A
Augustus
Guest
Well, some of you may have witnessed the flap that Tom Sarver and myself got into about whether or not a clay bird could be broken by a near miss.
I may now be the foremost expert on exactly what it takes to break a bird by a projectile that does not make a direct hit. I did all the shooting with a 308 at 600 yds and a 223 at 300 yds. I shot the little guys on dirt, clay and gravel mix, scattered rocks and steel. I also set some in the middle of a hardpacked road.
First up was the steel because I already knew from yesterday what was going to happen here. I stuck a piece of long tape to the edge of the bird and hung it in the center of an 18 inch gong. The 223 at 300 yds broke the clay 7 out of ten times. the closest strike was 2 in from the edge of the bird. The gong was a little angled and the clay broke in every instance when the projo stuck on the short side. I put one six inches away and it broke. I backed up to 600 and broke out the 308. Breakage was 10 for 10. Strikes were 4 to six inches from the edge of the clay.
I then fired into the other materials and had several breakages from indirect hits. There were two settings that produced the bulk of the indirect breakages. The one that produced the most was the hard packed road bed. When the rd struck centered and low within a foot or so the bird usually broke. The scattered rocks produced indirect breakages but the results were very erratic. It all depended on the nature of the material that was struck, how far it was from the bird and the angle of the surface.
To be fair to Tom I found a spot that had loose dirt that had no rocks or gravel. I fired ten rds and only had one break. The breakage came from a low strike that went just under the rim. If one was firing at these in sand I would expect none would break unless there was a centered hit just under the rim.
Well thats an over-view of what I gleaned from shooting most of the day. Cheers
I may now be the foremost expert on exactly what it takes to break a bird by a projectile that does not make a direct hit. I did all the shooting with a 308 at 600 yds and a 223 at 300 yds. I shot the little guys on dirt, clay and gravel mix, scattered rocks and steel. I also set some in the middle of a hardpacked road.
First up was the steel because I already knew from yesterday what was going to happen here. I stuck a piece of long tape to the edge of the bird and hung it in the center of an 18 inch gong. The 223 at 300 yds broke the clay 7 out of ten times. the closest strike was 2 in from the edge of the bird. The gong was a little angled and the clay broke in every instance when the projo stuck on the short side. I put one six inches away and it broke. I backed up to 600 and broke out the 308. Breakage was 10 for 10. Strikes were 4 to six inches from the edge of the clay.
I then fired into the other materials and had several breakages from indirect hits. There were two settings that produced the bulk of the indirect breakages. The one that produced the most was the hard packed road bed. When the rd struck centered and low within a foot or so the bird usually broke. The scattered rocks produced indirect breakages but the results were very erratic. It all depended on the nature of the material that was struck, how far it was from the bird and the angle of the surface.
To be fair to Tom I found a spot that had loose dirt that had no rocks or gravel. I fired ten rds and only had one break. The breakage came from a low strike that went just under the rim. If one was firing at these in sand I would expect none would break unless there was a centered hit just under the rim.
Well thats an over-view of what I gleaned from shooting most of the day. Cheers
