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View Full Version : Opinions wanted: What happened with my bullet recovery attempts today?



Ole
11-26-2010, 10:20 PM
I was shooting some .357 Max loads today @ my favorite bullet-catching setup. Basically I had 12 2 liter pop bottles filled with water, lined up in a row.

My loads were running 1850-1900fps with the 190 Ranch Dog bullet. I had tried to soften up the nose a little with the propane torch, but the bases were water quenched WW alloy.

First shot: the boolit obliterated the first 4 bottles in the line up. There was no lead in any of the bottles and the 5th bottle in the line was undamaged.

Second shot: The bullet did the same thing to the next 6 bottles. Again no lead in any of the bottles and the next bottle in the line was undamaged.

Final shot went through my last two 2 liter bottles and destroyed 4 1 gallon milk jugs behind those. The last milk jug in the line had an exit hole, so I guess this stack wasn't enough to stop the bullet.

I'm just looking for guesses at this point, but any ideas what happened?

Next time I try to catch one of these boolits i'm going back to wet phonebooks. :mrgreen:

chris in va
11-26-2010, 10:27 PM
It probably curved, exiting the last bottle out the side.

markinalpine
11-26-2010, 10:32 PM
You might review some of the ideas here: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=26627
Note, this thread is very long, and sometimes goes off the subject, but eventually they come back to the central ideas of capturing your boolits. I've experimented with the shredded rubber type of boolit trap, and it works, but I haven't pursued the idea.
Good luck,
Mark :coffeecom

fryboy
11-27-2010, 01:07 AM
wow 2 - 2 liters and 4 gallon jugs and still traveling - gotta love it ...until you wish to recover the boolit ..i shouldnt mention my attempt to shoot straight down into a 5 gallon bucketful of water should i ? lolz i did recover those tho ( from a few inches of hard packed dirt ) it had to be deflected to one side or the other with no way of guessing which way it would go , the paper milk cartons were cool because they were flat sided and could be stacked next to each other or apart but even then deflections are possible as the exploding water also has an effect on it .

geargnasher
11-27-2010, 02:38 AM
The perfect boolit for the perfect crime: Do the damage without a trace! Hide all your secrets, those who do dirty deeds for cash might be very interested in your discovery! :kidding:

Gear

seppos
11-27-2010, 03:28 PM
Big plastic garbage bag filled with water and tied up..
Difficult to transport to the range when filled though..;)

S

Bullshop
11-27-2010, 03:43 PM
Poor mans ballistic media.
Parts list,
cement mixer
50lb sack flour
water
tractor or truck inner tube
imagination
FIL bones may be added for a crunchier texture if desired.
You watching this Clarence?

jameslovesjammie
11-27-2010, 05:33 PM
I bet it was the Lead Fairy. Check under your pillow. You may have $0.25 there.

44man
11-27-2010, 07:34 PM
Well the .475 went through 14, one gallon jugs. Blew 4 sky high, split 2 more and kept on trunkin! :bigsmyl2:
WFN, so it went straight through.
Your boolits were turning out of the small bottles.
Cast needs a LOT of BIG jugs. :veryconfu

geargnasher
11-27-2010, 11:50 PM
Heh heh. Me too.

Gear

Johnch
11-28-2010, 01:27 PM
I have been using a 16" dia and 5' long section of steel pipe split with hinges added

I made up a stop for the end close to the shooter to hold a piece of coragated plactic

I mostly fill it with soaking wet saw dust

Can't exactly see how the cavity in the saw dust looks
But it is repeatable and the saw dust is free

Only had 1 boolit exit the back , a pointed style 30 cal

John

JIMinPHX
11-28-2010, 09:31 PM
Let me know of you want to borrow my big crumb rubber trap some time.

Jim

sqlbullet
11-29-2010, 12:15 PM
Bullet curved as has been previously stated.

Also, I don't think 12 2-liter bottles will stop that round unless they are laying down end to end. My 10mm 200 grain load plows through 11 milk jugs and keeps going.

HeavyMetal
11-29-2010, 01:31 PM
55 gallon plastic drum lay it on end and shoot length wise

leadman
11-29-2010, 06:51 PM
I wonder if the annealing to the nose with the propane torch was not even, causing more lead to deform on one side causing the boolit to veer off course.

Shoot some jugs with the boolits water dropped and no nose annealing and see how they do.

MtGun44
11-30-2010, 12:47 AM
The boolit is spinning at many thousands of revs per minute.

Bill

watkibe
11-30-2010, 01:00 AM
Wet newspaper always worked best for me. Soak it in water overnight and it only takes a foot or two to stop anything I've ever shot at it.
A note of caution, though: When it is soaking, it is absorbing water and therefore the paper swells (as in gets much bigger than you expect !) First time I tried it, I packed a 50 gallon aquarium with newspaper and filled it up with water. In the morning, all 4 sides of the aquarium had been popped out of the frame, ruining the aquarium. Whatever you use to soak it in, leave plenty of extra room !

44man
11-30-2010, 12:29 PM
Wet newspaper always worked best for me. Soak it in water overnight and it only takes a foot or two to stop anything I've ever shot at it.
A note of caution, though: When it is soaking, it is absorbing water and therefore the paper swells (as in gets much bigger than you expect !) First time I tried it, I packed a 50 gallon aquarium with newspaper and filled it up with water. In the morning, all 4 sides of the aquarium had been popped out of the frame, ruining the aquarium. Whatever you use to soak it in, leave plenty of extra room !
Most of our boolits went 33" to 37" in wet phone books and paper.
A friend just shot a deer with an LBT WLN, 320 gr boolit at 75 yards.
It was quartered towards him a little and he hit the ball joint in the shoulder. The boolit should have come out behind the other shoulder but the nose was messed up on one side and turned the boolit through the guts and rear leg to stop under the skin. The LBT was not really hard and deformed enough to change direction.

fredj338
11-30-2010, 08:56 PM
Wet newspaper always worked best for me. Soak it in water overnight and it only takes a foot or two to stop anything I've ever shot at it.
A note of caution, though: When it is soaking, it is absorbing water and therefore the paper swells (as in gets much bigger than you expect !) First time I tried it, I packed a 50 gallon aquarium with newspaper and filled it up with water. In the morning, all 4 sides of the aquarium had been popped out of the frame, ruining the aquarium. Whatever you use to soak it in, leave plenty of extra room !

Yep, bullets track straighter in wetpack than water jugs & you get many more shots before retiring them. The bullets also expand much like they do in larger game animals (penetration is less tin wetpack though). I don't expect solid lead, even soft ones, to stop for 20"+ depending on caliber. In water, forget it, not even a pool can stop some of the heavier bullets. My 300grLFP 45colts moving only 1000fps will go 24"+.

WHITETAIL
12-01-2010, 09:18 AM
This is what works for me.
Get 3 paper bags.
Lay it flat and stuff it full of old news paper.
Then tape them tight.
Get a large plastic leaf bag.
Go to the range.
Put the paper bags in the plastic bag.
Tap around the plastic bag.
Fill with water.
And let it sit for 20 min.
Refill again, and let sit.
Good to go!:cbpour: