Editing Bullet (section)

===Modern bullets===
[[File:Bullet types on .270 ammunition.jpg|thumb|[[.270 Winchester]] ammunition:{{Ordered list |list_style_type=decimal  |{{convert|100|gr|adj=on}} – [[hollow-point bullet|hollow point]] |{{convert|115|gr|adj=on}} – [[Full metal jacket (ammunition)|FMJBT]]|{{convert|130|gr|adj=on}} – [[soft point]] |{{convert|150|gr|adj=on}} – round nose }}]]
The next important change in the history of the rifle bullet occurred in 1882, when Lieutenant Colonel [[Eduard Rubin]], director of the Swiss Army Laboratory at Thun, invented the [[Full metal jacket (ammunition)|copper-jacketed bullet]] — an elongated bullet with a lead core in a copper jacket. It was also small bore (7.5 and 8&nbsp;mm) and it is the precursor of the 8&nbsp;mm ''Lebel bullet'' adopted for the [[smokeless powder]] ammunition of the [[Lebel Model 1886 rifle]]. The surface of lead bullets fired at high velocity may melt from the hot gases behind and friction within the bore. Because copper has a higher [[melting point]], and greater [[specific heat capacity]], and higher [[hardness]], copper-jacketed bullets allow greater muzzle velocities.

[[Image:.303ammunition.jpeg|thumb|[[.303 British|.303 inch]] (7.7&nbsp;mm) centrefire, [[Full metal jacket bullet|FMJ]] rimmed ammunition]]European advances in aerodynamics led to the pointed [[Spitzer (bullet)|spitzer bullet]]. By the beginning of the 20th century, most world armies had begun the transition to spitzer bullets. These bullets flew for greater distances more accurately and transferred more [[kinetic energy]]. Spitzer bullets combined with [[machine gun]]s greatly increased lethality on the battlefield.

Spitzer bullets were streamlined at the base with the [[External ballistics#General trends in drag or ballistic coefficient|boat tail]]. In the trajectory of a bullet, as air passes over a bullet at high speed, a vacuum is created at the end of the bullet, slowing the projectile. The streamlined boat tail design reduces this [[Parasitic drag|form drag]] by allowing the air to flow along the surface of the tapering end. The resulting aerodynamic advantage is currently seen as the optimum shape for rifle technology. The first combination spitzer and boat-tail bullet, named ''balle'' D by its inventor Captain Georges Desaleux, was introduced as standard military ammunition in 1901, for the French [[Lebel Model 1886 rifle]].

A [[Plastic-tipped bullet|ballistic tip]] bullet is a [[Hollow-point bullet|hollow-point]] rifle bullet that has a plastic tip on the end of the bullet. This improves [[external ballistics]] by streamlining the bullet, allowing it to cut through the air more easily, and improves [[terminal ballistics]] by allowing the bullet to act as a jacketed hollow point. As a side effect, it also feeds better in weapons that have trouble feeding rounds that are not full metal jacket rounds.

{{clear}}