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 to 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 some of the 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 lightly 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 180 grain bullet at 3200fps travel 300 yards and find itself on the ground **in front** of the target stand and the big stump. It was 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 or sandbag type of sight in.

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 to the truck. The snow is frozen so hard it's like walking on a glacier. My target stand is easily pushed into the snow, making it nice and solid. While I'm walking down there I'm preoccupied with the location and the best route through the sagebrush 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 rimfire 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 duiker 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 tiny 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.

Anyway shooting was good, the Tennesee hogs will die if I see them!

JJ,
You are entering the Twilight Zone...
a place where time and space collide...

What were you smoking the day you found the buzzing bullet??? Regards Mike

HI,

JJ Hack, you got me, that is something else,maybe them bullets have there own minds,Kev

I'd think twice about shooting at that stump again too. It may not like being a backstop!

I'd say there is some bad mojo going on there
If you next tell us a Tennesse hog caught a bullet between its teeth we will know for sure.

JJ,

they are for sure strange findings

JJHACK

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.

As some one who makes bullet and has for about 40 years jackets do come apart its very rare when you think about it
swaged bullets are pressed at about 50.000 PSI copper to lead .
All it takes for the lead to come apart from the jacket is somthing to have fowled the bond between the two like the
swag lube .
It can also happen when a set of swag dies are on there last leg.

Now about the bussing bullet YA ok right ..
Let me get this right you fired your rifle and then you placed it bolt open againest the truck (40 sec ) next you
walked down range unknow distance say( 2 min's)= about
2 min's 40 sec's ...when you got there you found a bussing
bullet ....
Let me tell you now a story told to me about 38 years ago..
By Jim Cuthbert ..
Jim had gone out hunting that year and as always taken his 300 WB Mag .Side note: Jims love of that gun made most of us sick jim would always tell us ::
You boy's need to sell those kiddy cap gun's off and have me build you new one's like this::
Anyway back to the story. Jim told us that out on that hunting trip with one of his best buddys thay had walked all day up and down the canyons and had come to the very top of the highest ridge.
Jim took his scope and scanned the ridge and just of the top and about 500 yards away standing just inside of the tree line was a 5 point .
At about he same time his friend was doing the same thing
and had spotted the same deer .
Well without a word both shot at the same time .
With a quick look through the scope thay could see the buck had fallen right were it stood .
So down the ridge and acrossed to were it had fallen thay went .Jim's long time friend got there first and had stopped just shy of the deer and had his head tipped
Jim seeing this thought maybe there was another deer close by and slowed his climb.
When jim climbed the the rest of the way he saw his friend was pushing his rifle barrel around on the deers sholder
by were the bullet had entered
Jim layed his rifle down and took out his skinning knifle and started to move the hair and low and behold there was a bullet there still spinning it was his buddys 160 grain
fired from his 30/06 still trying to get in

Ok now these are the story's i had to put up with from jim
A very long time ago ..So please.........

Pottys

One of our locals, Gary Painter, who owns a gun/pawn in Twin Falls was hunting elk with a 300 RUM or one of the speedsters in 30 caliber and using Barnes X bullets and shot at an elk across a canyon and killed it, then someone shot at him as the bullet hit a tree next to him..He and his partner hid and started yelling "don't shoot". After a while they went to the elk and found the entrance hole and exit hole next to each other on the same side of the elk..Later they cut the bullet out of the tree where they shot the elk from and it was Garys Barnes X bullet...I saw the elk and sure enough..

Strange things can happen....and that was a very close one for Gary...

JJHACK-say "Honest to God".

Ray, I have seen several X bullets entry and exit on the same side too. I have also seen a couple X bullets under the skin which ran out of steam before the could get through the skin on the same side as the entry. Those two were bent into the shape of a banana. The entry holes were right exactly into the scapula of a Zebra and a Wlidebeast.

My thoughts were that they entered at a slight angle and bent when hitting the bone, that bent shape then caused them to curve inside the animal. I doubt you could reproduce this event in a million tries if you were trying to. However strange things can happen with bullets in my limited experience.

JJ- There are alot of strange things going on in the south. None of them can be explained. Do not take up archery!

The bullet is still spinning after walking 300 yards to the target, eh?

Is there is such a thing as talking shit?

Will,

In the Navy we would tell such sea stories, and each would be prefaced with "This is a no-shitter...".

jim

It was not just spinning, it was BUZZZZZZZING like a freeking top! This bugger was going so fast it was a blur of copper and dust.

could it have just been so hot that it was hissing?

The difference in a fairy tale up north & one down south is:
Up north it starts like this, Once upon a time
Down South like this, You guys ain't goin beleive this shit!

Yes, strange things do happen while hunting, but even stranger things can happen while fishing. One of my buddies was tuna fishing out of Ocean City, MD. While fighting a huge tuna, he sneezed twice and realized that his glasses had fallen off his head and into the water. Several minutes later, another angler caught another tuna. Back at the dock, when one of the mates was filleting the tuna, his knife hit someting hard.

You guessed it. It was his thumb. And you thought it would be the glasses? Right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yep sometimes strange things do happen. My son shot a warthog a few years back. Broadside at about 40 yards. Gun was a 30-06 loaded with 220 gr nosler Partitions. I would have figured that bullet would plow through plenty of hog. The bullet apparently deflected about 45 degrees. Interesting enough. He hit it square in the shouder but the bullet exited just in front of the off side rear leg.. Hard to figure. Good hunting "D"

Old Texas oilfield tales must be started with "Now this ain't no shit"----