Empty bullet jackets in the berm?

[websterz]

I've started finding totally empty bullet jackets in with my range scrap. Mostly .45 and .32. They have been fired, all of them have rifling marks. They are as empty as the ones I skim out of my rendering pot. I can't imagine that a low pressure handgun round is hot enough to squirt all of the lead out, especially considering the jackets are not mangled or smashed. Can anyone 'splain it?

[Eddie17]

I have seen this also. Jackets are torn apart but still all there in one piece, no lead thou.
It is a mostly sand birm, but not sure what the bullet hit before it was left on the birm!

[Jonesy]

This doesn't answer your question, but I came across the same thing earlier this week. I figured hitting the sand might knock it hard enough to squeeze the lead out or something. I was wondering how that happened too though, maybe someone here knows the answer to this riddle.

[websterz]

That's what makes it such a head scratcher, the jackets are intact. I could understand if they were split open or smashed flat but they're not.

[Eddie17]

Maybe dropping there smelt skim back into the berm?

[JWFilips]

volcanic activity smelting the lead cores no doubt! Where do you live?

[Kskybroom]

WAG
Cheap Bullets, Cores not bonded to Jackets

[Frank46]

I've a 5 gallon bucket of range lead I mined from our old range before it was closed. In looking through it there are many 45 acp and 357/38 bullets that still have their lead cores inside. Most of the 45's look to be the 230 grain round nosed FMJ bullets that in some cases could be loaded up and fired again. They do show rifling markings but in looking through the bucket all still had their cores. Maybe someone is dumping their results of melting down the lead on the berm. Frank

[jesse d]

I pick up scrap at a local indoor club and see this often.i figured it was the impact of hitting a steel target that drives the lead out of the jacket,as someone else said,cheap fmj.

[Bigslug]

Lead vampires sucking out their souls? Those bats get into the lead mines and it's all over.

[coyotewacker]

Are they from 1/2 jacketed bullets ?

[Motor]

WAG
Cheap Bullets, Cores not bonded to Jackets

I don't know if they are cheap but this is correct. Once the bullet hits something the lead becomes loose inside the jacket then as the bullet tumbles they part ways.

I bet if you look closely enough you will find nearly in tact lead cores in the berm or on the ground. I have. And at first it makes you think they were fired from a smooth bore because there are no distinct rifling marks. I've measured them and found they don't match any "normal" caliber. This is why I now say they are seperated cores.

This is also why "they" always warn against sanding or cutting the tips of FMJ's to expose the lead. You can easily shoot the lead core right out of the jacket and leave the jacket in your bore.

Motor

[bhn22]

Geez. The cores separated from the jackets upon impact, and penetrated a little deeper into the berm. This is assuming that your scrap came from an outdoor range. If it came from an indoor range with a trap, then I'll second the lead vampire theory.

BTW, handgun bullet cores are rarely bonded to the jackets, especially the cheap stuff. You have to pay a lot extra for bonded core ammo regardless of application.

[olafhardt]

If the bullets first hit at a slant with the surface then the outside is slowed down faster than the core. Perhaps the impingement on hard surfaces melts the core. There are some high temperatures developed at impact. When shooting steel plates, Often there are indications of flow around the impact crater.

[flint45]

I find some life that it looks like bullet first hit steel target also have found some of the cores to.

[David2011]

If the bullets first hit at a slant with the surface then the outside is slowed down faster than the core. Perhaps the impingement on hard surfaces melts the core. There are some high temperatures developed at impact. When shooting steel plates, Often there are indications of flow around the impact crater.

Yep. I used to shoot at a range where they shot centerfire rifle metallic silhouette. Even those rifle bullets often had half of the lead squirted out of the hollow point. There were lots laying on the ground that hadn't hit a steel target.

David

[Dan Cash]

Cores and jackets come apart pretty easily. I helped a friend recover a deer from a grassy draw. We gutted it and there was a core up against a rib on the off side of the shot. No sign of a jacket. About 30 feet away along the line of the shot was another dead deer laying in the tall grass. Its chest held the jacket. The bullet was a Hornady , 120 grain spitzer from a .257 Roberts.

[bangerjim]

Here in AZ the summer sun takes care of some of the melting!!!!!!!!!

banger

[MT Chambers]

I sometimes look in the berm for my cast bullets, to see if gc stayed on, rifling marks, etc..... and I've found lots of jackets and separate cores, but worse again I find lots of pure copper bullets that are not expanded at all or just slightly bent, these are rifle bullets prolly shot at high vel.

[303Guy]

A rifle bullet will melt the lead out on impact but not a pistol bullet. It's interesting that lead cores have been found in the berm. I wonder what the mechanism is in the core separating like that.