Topic summary
Wax bullets
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Wax bullet.
Wax bullets have been in use for over a century in military training, target shooting and confrontational shooting competitions where using real metallic bullets would be needlessly hazardous and impractical. In the past, wax bullets were also used by illusionists for illusions involving firearms, such as the bullet catch. This practice goes back at least as far as Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, who used hollow wax bullets colored to resemble lead balls. When placed on a charge of gunpowder, the wax bullet would disintegrate upon firing.