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Date	Original Topic
1st January 2005	The wounds By Miguel This is most likely a subject discussed before. Much has been said about the terrible wounds inflicted by a MH rifle. Those of you who have seen an actual MH bullet - compared to a modern one - can only imagine the kind of things it would do to a human body. My question is, has anyone, for instance a historian or people making a documentary, ever tried a test on this subject, from a scientific point of view? I mean, shooting at a cow carcass to measure the wounds, or a medical team describing the kind of damage an impact can do? I think that would help us understand what the Zulus saw among their falling comrades when they were charging, and make us understand the kind of courage it takes to face a line of British soldiers meaning bussiness.
Date	Replies
1st January 2005	Glenn Wade I do belive Miguel, if my mind serves me correctly, that in 'Secrets of the dead', the National Army Museum brought some Martini's out of their collection, commissioned a ballistic model of a human torso (ballistic soap has the same density as human flesh) and fired a few rounds at it. I think the comparison they used was that the entrance hole was the size f a 5 pence coin and the exit hole was bigger than a 50 pence coin. Imagine for yourself the entrails, blood and gore pouring out from such a large hole. Very good programme it was. Hope this helps Glenn
3rd January 2005	Paul Cubbin Yuk! Imagine the bullet hitting bone and mushrooming...nasty. I thought a 7.62 round was big, but those babies are huge. No doubt like yourself Miguel, I have read accounts where people describe plate-sized exit wounds. Head wounds were even nastier, JFK style.
4th January 2005	Paul Mercer I also saw that programme, the exit hole in the ballistic soap looked a lot bigger than 50p! I also read somewhere that at the battle of Omduman where some Egyptian regiments still had Martini 455's instead of the 303, the 303 users opened fire at 500 yards and stopped the Dervishes at 300, but the Martini users opened up at 400 and stopped them at 300, a 100yds less! As I said to Rich in reply to his enquiry on Martini ballistics, a 455 bullet hitting on almost any part of the body at that range would take a man down - and they do kick like hell, I never know why they were fitted with such a short stock,