Spent boolits off the backstop

[ScottJ]

Been using a small hillside in my back yard as a backstop and I go out there and pick up spent projectiles every now and then because they fascinate me.

Now that I cast I'll be doing it more often because I can melt the cores.

Today I found one of the Lee 200gr .429 RFs that I first started with. It had probably been out there three weeks at least.

I measued it and it was .420 at the widest. Could the barrel on my S&W 629 Classic actually be that tight or has the slug likely eroded sitting out there in the weather?

It looks like one of the early ones I cast that probably dropped out barely at .429 that I loaded and shot without worrying too much about throat size before I knew better.

I also found some FMJ .45s. Their measurements were odd. They're all out of round. For the most part they measure .445 but each has one wide area that's about .4505.

[Sturgell]

Most likely eroded when it was being stopped by the dirt.

The 45's that are out of round weren't fired by a Glock were they?

[ScottJ]

Eroded all the way around? It's pretty consistent in size.

The .45s came out of my old Charles Daly 1911 so it wouldn't surprise me for the barrel to be out of round.

[Blammer]

projectiles do funny things when they strike objects and dirt. I'd not use them as a gauge for any type of bore determination.

[ScottJ]

Thanks. I didn't figure these were valid.

Any I'm picking up off this backstop will have also passed through a brush pile as well.

The most interesting thing about this .44 is that it's deformed very little. I found it lying on the surface about half way up the hill that means it went through the brush and bounced several times in the dirt on the way. Guess the WWs are making them hard enough :)

[runfiverun]

look behind the berm.