire (edited 10/28/2010 11:01a).]

Plus since mercury is think you'd have to be using a very large guage needle. I'd say like 18 or 16 prolly.

This is another stupid idea from TV. Mercury is, as a room temperature liquid metal, dense and incompressible. It may cause the bullet to expand more rapidly and dramatically, but that of course will reduce penetration. More likely, it will work like a plug, and actually inhibit expansion, then leak out inside. If the person shot survives, and then gets mercury poisoning, they'll sue you and win big.

3cc is a lot. Insulin syringes come in 1/3, 1/2 or 1cc.

It would take a large syringe for 3cc.

would mercury cause the bullt to spin better or worse on ice?

I thought the 3 cc's was too much for an accident also. I can attest the scar is there, the guys swear he "accidently" injected himself with mercury, the ER doctor cut the skin back to make sure all the mecury was removed and thus the reason (so he states) for this perfectly formed rectangular-shaped scar, that I always assumed was a burn.

I would imagine that the needle may have landed in his wrist and a very small amount was injected.

I googled exploding mercury bullit and there are some examples.




[This message has been edited by 82aggieff (edited 10/28/2010 1:11p).]

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=3122

quote:

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Suffice to say that with an atomic number of 80 and an atomic weight of 200.59,
Mercury is pretty much on par with bullet lead which is usually alloyed with varying amounts of tin, and antimony, which lowers the mass of pure lead.

Since mercury is liquid in its' natural state it posesses charactistics which render it truely devestating upon Terminal Impact with a live body.

A semi-jacketed hollowpoint bullet so loaded will retain its initial mass and momentum. But, the mercury being liquid will escape the confines of the bullet during the mushrooming stage and expand so quickly as to in effect, expload, creating a hydrostatic shock zone of destruction far greater than the bullet alone.

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I've seen accidental needlesticks and I'm pretty sure it would be pretty much impossible to accidentally inject 3 CC's of mercury into yourself "accidentally"

You can make "explosive" bullets, but not in the sense that they actually explode like a bomb.

The trick is to take a HP bullet, and using a drill, remove even more of the lead core. Fill it with water, oil, etc, and seal it with wax, paper w/epoxy, etc.

When the projectile hits, it causes a more violent expansion, thus getting the "explosive" reference.

The reason, mercury was used for these types of bullets, and is now illegal to use or own, is because many were using it for home defense. With perps that were only wounded, the mercury would also act as a poison, being distributed widely throughout the wound channel.

Certainly an interesting idea.

Nealan,

I pulled out an unused syringe I had for my use on my horses, as I could not remember how much 3 cc's really is.

My gawd, you are right, there ain't know way this guy would received that much of anything thru an accidental injection, particularly mercury which is, for lack of a better word, highly viscous.

I can recall touching a small blob of mercury in some a high school chemistry class. The teacher, Mr. Taylor, actually had the stuff on top of his desk for us to handle.

[This message has been edited by 82aggieff (edited 10/29/2010 9:16a).]

http://www.benswenson.com/news.php?ctrl=viewNews&objid=227

quote:

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Now, mercury fulminate is an entirely different animal. For those unfamiliar with it, mecury fulminate is a very dangerous, friction-sensitive explosive that ignites at ~150 degrees C with an explosive velocity of approximately 4,000 fps. Filling the tip of a bullet with some mercury fulminate crystals would create an explosive bullet (though not nearly as powerful as books and movies might make it out to be). Assuming your gun didn't explode on firing, that is. The reason I suggested mercury fulminate is because I'm pretty sure whoever started the myth about exploding mercury-filled bullets probably heard that mercury fulminate was an explosive and tried to incorporate it into their fiction. They screwed up and the rest is history. Please don't try either one. It would be terminally stupid.

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I've always thought that the mercury wouldn't actually explode, but it would magnify the mushrooming effects of the bullet quite dramatically.

Whether or not it actually works that way is questionable, though.

You could probably do better with a Glaser safety slug. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glaser_Safety_Slug and http://www.shopcorbon.com/Glaserandreg-Safety-Slug/500/500/dept

I have trouble resolving the physics of it. The mercury will try to flow out of the pocket, but will have nowhere to go, so it will stay there, and prevent expansion until the jacket strips away (if at all), or the nose of the bullet deforms sufficiently, most likely.

Why, if it is more dense than lead, yet also incompressible and contained in a "cup" of lead and copper, yet capped by tremendous force by the flesh and body fluid it is pressing through upon impact, would the mercury suddenly somehow "flow" out???

If the denser mercury was solidly contained in a pocket, when the bullet suddenly slows down on impact, the mercury should be a little harder to slow down and fragment the bullet more.