Yesterday evening my hunting buddy shot a buck Quatering towards him slightly and the bullet deflected a good bit. His load was a Factory Weatherby (7Wea) 140 Partition that clocks 3260 over my Chrono. Impact was at the base of the neck and exit was on the same side mid shoulder. The bullet did it's job by breaking the bucks neck bone and killing him rather quickly but, it still made a very sharp turn and exited on the same side.

I've seen bullets do all sorts of crazy things including deflection. I've even seen them deflect worse than this.

Seems like an interesting topic:

I'm sort of wondering if the extreme velocity amplifies deflection possiblitlies.

How many of you fellas see some pretty wild deflections while afield?

Do you seem to see it more often w/ your faster carts?

Reloader

yes

Contrary to what instict might tell you, harder bullets tend to deflect more redily than softer bullets, and while high velocity sometimes makes for spectacular deflections, significant deflection is frequently found with low velocity pistol bullets as evidenced by thousands of medical reports of shootings of homo sapiens.

Deflection occurs when one side of the bullet encounters greater resistance than the other side, as when the nose strikes the edge of a bone. The "harder" a bullet is (think FMJ), the more resistant to deformation, therefore the more subject to the differential pressure on its nose altering its vector. On the other hand a soft, rapidly expanding bullet will deform and tend to allow the bulk of the bullet to keep a bit straighter course. This is not to say that soft bullets do not deflect, but rather that they are not quite as prone to the spectacular deflection of very "hard" bullets.

I remember a case from an emergency room years ago. A person was on a city street with the window of the car rolled down. Someone came up to the car and shot said individual in the head. The bullet hit the skull, and without penetrating the skull and went under the scalp to the other side of the head. Now that's a bit of luck.

I had a strange deflection just the other day.

The shot was was about 250 yards, rifle was a 260rem, shooting 120gr sierra Pro Hunters at nearly 3000fps at the muzzle.

I shot a whitetail doe, the deer was quartering away, and I placed the x hairs on the crease. The bullet struck the 'elbow' bone and diflected directly down the leg bone and came out the knee. The next one hit about 2 " from the first but went cleanly through her and down she went. I've shot probalby 100 big game critters with a rifle and this has to be the strangest deflection I've ever seen.

I shot a carigou with a .300 win mag at about 80 yards, the animal facing me but quartering to my left. The bullet entered the shoulder, and exited the mid chest. The bullet was a 180 gr Remington Corelokt.

quote:

Originally posted by JudgeSharpe:
yes

Ditto

quote:

Originally posted by Reloader:
Do you seem to see it more often w/ your faster carts? Reloader

Not yet, but I'm sure my time will come.