A surprise of sorts

[Dan]

The recent experience of a grandchild made us both smile, though for different reasons. His reaction to shooting a flint lock after a morning of shooting .22s was a smile bigger than Texas. And now you know why I smiled.

It was a .440 Hornady ball over but 30 grains of 3Fg and it was shot into the ground about 3' from the muzzle. He's not terribly tall.  By any measure I consider that a very mild load and did not expect what was found after the fact with a little digging.





The soil was mildly damp clay with a little organic material entrained.  I did not expect the ball to expand as it did, nor after reflection, retain the weight that it did.  Mic diameter is approximately .590", retained weight 125.3 grains. The unfired balls averaged 128 grains for 5 samples.

Perhaps most of all, I was surprised by the 6" diameter hole in the ground that was about 9" deep. It was smoking after the shot.  The kid's smile wrapped darn near back behind his ears. 

[PPatch]

Wonderful "Range Report" Dan. Made me smile too.

dave

[Stuartg]

Another generation hooked! 

[RichG]

I've recovered multiple round balls from deer(.40and.45). Even after going through shoulder and or spine bones the usually retain all but a couple grains of weight. I think the term is molecular cohesion. Lead really likes it's self.

[Daryl]

Like bubblegum - unless there is a hardening agent like antimony in the matrix. After a certain point, they can become quite brittle.

[trentOH]

I think the term is molecular cohesion. Lead really likes it's self.

Hey! My recently retired boss had Molecular Cohesion!

[Dan]

I think we've all had bosses that suffered from that affliction. 

I guess the thing that surprised me most about the ball was not so much the retained weight as I've seen that repeatedly with lead conicals.  More that it expanded so with what I consider to be  a very light charge.  In a way it opens my eyes to what might be a different perspective on the "necessity" for higher velocity regarding terminal performance.

[RichG]

pure lead bullets don't need to be going fast to expand , but it sure makes it easier to hit things

[Robin Henderson]

I recently shot this deer with a 270 gr .562 round ball at 30 yards using a relatively moderate 82 gr charge of 2fg goex. The ball recovered only weighed 170 grains. Never did find the rest of that ball. It was the first time I'd ever recovered a lead round ball from a deer that wasn't deformed but mostly complete.

[Dphariss]

Any bullet that strikes bone will be seriously deformed unless its a monolithic solid or a steel jacketed solid or a hard lead bullet at low velocity. The higher the velocity and/or the softer the bullet the greater the deformation or fragmentation. Much of the stopping power of several modern military bullets is based on bullet breakup. In reality lead bullets at BP velocities are actually very good at maintaining  their weight unless they are sheared by bone.

Given that a pure lead will deform at any velocity much over 800 fps. If it strikes bone at 1300-1500 fps its going the deform significantly and may be sheared into pieces depending on the bone struck.
This is a 54 RB at probably 1000 fps striking the upper leg bone of a Mule Deer doe.

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i199/DPhariss/ML%20Guns/DSC02829.jpg

Note that it has hair prints on one side and a bone print on the other. I believe when is broke the lead bone it turned around and struck a rib entering the chest. But this was something around 15 years ago and I did not write down the details.




Had it been fired from a rifle it would have been signifcantly more mangled like this 50 caliber ball.



Dan

[Vomitus]

  WOW! That upper leg photo is impressive.