Ever Seen This Before?

Sentinel

Sentinel

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I have never seen this before. I was always under the impression bullets generally entered a target pointy end first.

Shot today from a Savage Model 12 (
 
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Wow, my Savage 10fp's BEST load was a 40g V-max in front of a good load of H335. Same twist as yours. But it also shot GREAT with 55g V-max in front of Varget....
 
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That's called Keyholing. You should definatly do some research.

Check the lot numbers on your bullets, if you get any variation in the base of the bullet from being perfectly flat it can cause keyholing.

Another cause is spinning a light bullet too fast.

Personally, I would try a different load combination. But hey, that's just my 2cents.

Powder type? Wet powder?
 
What are all those little dots? Any chance those are pieces of jacket material from disintegrating bullets? If so, you've either got very sharp lands that need further break-in to shoot the V-Max's or your velocity is too high for that twist rate/bullet combo.
 
Barrel twist is good for a 55 grain bullet. Give it a good cleaning. there is an integrity issue going on with the bore or crown. If you can borrow borescope, it may give you a better idea.
 
A 1 in 9 inch twist is for heavy bullets. try some heaver ones. also slow the 55gr bullets down and see how they group. are you having any bullets blow up before reaching the target. if so they are going too fast and you need to go to a heavier bullet or slow the 55gr down.
 
The V max is being pushed by 25.4 gr of Varget.

The flecks on the target are just wear and tear on the Shoot n c surface.

I'm pretty meticulous on my loads. I only have two loads for this rifle, 55 Vmax and 75 gr A Max. The 75grs punch perfect little holes, the 55gr load seems to make ragged holes.

I'm beginning to think the load is too hot for the Vmax and it's over-stabilizing but JEPHS says they worked for him.
 
I'm running 26.4 gr of Varget with a 55 gr VMAX through my Stevens 200 .223 (1/9 twist) and I'm not seeing anything like what you are seeing. Think maybe you have a bad crown or the jackets are becoming damaged during feeding?
 
Set your bullets down point up on a LEVEL surface and see if they are at right angles to the surface. ANY deviation can cause keyholing. I have ran into this with berger bullets. Also, as it has been mentioned already give the barrel a good scrubbin' and check the crown. Next, see if you can borrow a chrono from somebody. Your powder may have issues. There are multiple things that can cause keyholing.

I have always had good luck in .223's with 26gr of H4895 and sierra soft points.

Good luck! And let us know what you find to be the problem.
 
If your powder was contaminated or your cases had water, tumbling media, or oils it may not generate enough velocity to stabilize the bullet. Did you hand weigh or progressively throw these charges? If your powder measure was not working right, you could have undercharged drastically. Varget is not one of the best metering powders out there.

Normally, a 55 grain V-Max is about perfect for a 1/9 twist. A chrono would tell you for sure. 25.4 grains of Varget is not a hot 223 load at all. The only other thing that no one has mentioned, is your bullets may have been hitting some tall grass before getting to the target.
 
1st I have pushed 55 v maxs to 4000 before and they can take it.

2nd becuse this is a inconsistant problem I would guess you have a bad batch of bullets

3rd keep in mind that a 1-12 1-14 is optimal for that weight not 1/9. I cant say with certanty that is the problem but I have never ran 4000 with a 1/9 barrel. assuming thats a .223 at say 3100 fps it would put it as some where around 20,666 rpm instead of the 13,287 rpm with the 1/14.

Finally a funny story about a friends, friends friend sort of aquintence. He came alone pd shooting to sight in a freshly barreled 220 swift AI. Guy was shooting 40 grn v-maxs and could not get on paper at 25 yards. Well, i suspected something wrong by the sound of the muzzleblast but the guy was quite headstrong so I stayed quiet. He moved back to shoot over the hood of his 2002 (New at the time like 200 miles!!) chevy truck. First round went off and i thought he had fired a carless handload blowing up the action. It looked like a hand grenade went off and yes i have seen what that looks like! Well the bullets were coming out of a 1/7 twist barrent and coming apart. This happen to take place over the hood of the truck and dam near took off the fender!

just food for thought

Good luck and never forget to be careful
 
had that happen with my old 30-0-6 with 130 gr bullits never shot under 150's again with it. i was a kid and don't know what caused it. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
 

Wow...

... some interesting "theories" here!

Water in the powder? Oil in the powder. Varget doesn't measure well enough and velocities are so low that bullets are not stabilized?

If there was water and/or oil in the powder to the extent that the velocities were THAT low, the bullets would not be "in the group"... they would be many inches (or feet) below the rest of the normal bullet holes.

Varget does not measure as well as ball powder, but even the worst powder measure can throw Varget within +/- .15 grains... unless the powder measure is a snow shovel!

What shooters with experence know, is that bullets tumble. Little bullets tumble, and big bullets tumble - spend some time in the target pits of a 30 caliber match sometime, and reqd the targets.
Often, shooters will try to invent a reason, with absolutely no scientific information.

Some will say that it because the bullet was "sub sonic" except that it happens to bullets that are way over the speed of sound.

Some say that the bullets are coming apart because of spinning too fast... except that the fingerprint of jacket failure is a gray comet tail on the target, and often, that is missing.

The comment that 14" twist is proper for the 55 Grain V-Max is also not true. The 55 grain V-Max (and Blitzking)is too long for the 14" twist and is OK for the 12". The 50 V-Max and BlitzKing are marginal for the 14" twist.

The 9" twist is NOT too fast for the 55 V-Max. Lotsa guys shoot these bullets out of 7" twists (I do, with no problems).

Keep in mind that the 50 gr V-Max and BlitzKing are LONGER than the 55 grain softpoints which are maximum length for the 14" twist at ~3,500 to 3,800 fps.

It should be obvious that the bullet started out stable, and started to tumble near the target... if it was not stable from the beginning of it's journey, it would have wandered further from the group.

That's all that can be determined from what is presented here... all the rest is just guessing games.


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A comment was made that the slugs were spinning too fast causing keyholing. Thats not correct.

Too slow a spin will cause keyholing not too fast. If the slugs are good, too fast a spin might increase group size but won't give you keyholing like shown in the target. Don
 
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