bullet went poof

Mobuck

This hasn't happpened for a long time. I've used Remington 100 grain .257 bullets in several different cartridges for many years with excellent results. Since I had a bunch of them , I was using them in fireforming/breakin loads for a .257 Wby. Not a real hot load but not a puss either at around 3500 fps. I fired 2 at a new target to make sure of the scope setting and saw only one hole. Looked the case, OK. Looked in the bore, not there either. Then it clicked, I had noticed a slight blue haze about 20-30 feet out after the second shot. Since it was early morning I dismissed it as a halo/rainbow effect from the bullet passage. This the first occurance with this bullet so I'm going to chalk it up to a bum bullet but I'll keep it in mind.

nononsense

Mobuck,

Good recovery from a visual memory!

That's usually what the problem is with most bullets. The core is slightly off, there was an air bubble in the core, the jacket wasn't concentric, etc. I used to get these a lot when I was working with hyper velocity cartridges and light weight bullets. There have been incidents of a rough spot in the barrel but you would have seen more of the blow ups, consistently.

Best.

elubsme

This happens when shooting a lightly constructed bullet in a fast twist barrel at very high velocity. Centrifugal force is disintegrating the bullet before it reaches the target. I believe that Hornady produced a .22 bullet called the TNT. They warned not to load it over a specific velocity or the bullet would self destruct. I think this phenomenon is called "misting". I have witnessed this myself when shooting Remington 87 grain 25-20 bullets at super high velocity.[;)]Eddiequote:Originally posted by Mobuck
This hasn't happpened for a long time. I've used Remington 100 grain .257 bullets in several different cartridges for many years with excellent results. Since I had a bunch of them , I was using them in fireforming/breakin loads for a .257 Wby. Not a real hot load but not a puss either at around 3500 fps. I fired 2 at a new target to make sure of the scope setting and saw only one hole. Looked the case, OK. Looked in the bore, not there either. Then it clicked, I had noticed a slight blue haze about 20-30 feet out after the second shot. Since it was early morning I dismissed it as a halo/rainbow effect from the bullet passage. This the first occurance with this bullet so I'm going to chalk it up to a bum bullet but I'll keep it in mind.

FrancF

I have had the same with some 22-250 loads using spsx jacketed bullets.
In short, it was moving to fast! Backed off the load and everything was fine.

sandwarrior

I had this same problem with my .257 WBY. I would shoot an 8" group with Sierra's then a .5" group with Noslers. Then a 4" group w/Speers. I figured this was a bad barrel. One day I tried the 200 after getting the Noslers to group really good. No hole in the paper... Again, same result. [:(!]WTH[:(!][:(!]!!![:(!] So I go down and Im looking at initially what looked like clean paper. I found a jacket stuck in the paper like a throwing star. I never saw the misting in the scope. Just good groups/bad groups...really bad groups. When I saw the jacket is when I realized the bullets were blowing up on me. I could only shoot Noslers in that rifle. It did shoot the 85's well, which are thinner jacketed varmint bullets. but Oh, did it drive me nuts...for at least a hundred bullets.

Mobuck

Current hunting loads are using Nosler 115 BT and 110 Accubond with satisfactory results. I may have to replace my Chrony as it seems I'm getting velocity readings not verified by long range trajectories. I'm going to give the light diffuser a cleaning and see if results improve. Since I'm using reformed 264 Win brass, I use actual velocity as part of my load workup process.