Skip to content

Friday, Sep. 10, 2021

Does a viral image show two bullets that ‘collided’ during the Battle of Gallipoli?

Christiana Dillard, Lead Stories

no

The image of a bullet going through another bullet has appeared on the Internet since at least 2015. But is it possible?

Only one of the two bullets clearly displays rifling marks, the grooves inside the gun barrel that spin a bullet for accuracy.

One ballistics expert and military historian says, "I have seen this photograph before and [it] is not … two bullets in flight that collided. … this was a deceased or disabled soldier laying on the ground, and as the long-range machine gun fire came in, a bullet struck his web gear."

A firearms instructor said it would be impossible for him to definitively confirm or deny this. However, he added "the chances are they probably didn't" considering that "a lot of things have to come together for those two bullets to hit and then weld together like that."

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

About fact briefs

Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.

See all fact briefs

Lead Stories is a fact checking and debunking website at the intersection of big data and journalism that launched in 2015. It scouts for trending stories, images, videos and posts that contain false information in order to fact check them as quickly as possible. It actively monitors the fake-news ecosystem and doesn’t wait for reader tips or reports before getting started on a story.

Learn More

Be a Friend of facts

Help us fund more great fact briefs like this one.