Bullets bowing up! PICS!! Very interesting????

[skeetlee]

I headed out to the land this afternoon to fire five 6 dasher loads just to double check my head space set up for the fl size die. The brass was fired one time before today. I wanted to finish blowing the brass on out so i could record the proper headspace and set the die up. The load was 32.5gr of varget with a 105 a-max 5thou off the lands. I put the board out in the fence row just so i could see what the bullet holes looked like and to make sure they were not key holing. Little to my surprise its looking like the darn bullets are blowing up!! The barrel i have is a new (50 rounds) Krieger gain twist 8.75 to 8.3. The barrel was clean as can be. The temp is cod today probably in the mid 20's. Rifle went straight from the house to the car for a 15 minute ride, and the ammo was in my pocket. I can hardly think it was because its cold but i sure dont know. Everything you see in the pic thats red is from 4 shots fired today. the blue marks are from something else. What do you think is going on here? Are these a-max bullets really thin? Did the bullet hit a blade of grass? (It could have!) Is it the temp? I havent ever shot the a-max in this rifle, only berger and it was warm the day i did that. I bought the a-max for fire forming the rest of my brass. I am really baffled! Anyone have any thoughts? I thought this was interesting so i wanted to share. thanks Lee

 

[doubleDarms]

I don't know I've seen, as I'm sure you have, rounds hit in front of the target and blow rocks, debris, up into the target and it looks like it was hit with a shotgun. This doesn't really look like that though.

 

[skeetlee]

The barrel shot the 105 bergers fine last summer! I just cleaned the barrel and no signs of copper what so ever!! The barrel has always cleaned up well, and today is no exception. I dont know what to think! Lee

 

[Preacher]

How far were you away from the sheet of wood ??
3 look like they keyholed ????

 

[normmatzen]

I tried to kill my chrono once with 105 A-MAX's, 6mm, and the darn bullet still hit the target at 100 yds, but a couple inches off center, and the hole was still pretty round" This was at about 2900 fps.

 

[skeetlee]

im going back out to shoot some more 105 a-max and some 105 berger. I will post. Powder is brand new. Just popped the top. Barrel didnt have copper inside of it. that tells me whatever happened happened outside the barrel. Lee

 

[skeetlee]

The berger bullets are shooting fine. I must have some bad Hornady bullets. I am going to send a few back to hornady if they dont shoot any better when i go out tomorrow. Lee

Its still possible i was hitting some brush, i suppose? I made darn sure there wasnt any in the way this evening with the berger bullets, but i cant be sure about this afternoon with the Hornady. I didnt think there was but i was shooting along side of a fence row up on the 80. Lee

 

[patchhound]

The only time I`ve seen holes like that was when the bullets hit the ground before the target and ricochetted.

 

[Mikem]

About your 6MM shotgun, I dont have a book in front of me, so what do you estimate the MV as, and barrel length? What was the range to the target? It looks to me like it was just to fast for that bullet, per Hodgdon the temp should not have made more than about 6 fps difference, so how fast, the bullet obviously came unglued after exiting. If the speed is not to fast, I would suspect the bullets.
32.5g of Varget under a 6mm 105g A-Max, with a --" barrel = ?? MV
Mike.

 

[skeetlee]

I am pretty confident that the bullets didnt hit the ground. One of the holes if you look close looks like at least one of them made it to the target intact. Range was about 70 yards. I would have to guess that the muzzle velo was around 2900? I will try to find the time today to go shoot a couple more of the 105 a-max. The only thing i can figure, if the jackets are not bad, is that some grass or whatever may have been in the way. I didnt see it, if this is the case though. I just dont know! Strange!!!! Lee

 

[billlarson]

I have had and seen other bullets come apart while shooting long range.... it`s not uncommon...usually they`ll turn to a grey mist less than 100 yards from the muzzle....
this is why berger went to thicker jackets....main reasons this happens..... rough throat or pushing particualar bullets too fast.
OMHO...
Bill Larson

 

[expiper]

Get bak out while it is still cold ..

and ...take both kind of bullets with you....what works at 100* wont necessarily work at 20*.....the bullets arent blowing up ...you can still see the shape of em in the plywood....I think you dont have enuff twist....if it is a gain twist and you cut the front end off ...every in. you lop off ..you loose twist....and I always thout that when it was cold bullets were harder to stabalize???!!! ...that is one of many reasons that shooters at Fairchance in the spring went from 14 to 13.5 twists (with 68gr BR bullets)to avioid just what you are seeing......Roger
PS...make shure that there are no leaves,twigs,grass in the bullet path.....shoot off the hood of the truk if conditions are that crude there.....

 

[Mikem]

I'm to lazy to do the math, from the MV and twist to RPMs but its way up there, and if the bullets not stuck together vary well, its not all going to make the trip.
I had one explode when it hit a staple under my target, and it looked like a small hand grenade went off on my targets back side. Funny things can happen, when your messing with these speeds and RPMs.
M.

 

[skeetlee]

I only had a few minutes today but i did make it back out. I took 3 more berger bullet loads and just one more a-max. I made sure the path was clear and shot 4 shots off the hood of the truck. All four went into the target just fine. The berger loads resulted in a tad bit off rounded bullet hole in the target while the a-max was a nice tight 6mm hole. I guess the bullets were hitting something yesterday. I have no idea really!! I wasnt going to go out today as i had some plans, but they got cancelled at the last minute so i took what i had with me. I wish i would have loaded up a couple more of the a-max loads. I will try to shoot a few more this week sometime. thanks for all the response. I really like talking about this kind of stuff with you fellas. thanks Lee

 

[rfair]

Skeetlee,
I saw the same thing on a 600 yd target that I was shooting at. 5 shots, about a 12" group, keyholed most of them. got looking around and saw where the bullets were hitting about 3 FT in front of the target { on the ground } and bouncing through the target. LOL. The funny thing was that I've seen worst groups at that 600 yd range hitting the target.
Good luck !

Rfair

 

[PHINPAD]

I shot a competition at 900 yards and my fellow shooter shot 2 V bulls straight off, delighted with this we were somewhat confused when his 3rd did not hit the target and so on until someone spotted his rounds hitting in front of the target, at which point he retired. Whats the chances?