Bullet Failure?

[PawPawWPG]

Was this a bullet failure or something that just happens? The majority of my hunting has been done with a straight-wall rifle so I don’t have a lot of experience with recovering actual rifle bullets - just shooting them.

This is a Hammer Hunter 143 grain bullet shot out of a .280 AI that hit a cow moose at the base of the ribs. She quartering slightly away and I recovered at the hide on her other side. 85 yards. Chrono’d these rounds at an average of 2995 FPS.

Any input would be great - I’d hate to have to pull the rest of the bullets that I have.

 

[Forkyfinder]

Looks like bullet failure to me. Id talk to hammer.

 

[mevertsen]

Yeah. That's not right. I would call Hammer.

 

[MThuntr]

Looks like something went way wrong. Definitely talk to Hammer. I know at one time they had issues with tumbling media getting stuck in the hollow point.

At that distance, that bullet should look like these which were shot out of a 280AI into a bull moose shoulder at 125 yards.

 

[mtmuley]

Was this a bullet failure or something that just happens? The majority of my hunting has been done with a straight-wall rifle so I don’t have a lot of experience with recovering actual rifle bullets - just shooting them.

This is a Hammer Hunter 143 grain bullet shot out of a .280 AI that hit a cow moose at the base of the ribs. She quartering slightly away and I recovered at the hide on her other side. 85 yards. Chrono’d these rounds at an average of 2995 FPS.

Any input would be great - I’d hate to have to pull the rest of the bullets that I have.

Steve is in the shop right now. Call him. mtmuley

 

[Addicting]

Yep, the tips get a very minute ding in them and they can pencil thru or open very late. Pitch em all and either go to the tipped version or go to a Barnes. I did a bunch of testing when I had that problem and came to the conclusion that they simply were not reliable to open 100% of the time.

Glad you caught it, for the longest time people denied it was happening because the bullet passed thru and there wasn’t evidence.

 

[FREAK]

Some interesting pictures of the copper mono's in that recent recovered bullet thread. I know a lot of guys swear by them. I'll stick with cup and core.

 

[PawPawWPG]

Thanks, everyone. I’ve got a long drive home from Maine so I gave him a call/shot him a text.

 

[PawPawWPG]

I talked to Steve. He’s wondering if the twist rate of my rifle is too slow to stabilize the bullet. It’s a M70 Featherweight I got off Gunbroker so I’ll measure the twist and see if that was the issue.

 

[kiwi hunter]

I'm using a 22 hornet for nite shooting, basically every night the weather is reasonable and my problem is that I can not get a suitable powder to run my 40 VMAX at a decent speed to open the projectiles up. So the question is did you shortchange your powder? Reason I'm asking is that in the last two yrs I forgot to put the powder into two cases, fun times at nite with the projectile stuck in the lands. So anyway if you'd make a mistake like that than its to be expected. Fifty yrs ago I had a cup n core in 270 disintegrate on impact, nothing is certain in life.

 

[nhenry]

Glad you were able to recover the animal even with the failure. The 143 used to be what I used, but I recently switched my rifle over to the 145 HHT to hopefully help with some ballistics, both in flight and terminal

 

[Forkyfinder]

I talked to Steve. He’s wondering if the twist rate of my rifle is too slow to stabilize the bullet. It’s a M70 Featherweight I got off Gunbroker so I’ll measure the twist and see if that was the issue.

Im not seeing how if its shooting well if the bullets not stable.

A faster spinning (rpm) bullet should cause more damage than a slower spinning bullet - but thats not going to be tĥe difference between opening and not - especially that close.