About 10 years ago, a good friend of mine in Jacksonville, FL. noticed seeing small bits fragments plastered into our paper targets as we were shooting bench rest rifles at a 100 yard targets. - One of the other guys down a couple of benches away asked what kind of bullet we were using in our 22-250's. We said, "Waylen Wobbers"........... My shooting buddy had been doing some "home brew" jacketed HPT's and might of ran into some extra thin jacket material. One thing we didn't take into account was the high RPM a bullet incounters as it exits the barrel.

The Formula:

1/12 inch twist barrel + 3700 FPS + RPM = Lots of centrifugal force = Bullet stress.

Have any of you seen things just come apart?

[This message has been edited by CK (edited 03-14-2002).]

I tried some Sierra 40 grainers that were made for 22 Hornet velocities from my 22-250 over a stiff load of H380. Thought it would be the perfect crow load. They were probably pushing 4000+ fps. They all seemed to disintergrate about 40 yards from the muzzle. Nothing ever hit paper at the target I was shooting at.
Just part of the learning curve.

Nothing new about your experiences with disintegrating bullets!! This happened all the time in the early days of the .220 Swift. One bullet maker even started putting an insulating envelope of paper around the lead cores to keep them from melting!! It worked!!

Years ago, a friend and I tried for a new record high velocity with our Oehler Model 10 chronograph with his 25/284.

Using some Winchester OPE 60 grain bullets made for the .25/20, we found they typically flew apart only a few feet from the muzzle. The velocity of one which made it all the way to the far chrono screen was 4,264 fps. One shot put several bullet fragments through the plastic screen holders (that was in the day of paper screens using silver circuit print prior to light screens).

Incidentally, 4,264 fps out of a 1-10" twist barrel equals 307,000 RPM. I suspect that would blow the engine on your Chevy, too.

[This message has been edited by Stonecreek (edited 03-14-2002).]

Some hunting buddies of mine shoot 7mm/300 Weath's and have had more than one manufacturer's bullets come apart. They have had good luck with Barnes and Nosler Partitions. GREG

I had the problem one day when trying out some 85grn bullets on my 6.5-284.
It was actually funny, I was sitting there 100 yards from the target and fed 5 rounds through the rifle and my friend was laughing at me due to the fact there was no bullet holes on or even near the target. When we walked up to the target it looked like someone used a 22 shotshell. Then I remembered the reason I use 140+ grn bullets is due to the rifle's 1~8 twist.

Like Dan said, this can be a problem when using light bullets in a fast twist barrel. I once shot some of my 223 handloads with Speer TNT bullets out of a friends Mini-14. You could see a grey streak all the way from the barrel to the target. Looked like mini jet contrail. The lead was vaporized. Only thing that hit the target was tiny bits of the jacket, like dust shot. However, the same load is extremely accurate (and deadly to critters) in my bolt action rifle.