Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Something different happened yesterday...

To get ready for hunting season, I was doing a bit of shooting and had some water jugs set up at about 400 yards.. Through the course of the morning I must have shot about a dozen or fifteen with various rifles from my old .22-250 up though one of my semi target .300's..

I was down to the last one, and decided to take a poke at it with my 7mm Wea. and a coyote load I have used for years.. With RE19 it moves the 120 grain Horn. hollow point out at over 3500fps.. It has killed coyotes, deer, antelope, etc.. It always has be a good comb..

Anyway, I squeezed one off at a jug that held some kind of juice.. The jug tipped over and it looked like water was coming out, but the jug was pretty much intact.. Usually, they explode and water flies everywhere.. I figured I had just nicked it.. So I gathered up my stuff and drove over to pick up the jugs..

When I picked this one up, it still had about 1/2 the water in the jug.. But there was a direct hit about the center of the jug.. I could clearly see a 284 bullet hole.. I was puzzled why no explosion.. When I turned it over, it looked like a fragment had exited the back of the jug.. I figured I would find the jacket inside.. Nothing.. The exit wasn't round like a bullet hole, it was kind of tear shaped..

I took some photos.. They didn't come out real well, but I saved the jug.. maybe I will try again.. The first is the entrance hole..

Not clear but a perfect 284..

My photo posting ability is not good... This is a side view with water coming out the entrance hole.. Exit? is in the back about the same level, it is small enough not fluid is coming out.

I hope this is the entrance:

That is it and here is the exit.. It looks far bigger than it is.. I would judge maybe .22 size.. I don't know why this jug didn't explode.. Must be made from some really tough stuff.. Or the 7mm isn't enough gun!!!!!

The 7mm Wea..

That is a FINE looking 7mm Weatherby there! My solution would be to ream out the chamber to 7mm Mashburn Super, but then more gunpowder and more speed is always the answer to everything, right?

While the MAshburn is a good idea for other reasons, I want to help you decipher what has happened here.

Are the 120gr HP bullets you are using 'MATCH' bullets, by any chance? VS varmint or a hunting design? 30-40 years ago some local black bear hunters thought that the thicker jackets of the Match bullets would be just the ticket for shooting black bears. They learned (and I through observation) that oft times a bullet designed for target or match shooting will have too thick of a jacket at the nose plus a too small HP opening at the nose. Designed for utmost accuracy and a high ballistic co-efficient rather than reliable expension, which does not matter when shooting at steel or paper. Those 190gr 30 cal 'match' bullets were TERRIBLE on game. Often not expanding etc. That is my first educated guess.

My second thought is this, which has been repeated many times here: Shoot enough bullets into enough things, and on occasion wierd things - anomolies - will occur. They just do.

But please do look at the box of bullets and report back what the box says they are for.

My favorite 7mm bullet is the 120gr TTSX. The hollow behind that little plastic tip is NASTY, and the material it is made of is juuuuuusssssttttt right. They penetrate really well, even on large game, too.