Years ago I was shooting my rifle to sight in before a hunt. There was a huge cedar stump we used to hang our targets on and absorb the shots. This stump was about 7-8ft diameter! While shooting my 300 weatherby (years ago) I decided to let the barrel cool and walk down to tape the holes and replace targets.
after the last shot I stood the gun up with the bolt open to let it cool, then I walked down the dead end road with this huge stump at the end. Once I arrived there I to check on my shots I could hear a fairly loud buzzing by my feet. I looked down to see some kind of bug spinning like a top kicking up dust and dirt. Stunned at the speed and power of this thing I stepped on it to see what it was.
It was one of my bullets! .......... It was so hot I could not believe it was not melting. it burned my finger tips to blister when I picked it up( and quickly dropped it) The bullet was fully intact as if it had not been shot only the rifling marks were in the jacket. How could this bullet at 3200fps travel 300 yards and find itself on the ground **in front** of the target stand and the stump spinning like a top? I have no answer but I saw this myself!
Yesterday I was out target shooting in the eastern side of the state where there was still a lot of snow. I'm going on a wild boar hunt in Tennessee on the 11th so I wanted to be sure my old trusty 30/06 was still shooting perfect before I leave. I set my target out at 100 yards to verify the 100 yard crosshair was OK. I am shooting 165 grain Hornady iinterlock and Hornady 165 grain interbond bullets. The first shot with the interlock hits just a hair above the 1" black spot, good enough. The interbond hits on the line of the left edge of the black. Oh I'm shooting over the side rail of the pickup while sitting inside the bed. It's not a bench rest sandbag sight in ordeal.
Then I walk down to move the target to 250 yards so I can check my standard or centered crosshair. I'm shooting at a 2" black circle for this distance. I also pack along my range finder so I can check the distance from where I'm at. The snow is frozen so hard it's like walking on a glacier. My target stand is easily pushed into the snow too making it nice and solid. While I'm walking down there I'm preoccupied with the location and the best route through the sage to get there.
Once that is done I start my walk back and about every 10th step I break though the crust of snow and sink in up to my knee. Finally I'm almost back to the 100 yard stand and I see holes in the snow where my bullets entered. I also see something shiny and copper colored. Walking over there I see it's the entire jacket of the Hornady interlock bullet I fired. Not a speck of lead just the shiny jacket. I was also shooting a .22 bolt action rifle at that 100 yard target. In the snow I see little black specks which I dig out to find all the .22 bullets mushroomed and in melted snow like a little pile of rabbit turds. How strange that these .22 bullets ended up all together like this? How strange that I found the whole jacket of that 165 grain bullet!
After shooting at the 250 yard target I walked all the way back there breaking through the snow now and again to fetch my target stand. On the way there I noticed what I thought was a spot of bright red blood on the top of the snow. I walked over to it but there were no tracks just a long hole made infront of the red spot. When I arrived there I looked down and saw that that little red spot was the plastic tip of the interbond bullet, it was not blood. What are the odds of launching a bullet and finding that little plastic tip? Certainly if not for the snow it would never( well not likely) have been found but it's bizzare to have found all these bullets, the jacket and this little plastic tip yesterday. Over the years I have heard other stories about bizzare things with bullets once shot from a gun.
Anyway shooting was good, the Tennesee hogs will die if I see them!
