Dimpled Bullet Spoof Continues to Fool Web Readers
More than a week after we ran the story as an April Fool’s hoax, our feature about U.S. Army testing of dimpled “golf-ball” bullets at Aberdeen Proving Ground continues to delude readers on dozens of web forums. This is the spoof that won’t die. Posters on numerous websites continue to be “suckered-in” by this story despite many obvious “clues” that the story is a hoax. An active debate still rages on one forum as to whether the dimpled “golf-ball bullet” complies with the terms of the Hague Convention on munitions. On the Gunsnet Forum some posters have gone to great length to prove the dimpled bullets really work. One duped reader posted: “Looks awesome… where can I buy them?” Another lamented that this was “another example of great technology monopolized by the military, but not available to civilians.” But, eventually, in most of the threads, savvy shooters saw through the hoax. One reader asked: “Will Army snipers now get to claim a 2-shot handicap?” Another clever poster wrote: “I have been shooting [dimpled bullets] for years… as long as there’s no water or sand traps around they work[.]” On the Handloads.com Forum, a reader quipped: “I wonder if you can chip, slice or put backspin on these rounds?”
| .338 Projectile with MIM Exo-Jacket (3D-CAD Artist’s Rendering) |
 |
If you want to have some fun, check through these forums and read some of the posts by folks who remain convinced that dimpled bullets are real…
FOOLED FORUMS…
Many Obvious Give-Away Clues Overlooked
The golf-ball-bullet story had some clues that should have tipped off smart readers to the fact that it was an April 1st spoof. First, the last name of the development team leader was “Eldrick”. Hmm… sound familiar? Google “Eldrick”. That’s right, “Eldrick” is Tiger Woods’ actual first name. At the end of the story we quoted a make-believe Capt. Sarazen. Well, again, “Sarazen” is the last name of golf legend Gene Sarazen. We published a photo of what was purported to be “advanced Doppler Radar”. In fact, the equipment shown is a battlefield sonic sensor array (sort of electronic ears) that has nothing to do with radar. Interestingly though, some readers thought the story was false because Doppler Radar wouldn’t be used to clock bullet speeds. In fact, Doppler Radar IS used to measure bullet speeds over long range, and it is probably the most sophisticated system currently available for this task. Lapua recently released Coefficient of Drag (Cd) data for its bullets; this data was compiled by “continuous Doppler radar measurements”. CLICK HERE for explanation of Doppler-derived Cd with sample charts.
