Do you hunt with HPs?

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Nope, bullets/boolits don't go far in water!

When I was a kid in Eastern Oregon, there was a high banked section of the JohnDay river not far from our house. Happened to be a big bunch of BIG CARP in this spot.

So, one day the boys from next door and I took our hunting rifles down to harvest some carp. They had 270s and I was using my .32 Winchester Special.

Funny, but those carp seemed really close to the surface yet after repeated shots there was no blood in the water and no carp on the bank.

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[softpoint]

One of my friends, some years ago actually did fire some .45 acp. Gold Dots into his swimming pool to test expansion. Put on his swim trunks and went in and retrieved them. They mushroomed quite nicely, too. That's where I got the ideaI wish i did have a clear water container large enough to shoot into and retrieve the boolits.

[JJC]

I have thought about using a 8 or 10" pvc pipe. Cap the back end and maybe file down the cap up front thinner or figure something else out for the bullet to enter. Or the plastic empty coffee cans filled with water and tape up the lid. Stack them length wise end to end.

[41mag]

Well you could always do like the old FBI test and shoot into two 55 gallon barrels on atop of the other from a second story window, roof, or a tall ladder.

Like someone else mentioned, they don't go far before slowing and simply falling to the bottom. I have also been in a pool while some were shot into it.

As a side note, we were on the bottom in 10' of water and against the side directly below where the fellow was shooting from. He shot out at around a 45* angle from us so there was no danger of us being hit. I have to say it was pretty cool to watch the spiraling bubbles and the bullet slowing down.

[softpoint]

Plastic jugs and plastic coffee containers are ok, they just don't "heal" themselves. One shot, and you have to re-do the whole thing. A long, deep trough, I suppose. Or position a large pipe at an angle so you could fire directly into it.

[Thumbcocker]

A hardware cloth basket on a couple of ropes would make retrieval a lot easier.

[Fenring]

I shot a 185gr JHP from a .45 Glock into a 44 gallon drum of water - straight down. The bullet had enough oomph to hit the bottom and put a small dent.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

How deep is that 44gal container?

CDOC

[Fenring]

According to Wikipedia what we call a "44" is the same size as a US "55" so 33.5" high.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Thanks!

Really !!!!! surprised the boolit would have enough "oomph" to dimple the bottom after that much water. Figured it would just be slowly settling to the bottom by that distance.

CDOC

[missionary5155]

Greetings
Rarely do I use a HP anymore. I get my load test done then cast up a few softer boolits just to fire that one shot. So far never had any regrets.
Mike in ILL.

[jimd46902]

I shot a Texas hog in the head with my 357 Marlin using 180 gr cast gas check bullets at about 35 yards, not only got complete penetration but went through the spine (just ahead of the pelvis) of a pig behind her that I did not see.. complete penetration also.

[Oreo]

Two birds with one stone eh?

[michael30.06]

Now be honest, you were just saving money on reloading supplies. Shootin them 2 at atime.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Have thought I'd like to take a 2fer. Just need to get a couple whitetails lined up correctly when I have 2 tags.

CDOC

[Wolfer]

I've told this story before but here it is again.
I once was wanting to check a boolit for gas cutting in my 45 colt. I duct taped the end of a 4" PVC pipe and propped it up on my baler tongue so it was at about a 30 degree angle.
I backed off about 5 ft and lined up with the pipe, when I lit the fire much to my surprise a 4" stream of water came at me like a fire hose, washed my hat off my head and the only dry spot I had was right down the middle of my back.
It blew the duct tape off of that 10' piece of pipe and still hit the ground hard enough to put a small ding in the nose of the boolit but it didn't appear to have any gas cutting.

[waksupi]

Uh huh, I see others here didn't take high school physics! This reminds me of a rice episode for catching boolits.

[Oreo]

Likewise, it appears that no one here watches Mythbusters.

[nekshot]

siince we are way off the original post, in my early days of trying to see how boolits would perform I heard of shooting them in a bag of lime. It worked till one went thru the lime and penetrated my tractor sidewall. I usually learn quick when it costs me money.

[Wolfer]

siince we are way off the original post, in my early days of trying to see how boolits would perform I heard of shooting them in a bag of lime. It worked till one went thru the lime and penetrated my tractor sidewall. I usually learn quick when it costs me money.

Any collage you go to charges a tuition. The school of hard knocks is no different.
I've found there's a direct relationship between how much something costs you and how much you learn!