Wax Bullet Duelling: The Forgotten Bloodless Sport of 1908

Daniel Holland
May 30, 2022
5 min read

Person in protective gear aims a pistol in a duel with wax bullets. Crowd watches in the background. Text reads: Dueling with Wax Bullets.

Imagine two men in heavy canvas coats and metal face masks, standing ten paces apart, pistols in hand. Instead of the hush and horror of an 18th century duel they were met with the clack of elaborate triggers and the soft pop of wax slugs. For a fleeting moment around 1908 the old ritual of honour was reinvented as spectacle and sport, duelling with wax bullets.

This curious chapter in the history of shooting lives at the crossroads of aristocratic ritual, turn of the century spectacle and budding modern pastimes. It looked dramatic, it promised risk, and it was deliberately theatrical: the stakes were pride not life. But it was not harmless, and its rise and fall tell us something about changing attitudes to violence, modern sport and safety.

Person in protective gear and helmet holds a dueling pistol. Text reads "DUELLING WITH WAX BULLETS." Urban setting with buildings. — Note the handguard on the pistol’s grip to shroud the shooter’s exposed hand.

What was wax bullet duelling

At the start of the 20th century a handful of shooting clubs in France Britain and the United States promoted a new, non lethal version of pistol duelling. Competitors used specially adapted duelling pistols which fired wax bullets rather than lead. To reduce velocity gunpowder was drastically reduced or omitted and only the primer or a very small charge propelled the soft projectiles. Shooters wore heavy protective clothing and a metal helmet often fitted with a glass plate for eye protection. Pistols sometimes had guards to shield the fingers.

The visual was both familiar and strange. It echoed the choreography of honour duels, the measured pace the steps the formalities, while turning what had once been a deadly ritual into a kind of staged combat sport. Matches could be treated as skill contests or as jokey public entertainments where a man might be “theoretically pronounced dead” for comic effect after being struck. But the bullets though soft were not entirely benign. At close range or without proper covering they could break skin or inflict painful wounds and ricochets posed a real danger to bystanders.

Two dueling pistols with protective shields, a box of wax bullets between them on white paper. Text reads "PISTOLS & WAX BULLETS".

The Olympic confusion

You will read variations of the same claim that pistol duelling was an Olympic sport in 1908. The truth is more nuanced. Pistol duelling as a competitive activity featured at the 1906 Intercalated Games and a version of it was demonstrated in London around the time of the 1908 Games as part of the wider atmosphere of exhibitions and sporting novelties. There were no official demonstration sports in the modern sense until later. So while wax bullet duelling rubbed shoulders with Olympic era events and received international attention it was not a medal event in the 1908 programme in the way many later sports were.

Who tried it and what they said

The craze originated in France where a Parisian School of Dueling and a number of enthusiasts championed the practice. The pistols and wax projectiles were developed and refined by figures including doctors and shooting aficionados who wanted a safer training method for duellists or an exciting new sport.

Two people in coats duel with wax bullets on a rooftop. A group watches from afar. The background shows tall brick buildings.

Not everyone was enchanted. Walter Winans, a noted marksman and big game hunter of the period, who was associated with shooting circles in Britain, warned that the pastime was not without peril. He cautioned that wax slug shooting was risky for spectators and competitors alike remarking that “spectators might lose their eyes by a stray or ricochet bullet.” Whether offered as a challenge to chivalry or as a warning about inadequate safety the sentiment stuck. Journalists who tried the sport reported painful injuries including the loss of skin between thumb and forefinger when a shot landed on an exposed hand.

Why it mattered then

A few things made wax bullet duelling feel plausible around 1900. The culture of honour still lingered among certain classes. Technological tinkering with firearms and ammunition was common. Public appetite for novelty entertainments was high and exhibitions offered stages to demonstrate foreign sporting curiosities. The idea of simulating a ritual duel without killing the participants was simultaneously nostalgic and modern.

In practice the novelty struggled with safety and uptake. The First World War changed attitudes to firearms and combat. Firearms technology and the brutal reality of modern war made mock duels seem oddly naïve. The sport faded and for most of the 20th century wax bullet duelling was a brief oddity to be recalled in magazine pieces and museum displays.

A man in protective clothing and a metal mask holding a pistol.

The sports modern descendants

If the wax bullet duels of 1908 feel familiar it is with good reason. Paintball and airsoft share a family resemblance. Those sports use soft projectiles require protective kit and have become global industries. But unlike paintball the early duels demanded the stylised etiquette of formal pistols and stage like procedure. Paintball emphasises mass action and fun; wax duelling emphasised duel protocol and one on one skill.

A duelist protected against wax bullets, Lebouttellier, winner of the International Revolver Championship

Wax bullets did not vanish. They survived as practical tools for training trick shooters fast draw competitors and even magicians. Fast draw competitions use wax bullets or balloon popping blanks to allow speed shooting without lethal risk. Magicians have long used wax slugs for bullet catch illusions. Wax projectiles also remain an affordable quiet training round for some shooting clubs.

Safety and the lesson learned

The story of bloodless duelling is not simply quaint. It is a reminder that technologies invented to reduce harm may introduce new hazards if adopted without proper thought. Heavy gear and helmets mitigated some risks but the soft projectiles could still hurt and the risk of stray shots made spectator safety problematic.

The wax experiments also show how sport can serve cultural ends. By reimagining a lethal ritual as a sport the participants sought to domesticate violence, to turn honour into spectacle. That transformation was partial and temporary. The courts social norms and evolving laws made formal duelling obsolete and modern justice systems channel disputes into lawyers offices rather than gun salutes.

Where you can still see the kit

Museum collections and private collectors sometimes hold Lepage or similar wax bullet duelling pistols complete with masks and wax cartridges. Online collectors sites and a number of specialist firearms blogs and videos explain how these pistols were constructed and how the wax projectiles were formed. They make for an arresting museum display because they sit at the interface of craft making sport and ritual.