What Caliber is This?
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Ralphie Boy
Minister of Fire
nrford
Minister of Fire
We've been debating at work. It came from an oak tree that we cut down along our railroad tracks, and then I bucked and split over the weekend. We cut this one down near a large timber.
We're in Iowa - so not much high-power shooting but more shotgun slugs and blackpowder. When I first saw it I thought it was a shotgun slug. But then I cut it out and it was too small. It was very deformed. I was thinking .50 cal blackpowder, but this thing went into the wood about 6". A muzzleloader wouldn't do that!
And yes - copper jacket - which still could be a sabot from a blackpowder or rifled shotgun barrel........anyone a forensics expert????
We're in Iowa - so not much high-power shooting but more shotgun slugs and blackpowder. When I first saw it I thought it was a shotgun slug. But then I cut it out and it was too small. It was very deformed. I was thinking .50 cal blackpowder, but this thing went into the wood about 6". A muzzleloader wouldn't do that!
And yes - copper jacket - which still could be a sabot from a blackpowder or rifled shotgun barrel........anyone a forensics expert????
Ralphie Boy
Minister of Fire
I still think it's a lower velocity round like .35 Rem. Maybe 30/30 WIn. I think a higher velocity would destroyed its self unless it struct the tree from a long way out. How deep into the tree did you find the round?
clemsonfor
Minister of Fire
looks like .30 to me? A 50 cal is a half an inch in diameter?? I doubt many folks have Barrets in your neck of the woods let alone the country so that means if its 50 cal its most likely muzzleloader. I see a copper jacket as well. Dig it out see if you can see evidence of a round tip or pointed to tell you if its .30/30 or other .30 cal. but its most likely all deformed.
Is there any rifling marks on the bullet? If not, most likely a Remington Copper Solid sabot or Barnes Expander sabot from a shotgun or muzzleloader. I use the Barnes exclusively in my muzzleloader and most of the time in my slug gun. I could go and take the micrometers to them to find out the exact caliber if you need me too.
Was using a tree to hang targets on several years ago in a quarry. As I was shooting at it with my .300 Win Mag, I was noticing puffs of dirt coming up. Thought I was missing the entire target and tree and hitting the quarry's dirt wall behind the tree. Went down to take a look and the Barnes moly coated X Bullets were going right through the tree and the shots were really well placed in the middle of the target. I was somewhat shocked that the bullets were going through the tree.
Are rifles legal to hunt with in Iowa? Not that it would be the end all of the discussion but if it is from a hunter I would guess jacketed or copper sabot from a front end loader. If rifles are legal then there is a miriad of 30cal. rounds it could be and gently digging it out would add evidence to help decifer the mystery
The deer got away, but you did get yourself a nice looking tree . . . you should mount that over your fireplace . . . or in the fireplace.
. Its definetly no copper solid or barnes because anyone who has shot them and inspected them afterwards, knows that they open up every time like a banna peel! My vote is a .50 cal muzzleloader shooting the powerbelt bullet. Plastic jacket around a .45 cal bullet. BTW. Put one is your pocket for the day and walk around. It wont be jacketed anymore. They should be called thinly plated. What a crappy bullet.
Holy cow! Is that the exit side? Maybe a new way to split wood? How much are those bullets?
How far away were you from the tree? 44 mag is a hand gun right?
I disagree. I have a board with a jacketed 30-06 perfect cross section in it. My dad made a cabinet and put it in the front door when he found the board.
The expansion depends on a lot of things, and usually the expansion occurs when the bullet hits soft tissue. I have retrieved all of two Barnes Expanders from deer when they got lodged in a shoulder, and while they were fully expanded it was because the deer was quartering away and the bullet went in from the mid point of the deer and traveled to the front shoulder. The expansion of a bullet in wood might be a lot different, especially if the wood is dense. The wood will not move out of the way as easily as soft tissue.
Might have to figure a Barnes Expander into a log and then go digging to see what it looks like. However, not that bored yet today.
- Oct 3, 2007
- 1,539
I have another on in my bathroom door, but no metal jacket, and not a perfect profile like this one
What is hard to believe with that bullet cross section is that there is not damage wood from where the bullet came into the tree. Might have been a very shallow "wound channel", but I would have thought there would have been some destroyed wood behing the bullet's base, but it appears that is not the case. Just awesome to see these bullets in the wood. Now, I want to go shoot up a tree and cut it down 20 years later to find the bullets. Wonder if they would move upward with the growth of the tree.
Fabio- the bullet was in myomere of wood a long time, so that it was well healed. Here's a backup pic
![[Hearth.com] What Caliber is This?](https://www.hearth.com/talk/attachments/image-webp.91484/ "[Hearth.com] What Caliber is This?")
I'm not disputing that the bullet was in the tree. That and the pics are awesome, and the backup pic is even better where you can see the dark wood around the bullet. Truly awesome. Thing is, my brain is always working and wondering. For instance, I am wondering why we see no wound channel trailing behind the bullet like what is left in balistic gelatin. Wondering if the tree was able to repair the wound channel somehow. Also wondering if maybe the bullet entered the tree in some weird way and came to lay sideways at the end of its travels and the wound channel would have actually be directly behind the board. Wondering if maybe the bullet barely entered the tree, and hence the reason for there being no disruption of wood grain behind the base of the bullet. I just find it fascinating that the bullet got there and we cannot see the way it traveled through the wood to get there.
A 30 cal is not going to have deep penetration in most trees. That bullet probably made it to just "submerged". Years of growth covered it up and bada bing...you got bullet in tree with no trace marks.
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