Bench-Talk

Bullet Failure !  The following serries of pics - perhaps two or, three views - depict the remains of some [Sierra] jacketed bullets, which, when fired through  Tom "BLING-BLING" Gollob's 6x250 Ackley Imp., turned into [proverbial] 'blue streaks' ! Tom notes that the distances appeared to range anywhere from about 50 to 65 yards from the muzzle! So, being less sharp than the average boxed pencil, 'BLING-BLING' decided to "look around" - the pictured shards are what he found lying on the grass - the tarnished bullet (for comaprison) is a Berger 105 Gr. VLD (apologies to Berger Bullets for my not polishing it back up). The barrel in question, which I dubbed , "THE BULLET WRECKER", will completely destroy every similar bullet fired through it, with the exception of the 105 Gr. LAPUA Scenar! This is a "go figure" deal - going back two years now, this barrel made me begin to re-examine my view of bullet failures: is it the jackets or, the barrel(s)?!? The correct answer: it's BOTH! Note: the bullets in question IMPACTED NOTHING - but air ! 

Note, also, that the "nose-cone" separated well behind the lead-line - not, as I would have intuitively guessed, "right at it" - in other words, on the unfired bullets, there WAS lead INSIDE the "cone" ! Also note that the land marks are "wrapped" around an "invisable" core, at almost a right angle to the axis of the bore!Of course, no lead was located . . and precious few jacket shards . . . **Also, look closely at the meplat, which was also distorted/peened - bullets do not leave the shop like that: does this occur even on bullets which do not "vaporize"? That was a trick question, as bullets recovered from snow banks dispaly little, if any distortion: if there is some "damage", it is obvious that the bullet impacted either a small rock or particle of ice. I "wasted" the best winter, for collecting fired bullets, which we've had here for many seasons . . . I have been unable to locate my stash from snow drifts past. (** This text was added to the original post.)

Comments are welcome! RG

P.S. As usual, being anal regarding pic quality, I have also posted these pics in my photo album, where much better detail is retained - for some reason, this page ENLARGED the "small format" pics! ;( Ryan, am I completely inept, or, is this just the way it goes for pics on thsi page? RG

P.P.S. Ryan, thanks for your reply (below) - it seems that this page takes a one-size-fits-all apporach - the original (small format) pic is about 1/2 this size.

Nope, not inept, the gallery has more capability as far as preserving quality. 

   Randy, thanks for the photo. You and I have talked at length about this situation on several occasions...the pic makes it even more interesting. As a 'hack' buller maker myself, things like this always fascinate me..the how's and why's of how things that shouldn't  happen do happen!

  We can liken this to machining operations..where allowable variations in multiple operations can sometimes 'stack up' to produce results that the same combination of machined components don't exhibit in 99.9% of the cases. In my line of work, we call this the 'Swiss Cheese Syndrome' : stack enough slices of Swiss Cheese together, reorient them enough times, and pretty soon enough of the holes line up and allow something to fall through that results in a negative outcome for the patient. 

   The barrel you mention, which I've dubbed The Peeler  for it's propensity to seperate jackets from their cores, is likely the wild card in all of this: similar barrels from the same maker with identical twist rates perform fine. It's one of those deals where we can look at all of the factors involved..land configuration, number of lands, barrel length, bullet coating or lack of, bore diameter taper, etc, etc, and if we change any one of those items...the outcome may be completely different...even though the main part of the equation remains..that being the twist rate of the barrel and the length of the bullet used.

  And as you've mentioned before, the popular Urban Legend that Sierra jackets are somehow both "tougher" and "thicker" than a comparable J4 is just that..a myth.  

   Just some thoughts from a dirt clod on a rainy South Dakota morning.   -Al