I am taking this further afield (sorry), but the jackets are not supposed to mushroom…they are meant to prevent it, as per the Geneva Convention. That they do mushroom is tantamount to warring countries typically skirting the convention to suit their purposes and to assist in ensuring that they prevail.
Solely lead bullets do shatter, spall, and deform on impact, and this is what contributes to their maiming, and not necessarily killing, their “hosts”. This is desirable because it takes much more in the way of resources to care for a badly injured soldier than it does to merely ship him home in a casket. So, the Geneva Convention stipulates that all military ball ammunition must be fully jacketed to ensure efficient passage of the complete projectile through the body. Your Dad, I regret to hear, is proof of this concept…although I am happy he got the extensive care that solely lead bullets are meant to require for survival.
It’s a proper although imprecise usage. Any solid ionic compound could be considered a salt; by extension, most mineral species could be considered salts, although mineralogists would likely laugh at that usage. More formally, inorganic lead compounds (and most minerals) are classified according to their anionic component: lead oxide, lead sulfate, lead suilfide, lead carbonate, lead chloride, etc.
The implication that only salts – and not metals – can be aborbed is misleading. Lead dissolved in water is not a salt, nor is it complexed in solution with inorganic or organic anions, yet it can be readily absorbed in the body if ingested. As a result, US EPA has standards for maximum allowed concentrations of heavy metals in drinking water, ranging from 50 parts per billion (0.050 mg/L) for selenium to 2 ppb for mercury and thallium. The current value for lead in drinking water is 15 ppb.