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Reading some Civil War sites online, I stumbled across one about medical treatment of wounds in the Civil War. Yes, MANY amputations, but one reason given was the Mile' Ball, pure lead, in wide use. When shot thru a rifled barrel it was catastrophic for those hit. Usually .58 caliber, it was a slow, heavy projectile that would greatly expand when it hit anything like a bone, shattering bone, tissue, organs, anything - if it exited it left a huge hole in the victim. A shot in the guts was automatically lethal because the intestines were ripped all over the place, a shot thru the victim was, as alluded to, also lethal. Sounds like an absolutely wicked ball.
I'm not into violent talk, but wanted to give a description of the wounding capability of a 150yr old round and ask: if we are interested in quick stopping power, why do we go nuts with jacketed bullets and jazzed up powders etc? Why don't we just use lead since it was so effective so long ago. Yes, I know we don't use .58 bullets, but still a lead 45acp or even 9mm seems better just to leave it alone: a plain lead projectile. So, why don't we do this?
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I'm not into violent talk, but wanted to give a description of the wounding capability of a 150yr old round and ask: if we are interested in quick stopping power, why do we go nuts with jacketed bullets and jazzed up powders etc? Why don't we just use lead since it was so effective so long ago. Yes, I know we don't use .58 bullets, but still a lead 45acp or even 9mm seems better just to leave it alone: a plain lead projectile. So, why don't we do this?
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