First time I came across this. In a book I've been reading,it mentioned a Russian sniper that was using "explosive" bullets.
I've already looked into Tony's website and did'nt[or missed]see any mention or info on these.
Myth?

send it in the Mythbusters

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By explosive the guy must have meant expansion, fragmentable, or any other nasty things forbidden by the Rules of War...

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Sounds interesting FramerT, be nice to know about this. If Tony Williams hasn't heard of them, then nobody does!

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"Explosive" bullets are not per se explosive. One method commonly used is to take a hollow point add a small amount of mercury in the space and then seal the tip using either a lead or brass plug. When the bullet hits something the point expands and flowers out releasing the mercury that then causes the "explosive" effect.
These along with hollow points, cross hatched and, other similar rounds are strictly prohibited by various laws of war. Of course, this likely didn't stop some soldiers from making and using their own.

I find it interesting that there are even laws dealing with this sort of stuff. Isn't the object of War to 'Kill the Enemy before he Kills you'? (Its called War for a reason). A bullet is a bullet as far as i can tell - its purpose is to kill from a distance. I'm afraid i don't see the point of 'illegalising' certain bullets if they are all meant to kill you...

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I'm kinda thinking like what TA said, something like a modern day ballistic-tip.
A hollow point would'nt travel as fast or as accurate as pointed bullet,especially for a sniper rifle.
The book, " Blood Red Snow" only mentioned that they were "explosive" and this was the actual German talking first person.He was a MG-42 gunner and his #2 man got hit with one. How he "knew" they were explosive, I don't know.

I wonder.......... a very small HE round ? not unthinkable or unheard of really.

we used them in nam for special purposes. of course that was down the road from the WW2 days

I have not read it, but I have heard that the book "Sniper on the Eastern Front: The Memoirs of Sepp Allerberger" by Albrecht Wacker, contains references to the "expolding" bullets.

Josef Allerberger - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Another book I ran across seems to reference these rounds. It is a pricey book, but I would like to get it one day.
"The German Sniper 1914-1945" By Peter R. Senich
Amazon.com: German Sniper: 1914-1945: Books: Peter R. Senich


The V-Patronen (or B-Patronen as noted in the following link) round is sometimes mentioned. I can't vouch for it, but it is implied that the bullets were originally developed as "spotter" rounds used in aircraft machine guns. They were said to give off a small puff of smoke on detonation.


This site had some interesting info. regarding this type of round, as well as the "ZaRa" Russian bullet.

Gunwriters' Questions and Answers, Part 15

From the above link...

"German 7.9 mm B-Geschoss had a more prominent incendiary effect with less drastic explosion than ZaRa bullet. Striker mechanism was similar in both of these projectiles (copied from Austrian flat-tipped 8 mm Übungs Geschoss Modell 1913). Shape was also identical with ZR. B-bullet was designed one or two years later than ZR bullet, but development of it was started about in 1930, presumably in collaboration with Soviet-Russians. (In Russia were many German designers and other "spezialists" until 1933, id est: To the end of Weimar's Republic era and Rapallo's Pact between Social-Democratic Germany and Socialistic Soviet Union. Russians got know-how and German designers got the safe workshops, out of sight of their relentless enemies. "Treaty" of Versailles banned all military development in Germany, until ADOLPH HITLER proved that "papers are nothing but paper" - including the Versailles' Dictates)."

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Both explosive and incendiary bullets were developed in WW1 for attacking observation balloons, airships and aircraft. This was strictly against the St Petersburg Declaration of 1868 which banned the use of explosive bullets (in fact, all explosive projectiles of less than 400 grams weight), but after the war was over it was generally agreed that since these bullets were not intended for use against people, it was OK to use them in aircraft and AA guns.

Not much use was made of explosive rifle-calibre bullets in WW2 because the quantity of HE they could contain was too small to be worthwhile. The Japanese perhaps made the most use, getting in more HE by omitting any kind of fuze and just putting highly sensitive PETN behind a thin nose cap (real fun to handle...). Incendiary bullets, most of which burst into flame on impact, were common though.

Nobody made any regular use of HE/incendiary bullets for ground use. That doesn't mean to say that someone couldn't have got hold of some unofficially...

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Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website