A wax bullet is a non-lethal projectile made of wax material — often paraffin wax or some mixture of waxes and other substances that produce the desired consistency — that mimics the external ballistics but not the terminal effects of real bullets. Due to the low weight and density, wax bullets are typically used in a primed centerfire cartridge with little to no propellant powders, as often the primer ignition alone can provide all the necessary energy needed to propel the wax bullet out.
Due to the lack of propellants, wax bullet cartridges do not provide enough recoil/blowback energy to cycle self-loading firearms, so they are most commonly used in revolvers and other manually cycled firearms. Specially designed cartridges and conversion kits can be used together to convert semi-/fully automatic firearms into wax bullet guns, used in tactical training for police and military.
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.[1] 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.[2]