An unusual thing happened...........

[Bigjohn]

....At the range today.

The scene; two shooters using same rifle and loads on the same target. One shooting the other observing. First shooter fires three rounds while other calls shots. They swap places and second shooter fires three rounds while first shooter calls the shots.

The result of this is................................................ ............................Wait for it..................................First the load and firearm details;

Winchester cases (pre-used), FEDERAL 215 Mag Large Rifle Primers, as much powder as can be fitted into the case and allow the projectile to be seated (approximately 70grs of blackpowder 2 or 3 fg), homecast LEE 459-500-2R boolits of ACWW, MONTANA Arms BP Lube.

All fired through a PEDERSOLI .45/70 Govt. Business Rifle fitted with a 'SOULE' type sight set.

Distance from shooter to target; 90 metres.

Now for the unusual ocurrance; two shooters, one target, three rounds each shooter equals seven holes in the target.

Now, the target was a 'clean skin' prior to the commencement of shooting and the two shooters were the only people on the range; total.

Each shot was observed and called at the time of firing.

The only hint is that one shot was called high and far to the right and the uncalled hole was low and on centre line of sight setting.

Both of these holes show minor indications of boolit yawing.

I have an idea as to what ocurred but out to the other shooters to confirm it.

[waksupi]

I imagine a wad stuck to the base, and separated just before impact.

[Bigjohn]

I forgot to include the bit that the only wad in the case was a card wad just under the boolit and the (?) low on the centre went through the target paper and the backing board (plywood) while the high and to the right went through the target paper, backing board and supporting stick of 1" pine.

I will try to photograph both holes and post them.

[NickSS]

I have done the same thing and it was caused by a casting error. I was using a multi bullet mold but only one hole as the mold casts different enough so that the bullets are not equal weight by a noticeable amount. I must have had some overflow that filled the hole I was not using part way and the nose section stuck in the mold. I then cast the next slug and got overflow that filled out the second hole. This bullet got my my sorting and was loaded. It separated into two parts and left two holes in the paper for one shot. It happened to be the first shot on a clean target so was really noticable.

[sav300]

cast broke in two?
Maybe should wait for pics.

[Bigjohn]

My thoughts on what happened is exactly that; a cast boolit broke into two pieces in flight and both hit the target.

The mold is a single cavity mold. From what I recall of the last casting session with it, the mold ended up being very hot and the metal was taking quite some time to cool down before being released from the mold.

I had culled a number of them which had noticable tears in one of the grease grooves. I had a couple where the forward section including the first driving band; had almost seperated from the rear section.

I believe that I missed culling out one of these or dropped one in the wrong bucket at the end of the casting session; which made it to the range as a loaded round. The stress of being fired down range could have caused the fracture to break completely, hence the two holes in the target.

I can definitely rule out a mis-directed shot from another target as we were there to unload a set number of rounds and different loads; as well as having some gun powder therapy while doing so.
We shot at one target with one load then counted hits/group and patched out. We were not missing any shot prior to these being fired.

I had a good view of the target through the spooting scope while Mike was firing the last three rounds of this batch. Prior to the discharge of the last shot, there was only five holes in the target; three of mine and two from him; my view was attracted to a boolit strike high and to the right out of the scoring area of the target. When Mike checked the target he reported the extra hole so a walk down range to inspect the target confirmed the extra hole.

At this time, I have not recovered that metal from the berm and it may be difficult to locate the boolit strike areas amongst the weeds growing there but I will have a go.

I will have a go this afternoon at photographing the target holes which are about 6" apart on the target.

[dangerranger]

I would have guessed that one hit the ground, and it brought a rock up with it.

[Bigjohn]

I would have guessed that one hit the ground, and it brought a rock up with it.

Dangerranger; sorry, the hole is too prefect for that idea.

I went out to the range and conducted a little berm mining. I had some success by locating the impact site for my boolits. Right in amongst the root system of a clump of Pampus Grass growing on the mound.

That stuff is bionic and a PITA to dig out to get to the spent boolits. I managed to recover 9 out of the twelve which were eventually fired at this target.
I need to go back with some better equipment including a sieve. My little pick mattock struggled to chop up the "Pampus" clump.

I have since November had a PC issue with the new mainframe computer rejecting some of the prepherals including the camera. At present I can not get up close photos of the target. The only fallback I have is a 35mm SLR film camera or scanner which takes large byte size images and may not work with the new PC.

I would like to confirm my suspicion as to exactly what ocurred with that shot to help prevent it in the future.

I hope I have some further information to share with you soon.

[dangerranger]

the only reason I said that was I had a rifle that we took out the first time and couldnt get any sort of accuracy from it. till someone pointed out that that the bullits were striking 15 yds short of the target and bouncing up. I had mounted the scope mount backwards. but the bullits were still making round holes in the target. after turning the mount around it shot just fine. DR

[Bigjohn]

the only reason I said that was I had a rifle that we took out the first time and couldnt get any sort of accuracy from it. till someone pointed out that that the bullits were striking 15 yds short of the target and bouncing up. I had mounted the scope mount backwards. but the bullits were still making round holes in the target. after turning the mount around it shot just fine. DR

Scopewise; I have not done that, yet.

I have bounced bullets through a target or two.