Puff of smoke but bullets fine?

[gdbleb]

I was spotting my son shooting .223 (SMK 69 gr, N133 22.0 gr) at 300 yards this weekend on a beautiful clear day. We're both keeping the groups at or under 2 1/2" so that was good. I came off the spotting scope and just watched and there was a puff of smoke about 40 yards out for some (not all) of his shots. Every shot made impact on target so I can't say that we were blowing up bullets like I've read about here. This is not a hot load at all per Sierra and VV. What could this have been? Real smoke or shock wave? Never witnessed this before.

 

[FNSafari]

vapor trail

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

My guess is moisture in the air condensed by the bullet

 

[gdbleb]

I suppose you both are right. I've watched thousands of vapor trails on this range but never saw the "puff of smoke" before.

BTW, we were using your wind flags Mike. We were also shooting some 55 gr Bergers and your flags were invaluable. Good lesson in wind reading with those light bullets. Thanks.

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

I suppose you both are right. I've watched thousands of vapor trails on this range but never saw the "puff of smoke" before.

BTW, we were using your wind flags Mike. We were also shooting some 55 gr Bergers and your flags were invaluable. Good lesson in wind reading with those light bullets. Thanks.

Thanks a bunch! I'm just guessing about the cause of what you were seeing but it makes sense...but I may be totally wrong, too. Lol!

 

[Fuj]

Go down range and look for feathers....LOL

 

[davidjoe]

I have blown up of number of match bullets over the years, from 180 grain to 250, and my theory is that some do make it to the target. I have hit the 6 or 7 ring at LR, followed by a no pull. It was very clear to us in that instance that both bullets disintegrated.

I’m going to guess that the lead core can melt, that the heat softened jacket doesn’t handle pressure well, and can split to a degree varying from imbalance, to catastrophic. I’m not sure what the mechanism of escape was, but I would surmise the puff you saw was lead.

 

[markT]

Time for a high speed camera..

 

[Pawnee Bill]

Same thing, bigger scale:

 

[swd]

I was shooting one of my 17 Remington’s quite a few years ago and the weather conditions must have been perfect. We had a vapor trail all the way to the target at about 175 yards. Fun day.

 

[gravelyctry]

I’ve seen that same thing happen as you described, but never really knew what was happening.

 

[jpjulian]

My .223 WSSM would draw a crowd on some days with the vapor trails it would give off. Haven't shot that rifle in a couple years as the barrel is toast and shooting patterns rather than groups. A 50-55 V-Max would just as likely blow up as make it to the berm the last time out.