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Re: ideas to capture bullets w/o damage

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16 December 2004, 11:47
trk
Re: ideas to capture bullets w/o damage
Quote:

Hi All! I would like to capture and inspect some lead bullets. Dr Mann numbered his bullets and then shot them into snow drifts. In the spring, he picked them up off the ground...mostly undamaged. This is not practible for me. Any ideas?




I read that too.

What follows is probably a result of cabin feaver.

What I used to do (back in Iowa) was to wait until it was below 10 below for 3 weeks. That would freeze the shallow rivers. The rivers were perfectly level. That provided several hundered yards of straight shooting on a very level surface with good back stops when the river turned (banks were 10-20 feet high.

With a .357 mag shooting tin cans at 50-75 feet from crouching position you would find 20 or so feet beyond them a ridge of snow with a hole in it. Just beyond that a swell of snow with a groove in it, then more and more grooves until - there it was - the boolet. Sitting there on top of the snow. Slowed down gently and with a few crusts of ice picked up in the process. Perfect shape.

Later I did that with a 22-250 and a 308. Took MUCH longer distances to shoot almost parallel with the surface and often would loose 50% of the boolets. BUT it did work.
16 December 2004, 12:01
arkypete
Do you have a really dumb son-in-law?
Jim
16 December 2004, 12:10
dfaugh
Saw where some one made an open ended trough out of wood or metal (I forget which, but either would work)...He then filled large Ziploc bags with water, placed them in the trough. He was shooting a pistol and trough was about 6-8 ft long IIRC...Probably need one quite a bit longer for some rifles. But it worked well.
16 December 2004, 13:15
45 2.1
Dr. Mann also built a recovery box, approx. 15" square about 12' long and filled it with oiled sawdust to retrive undamaged fired bullets. This is in the bullets flight by Mann.
16 December 2004, 14:50
trk
AND I seem to remember something on TV about the FBI having a box full of cotton - used to capture pistol bullets. 6x6" by a couple of feet long. Must have be 40 or so years ago.
16 December 2004, 15:29
HenryC470
You might capture them on film before they ever hit anything. My understanding of high-speed photography is that the technique relies on a high-speed flash rather than a high-speed shutter. Do you suppose the muzzle flash of a firearm would be bright enough to set off a slave flash?

H. C.
17 December 2004, 00:52
trk
Quote:

You might capture them on film before they ever hit anything. My understanding of high-speed photography is that the technique relies on a high-speed flash rather than a high-speed shutter. Do you suppose the muzzle flash of a firearm would be bright enough to set off a slave flash? H. C.



Triggering the flash is no great trick, but getting the timing down right takes a little experimentation. Not a bad idea seeing as how advanced photographic gear is commonly available today.
17 December 2004, 01:00
Rrusse11
Quote:

Quote:

Hi All! I would like to capture and inspect some lead bullets. Dr Mann numbered his bullets and then shot them into snow drifts. In the spring, he picked them up off the ground...mostly undamaged. This is not practible for me. Any ideas?




I read that too.

What follows is probably a result of cabin feaver.

What I used to do (back in Iowa) was to wait until it was below 10 below for 3 weeks. That would freeze the shallow rivers. The rivers were perfectly level. That provided several hundered yards of straight shooting on a very level surface with good back stops when the river turned (banks were 10-20 feet high.

With a .357 mag shooting tin cans at 50-75 feet from crouching position you would find 20 or so feet beyond them a ridge of snow with a hole in it. Just beyond that a swell of snow with a groove in it, then more and more grooves until - there it was - the boolet. Sitting there on top of the snow. Slowed down gently and with a few crusts of ice picked up in the process. Perfect shape.

Later I did that with a 22-250 and a 308. Took MUCH longer distances to shoot almost parallel with the surface and often would loose 50% of the boolets. BUT it did work.



Tim,
I've managed the same thing on the St. Lawrence in the dead of winter with the 357. Lee in his first manual mentions a swimming pool and his kid recovering the boolits off the bottom.
Cheers,
R*2
17 December 2004, 05:02
waksupi
Well, my previous post on this got lost in the ozone.

Load a few grains of Red Dot, and shoot into some rags. You don't need full velocity to capture a bullet.
19 December 2004, 16:25
nelsonted
We used corn and hay silage on the farm
26 December 2004, 03:09
BAShooter
DE Hillyer:

Here my experience.

I shoot .40 S&W, 200 grain bullets, plain cast lead bullet at 850/900 feets/sec with a 1911 pistol.
We use as backstops 6 or 7 car tires, piled with a 3/8 inch sheet metal rear and shoot at 6/7 yards of distance or more .
This arrange is very common in IPSC ranges as backstop of low paper targets
I do not know how is the path of the bullet but, It is possible to recuperate 3 or 4 bullets in good condition out of 30 shooted. They lay in the middle of the tires, it could be possible to find more bullets if tires are carefully inspected .
Of course, most of bullets are damaged by the sheet metal or by steel wires of the tires, but someones, do not ask me why, are in perfect good condition.
I used this method when I developed some tests shooting cast lead bullets without lubricant, for eliminating smoke�
I engraved bullets from 1 to 30 in the back ,and I shooted them in order to see how degradation of lands marks on the bullets was.
Oh�� Last but not least, it is a very safety device , there are no ricochets , only sheet metal must be fully covered by tires, you should not see any surface of the plate, and this plate must be inclined from the vertical.
Easy, safe and cheap, only problem ; not all bullets can be recuperated

Hope this helps

BA Shooter

PD I apologise to answer so late but I am very bussy and I can not enter in the forum as frecuently as I like and I use to be
26 December 2004, 16:05
DE Hillyer
Thanks to all who have replied! Many good ideas...The trough with the oiled sawdust,the wet newspapers, the corn and hay silage, and the tires interest me the most right now. I live in a farming community and could get the hay or straw reasonable.
Hmmm... a trough with cardboard dividers 1 foot apart. The space in between filled with hay or straw. Keep the holes in the cardboard taped over. Shoot. Then just inspect the cardboard until you find one without a hole. The bullet would be in the silage before it. Retape and go again. Could also be done with the sawdust or styrofoam.

Dale