Mesh Deformation Help (Or other means of creating small scale destruction)

doing mesh distortion to get bullet holes is going to be a lot more difficult than using a texture, believe-you-me. first of all, you'll need to have a mesh that's so insanely dense that pushing in a few verts will look like a bullet hole, other than a small dent. It would be dubious to use this method for very large dents in metal, but doing this for bullet holes in stuff like concrete is simply unrealistic. frankly, you'd probably have to use a texture decal around the bullet hole to sell it anyway.

sorry to rain on your parade..

do some research on paralax maps.

what you'll need to do is create a series of decal textures for all different types of surfaces that spawn on the location where a bullet hits. these decal textures can use paralax maps to give you the illusion of some depth, but there probably won't be a one size fits all solution. concrete, for example, will probably chip all around the bullet hole.. wood will look different, etc. go to youtube and look for "bullet impact" or something, and then reference that.

Sorry to be negative. there's really no way around making art...