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Dum dum)
Dum-dum is the colloquial name for several types of modified exploding (more properly known as expanding) ammunition for firearms. A Normal (jacketed) round that has had notches cut across the top is one example. The effect is that the bullet deforms upon impact into chunks, along the cross indentation. This creates a larger wound channel, with multiple exit points, and greater blood loss and trauma. However, altering a bullet in this manner makes it less aerodynamic, and hence less accurate at longer ranges. A Hollow point bullet is sometimes referred to as a "dum-dum".
History
In the late 19th century, the invention of Cordite ammunition permitted higher velocity than black powder, and corresponding higher hit probabilities. However the limit to the amount of recoil that was acceptable meant that higher velocity rounds needed smaller diameter, lighter bullets. Originally, dum-dum referred to a new type of ammunition produced in the early 1890s at the Dum-dum arsenal near Calcutta in British India. Soon after the introduction of smokeless powder to firearms, full metal jacket bullets were introduced to reduce stripping by the new, smaller caliber rounds with higher velocities. However it was soon noticed that such small caliber rounds were less effective at wounding or killing an enemy than the older large caliber soft lead bullets. Within the British Indian Army, the Dum-dum arsenal produced its now infamous solution - the jacketing was removed from the nose of the bullet. This could lead to the jacketing being left in the barrel and the British Army produced the Mk III, Mark IV (1897) and Mark V (1899) Ball rounds which were of the hollow point design. Because the lead core was hardened by addition of tin or antimony, none of these rounds actually produced more severe wounds than the then current .45 Martini-Henry British service round.
Law
The Hague Convention of 1899 limited the use of "explosive" bullets in military use, defining illegal rounds as a jacketed bullet with an exposed lead tip (and, by implication, a jacketed base). During the Convention, representatives from Imperial Germany provided evidence of severe expansion in flesh based on analysis of British hunting rounds (Emphasis: Not based on the British military rounds). This was intended to provide a competitive advantage for the newly developed German Spitzer (pointed) rounds which did not have exposed lead at the tip. The United States and Britain disagreed with the German analysis, but declined to make a significant issue of it.
The competing small caliber Spitzer bullets, when at supersonic speeds, retain velocity better, giving a flatter trajectory, but have reduced terminal effect compared to expanding bullets. Spitzer bullets typically rotate in pitch or yaw after striking flesh, and then travel in a stable base forward orientation, and are referred to as "Latent Dum-dum" rounds. If the path through flesh is sufficiently long, the base of the Spitzer round will expand just as the nose of a round with soft core and exposed tip. Theodore Roosevelt, writing about his experiences in Cuba noted that the 7mm Mauser rounds used by the Spanish were usually significantly less lethal than the large caliber low velocity .45/70 Government rounds fired from the Allein Springfield trapdoor rifle. Unless a soldier was hit in the head, heart, or spinal cord it was very common for a soldier to take himself to the rear, and return to duty after a few days.
However, poorly informed soldiers of many nations occasionally try to increase the effectiveness of their ammunition by filing the gilding metal off the tip. This is dangerous to the firer since the lead core of a modified bullet can blow through the jacket, leaving the jacket in the bore to act as an obstruction for the next round. It is also ineffective against the enemy because field modified bullets are unlikely to have high accuracy. Illegally modified bullets found on a soldier would be evidence that the soldier was not following the conventions of land warfare, and he could be treated as an illegal combatant (subject to summary execution). Thus, 'Dum-dum' came to mean a jacketed bullet illicitly or illegally modified to expand.
It may be of interest that true exploding rounds such as 40mm diameter grenades, 20mm cannons, 25mm cannons, mortars, and large caliber artillery, or tank rounds are not banned by the Hague convention.
See Also
Other meanings and uses
Dum Dum can also be taken as:
