Bow Tie Bullet hole

boltthrower

Someone earlier reported a bow tie shaped bullet hole in their paper targets when shooting their AR15 223. I cant recall the possible cause and resolution for it. Can someone speculate? I'm seeing a little bit of it myself with mine.

v35

Yawing can account for it. Bullets aren't being stabilized.
What bullet weight are you using and what is the rifling pitch?
Are they handloads and what is the estimated velocity?
How many rounds have gone through the barrel?

boltthrower

Its 122 gr HP Wolf....cheap stuff. 1 and 12 or 9, cant remember now.
I bought it used, so its hard to say how many rounds. I've fired about 500 through it. I gave it a good cleaning after about 250. This is a new development, hasnt always bow tied since I've had it. Have always used the Wolf primarily, and some Remington which worked well, but is too expensive if firing volume.

temblor

What caliber is your gun? With 122gr I would guess it's a 7.62x39? -- If it's not always done this with this weight bullet it may be the barrel crown. Check the end of the muzzle to see if it's been hit or damaged. If it has, sometimes the bullet won't leave the barrel straight........[8D]

A J Christ

sounds to me like the bullets are not being stabilized and tumbling. This willresult in poor accuracy, especially at longer ranges. Wrong bullet weight/spin ratio would be my first guess. Try heavier bullets or lighter bullets and see what happens. Also inspect the end of the barrel for damage. Let us know what happened or what you did to fix things.

Contender Man

I've never seen 223 bullets heavier than 80gr, but I won't say they are not made because as soon as I do some will have info on them[:D]

I really think you have a "15" chambered in 7.62x39 as 122gr is the standard Wolf load.

If your barrel is 1:12 your most likely going to have some stabalizing problems. 1:9 or faster and the bullet should stabalize.

As previously suggested check the crown. And if the crown looks OK see if you can scout up some different ammo w/ lighter and heavier bullets, especially lighter weight as they stabalize at slower twist rates.



If you only have time to do two things so-so, or one thing well ... do the one thing!

boltthrower

Sorry, its an ar15 with 55 gr bullet....have a 7.62 I was shooting the same day and , well when you get old you put 122 when you mean 55 I reckon. Gave the ar15 a cursory look over, opened her up, put her back together. Took her out on a date this weekend....no more bow tie rounds. Maybe bad ammo, maybe bad shooting day, maybe gremlins.

1KYDSTR

Here's another idea for you to chase (like you havn't been given enough already!). Since this problem seemed to disappear, what was the composition of your paper target? Also, the composition of the target hanger backdrop? May sound a little silly or oversimplified but if you were using very light paper or by the same token a very light backing material, the spitzer bullet will have a tendency to "rip" a hole through the paper. If you are using nice heavy card stock and/or a very heavy cardboard backer the fmj or spitzer bullet will appear as though you were using "wadcutters" if the bullet is at all stabilized! Could be I'm oversimplifying the issue but I always try to eliminate the simple things first! Please, anyone, post back if you think I'm all wet on this one.

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boltthrower

Now that you mention it.....the day I was getting the bowtie, I was using the standard targets that the range gives you, but they had changed them from from a flat finish to a glossy finish. The day I was no longer getting the bowtie anymore, I went back to using my own stash of official NRA 25 yard slow pistol targets, which is a heavier non glossy finish.