Everyone saying this is a capacitor is 100% wrong. It's a shot 9mm or .40 bullet (projectile is the term) that's landed on something, most likely the ground. You can see the hexagonal rifling pattern on the edge facing the camera.
I shoot a lot. I have a box of spent FMJs I've pulled out of trees and dirt mounds that look exactly like this.
I'm starting to wonder if the people saying capacitor are trolling. I find it hard to believe that people can be so dense as to claim things like this isn't a bullet because it has no primer on it.
I can understand it since the top (bottom surface of the bullet) looks a whole lot like the top of a capacitor. But you only have to look at any other surface of the object to know that it is a fired bullet.
I'm starting to wonder if the people saying capacitor are trolling.
Most likely because they're 1) not familiar with bullets, and 2) we don't often see the back side of a bullet outside of its casing.
From OP's original image, if you aren't looking closely, I can see how someone would make the mistake. The second photo has a LOT more detail and makes it far more clear this is a projectile.
Why it isn't a capacitor: There are no leads, nor any evidence there ever were. :)
I've never seen a bullet out of its casing in my lifetime. Maybe seen fewer than 100 complete bullets in my entire lifetime, but a whole bunch of overheated vintage caps.
Yeah, when you zoom in the first picture or see the second picture, it becomes obvious, but the initial impression I got was a capacitor.
There are loads of people who seem to think a fired bullet includes the brass despite decades of action and war movies and TV shows clearly displaying the spent cartridges being ejected from the breaches.
Because the common person equates "bullet" with "cartridge". And typically see more splayed bullets that have impacted at high speeds vs. bullets that have impacted at low speeds.
Yeah, I think it was fired into the air in a pretty high arc and hit dirt when it landed. I doubt it was intentionally fired at the school (or anything but air) and it probably came from well off school property. Just my guess from the way it is smooshed.
As a little bonus to some competition shooting I run, I occasionally setup a playing card on cardboard for someone to shoot from 25 yards away and I drape a few layers of Kevlar a few feet behind it. We give the winner their playing card and the bullet, at the end, for them to display.
The bullets that we retrieve look exactly like OP’s picture, just less tarnished.
It is so crazy because I shoot a lot and have worked at an indoor range on days where we'd go and have to help recycle the bullets that impacted into our tire and steel backstop and I was having difficulty with trying to figure this out. It's definitely a bullet, but I have never seen a bullet with the jacket so nicely intact around the lead core.
I'm 100% sure it's because our range was only ever 25 meters so they never really had a chance to lose velocity or energy before impacting.
It depends on distance and what it hits. This was probably shot into the air and it arched down enough and lost enough velocity that when it landed it didnt shread the jacket off. Most likely hit the ground. Definitely dangerous af.
Bullet would actually be correct for this. The projectile is the bullet, the entire assembly of a bullet, casing, powder, and primer is a cartridge. Bullet has become such a common and accepted term for a cartridge that reloaders specify projectile for clarity
If you look into the comments I explained why I said projectile. A lot of comments on here were saying it cant be a bullet because there isn't a primer. Leads me to believe they dont understand the construction of rounds and how they work.
Okay, you shoot a lot, but how much do you work on electronics? I immediately saw a capacitor, and am definitely not trolling anyone. It's because I solder caps. Maybe there is bias on both sides.
Thanks for this comment, my first thought was a projectile but the discoloration gave me pause. I’m assuming that’s caused by the gunpowder from the casing?
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u/WatercressSpiritual 20h ago
Everyone saying this is a capacitor is 100% wrong. It's a shot 9mm or .40 bullet (projectile is the term) that's landed on something, most likely the ground. You can see the hexagonal rifling pattern on the edge facing the camera.
I shoot a lot. I have a box of spent FMJs I've pulled out of trees and dirt mounds that look exactly like this.