Heeled bullet

A heeled bullet is an archaic design of bullet where the internal diameter of the barrel is the same diameter as the cartridge case, and the bullet has a step at the rear to allow it to fit inside the case. Heeled bullets mostly disappeared with the advent of smokeless powder cartridges, though older rimfire designs still use heeled bullets, and many cartridges that date back to the black powder era still reflect their heeled bullet origins in their caliber designations.

Reasons for change

The heeled bullet design has some advantages. When coupled with the straight walled cases it appeared in, it made it very easy to chamber cartridges of the same diameter but differing lengths in the same firearm. This is commonly seen today in .22 caliber rimfire firearms, which are marked ".22 Short, Long, and Long Rifle". While this can be done with straight walled cases not using heeled bullets, such as .38 Special in .357 Magnum firearms, it tends to create a lead and powder residue buildup at the front of the chamber, which can cause reliability problems if not cleaned out before switching back to the longer case.

One of the primary reasons for the change was the issue of lubrication. Lead bullets, especially soft, low alloy lead used in low pressure cartridges, need to be lubricated to prevent lead buildup in the bore. This lubricant is applied to the exposed portion of the heeled bullet, called "outside lubricated", while bullets lubricated on the portion inside the case are "inside lubricated". This requires a hard, dry lubricant, as anything soft or sticky will rub off or pick up dirt that comes in contact. While there were some methods patented to allow inside lubrication of heeled bullets (such as a piston at the base, which force lubricant out ports in the exposed sides of the bullet upon firing), they never caught on due to the complexity and associated expense involved. Non-heeled bullets, however, can easily be lubricated on the portion inside the case using a "grease groove" packed with lubricant. This prevents the lubricant, usually a grease or wax, from picking up dirt and grit which can damage the bore.

urviving examples

Arguably, heeled bullets are still very common because, while very few calibers use them, the .22 Long Rifle does, and it is the most commonly used cartridge in the world. The other cartridges in the .22 Long Rifle family, the .22 Short, .22 Long, .22 CB and .22 BB, all use heeled bullets. A few other heeled bullet cartridges are available, but they all originated in the late 19th century. The recent gains in popularity of Cowboy Action Shooting has increased interest in these old cartridges, and there are even a few new replica firearms being made to chamber them.

Cartridges evolved from heeled bullet designs

To convert a heeled bullet cartridge to a non-heeled design, it was necessary to either enlarge the case diameter, or shrink the bullet and bore diameter. Examples of both choices can be found, but some of the more evident and confusing examples are cases where the bullet diameter was reduced. Many shooters wonder why a .38 caliber firearm actually shoots bullets of diameter .357 inches, and a .44 caliber firearm shoots .429 inch diameter bullets. In both of these cases, the name of the caliber derives from older heeled-bullet designs, and the name was kept even when the bullet was shrunk to fit inside the case. The .38 S&W cartridge, for example, dates to 1877 and has a nominal outside case diameter of .380 inches, while the inside of the case is .357 inches. Older .38 caliber cartridges, like the .38 Long Colt, did use a heeled bullet, so rather than create a new ".35" or ".36 caliber", Smith and Wesson kept the designation ".38" even though it no longer accurately reflected the bore diameter. The later .38 Special continued the trend, and even automatic pistol cartridges like the .38 Super and .380 ACP retained the .38 caliber designation, even though they were .357s. This continued until 1935 and the introduction of the .38 Special-based .357 Magnum cartridge. The newer (1956) .44 Magnum, however, retained the designation of its parent .44 Special cartridge, even though it fired a .429 inch bullet. The legacy of heeled bullets is the cause of confusion among many shooting enthusiasts over the actual physical diameters of the bullets they fire in their guns.