bullet

A bullet is a small projectile designed to be fired from a firearm. It is typically made of metal and is propelled by the rapidly expanding gases produced when a cartridge is ignited. Bullets are used in a wide range of firearms for military, law enforcement, hunting, sport shooting, and self-defense.

Most bullets have a lead core surrounded by a harder metal jacket, such as copper, which helps control expansion, penetration, and uniformity of flight. Common bullet designs include full metal jacket (FMJ), which encases the core in a complete jacket; hollow-point (HP), which is hollowed at the tip to promote expansion on impact; soft-point (SP), which has an exposed lead tip for controlled expansion; wadcutter, which features a flat front for clean target holes; and frangible bullets, designed to break apart on impact to reduce ricochet. Additional variants use polymer tips to improve aerodynamics or feed reliability, and some are non-lead or coated for environmental or performance reasons. Bullet performance depends on caliber, mass, velocity, construction, and rifling interaction.

Manufacture involves casting or swaging the core, forming or attaching a jacket, and sometimes adding coatings or tips. Quality control ensures dimensional accuracy and consistency, which influence accuracy and safety.

In typography, a bullet is a symbol used to mark items in a list. Bullets appear as solid or hollow discs, squares, or other shapes and are used in printed material and digital formats to organize information. The term “bullet” in lists and the firearm projectile share no direct functional connection beyond nomenclature, but both serve to enumerate items in an ordered way.