Interesting experience today

[nighthunter]

Today I noticed a groundhog in the back yard in front of my air drying red oak lumber. Closest firearm was my Beretta 92 loaded with Mihec's 359-125 HP. 4.0 grains of WW231 expels them at 1150 fps. Wacked the groundhog from about 40 yards. Bullet did a pass thru but at an angle I would think would be impossible. All I can come up with is that the bullet impact must have twisted the groundhogs body to make the bullet come out under the left eye. The groundhog was standing straight up faceing from my left to right. Bullet impact was in the right shoulder. Bullet performance was quite good. It left a nasty wound channel to the exit point. To top it all off .... after the bullet exited the groundhog it hit the oak boards and bounced back and was sitting on the ground beside the groundhog. There is pieces of oak embedded in the bullet so I am positive it is "the" bullet. As Jr Samples used to say "Truth is stranger than fiction".

Nighthunter

[horsesoldier]

Do you size the boolits down at all? I am thinking of casting for my nine soon and I am curious about it.

[ilcop22]

Cast boolits can do funny things in flesh. I took a ~130 doe this last season with my 03a3 with a Lee C309-180-R on top of 34.5 grains of IMR 4895... The boolit entered the base of the neck at a shallow angle (she was running away from me @ ~20 yards), shattered the top of the spine, and exited perfectly center through the trachea out the bottom of her neck. They do the darndest things.

[9.3X62AL]

More examples of the old idea that while internal and external ballistics are largely hard sciences, terminal ballistics are at best a poorly-understood art form.

Nice of that spent 9mm boolit to recycle itself in that manner, and imbed its own fluxing material in the process. All ready for the re-melt!

[9.3X62AL]

Do you size the boolits down at all? I am thinking of casting for my nine soon and I am curious about it.

Treat that 9mm like a rifle, sir--get slugs of the throat diameter and groove diameter to predicate boolit sizing diameter. I am VERY lucky that my 3 current 9mm pistols all have .357" throats, and that is the diameter I size the boolits at. (Somewhat) hard alloy, soft lubes, wider drive band designs (truncated cone vs. round-nose) are all a plus in 9mm and 40 S&W cast boolit reloading.

And have proper-sized expander spuds that correspond to your sized boolits' dimensions, too. The .352"-.353" spuds intended for jacketed bullets will very likely reduce cast boolit diameters as you seat your bullets with too-small case mouths/necks. If your seating die is of the taper-crimp type, seat boolits in one step and THEN set a very light taper crimp as a discrete die operation. Over-applying taper crimp will also reduce boolit diameters and have the effect of reducing case mouth tension on the seated boolit.

[horsesoldier]

Thanks 9.3X62AL!

[Link23]

What no pictures?

Link23

[Griz44mag]

I have not taken anything with my 9mm cast except a few rats, and that's not much of a contest.....

Most of the time on rats, I carry my Charger pistol with a 25 round magazine, cause I have a tendency to miss a lot when they are running.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

In John Taylor's book, African Rifles & Crtridges he told of many things that he didn't understand and couldn't explain. He was quick to point out that these things happened over thirty years of hunting in Africa and were not daily occurences. It is well worth the read.

[Aces an Eights]

Had a similar experience many years ago with a 45 muzzle loader on a rabbit, the exit was out of the opposing hip though. I speculate that the slug travelled down the spine.

[x101airborne]

I have had j words do that quite often. cup and core designs have turned on me (mainly in my 25-06 sendero) but once in my 30-06. Shot one buck behind the ear in the neck with the 30-06 at full broadside. Found the bullet under the tail. It had traveled next to the backbone ruining one and a partial of the other backstrap. It do happen.