round ball bounces off dall ram at 30 yards

[ThunderHeart]

Last august i was hunting at a ranch in Lawn Tx i had been stalkin a rather nice sized Dall ram when he finally gave me a nice broad side shot at 30 yards . I was hunting with a cva mountian rifle using 90 grains of pyrodex( i had a canister left from when i was using an inline) and a patched round ball I took the shot and as soon as the smoke cleared we seen him drop like a lead brick in a waterin hole .We gave him a minute or two before we walked up to get him and as we reached where he had fell He suddenly looks up "baaaaa's " and hop's up and runs off The fella i was with had the bino's and said he was hit in the shoulder and shouldn't be walking around .. but he was... we finally stalked to within 15 yards of him i made the shot with the same load and finished him off. when we rolled him over to look at the first shot the only damage done was his hide was torn but the round ball didnt even go into the muscle . Have any of you ever seen anything like that happen ?? Im still tryin to make sense of it I killed a blackbuck doe at 40 yards with the same load hit her in the shoulder breakin the shoulder and hitin both lungs . so any ideas why the round ball bounced off the ram ?

 

[Stumpkiller]

Unless you caught a branch the only thing that would cause that is a squib load. Too little powder, or spoiled powder. Moisture or oil in the breech or powder container, leeched lube, something caused the charge to lose power. The roundball does not "bounce" if pushed well enough.

 

Does leached lube mean that the lube has fowled the powder?I have never had a load in longer than a couple minutes so I dont know about this.

 

[Old Charlie]

I always use an over powder wad. That way the lube can't fowl the powder.
Old Charlie

 

[ThunderHeart]

this is why i am baffled as to what happened there was no brush in front of him so no branches to be hit as far as the load the powder was fine it came out of a new can that was only 4 months old and had not been opened till the day before the hunt I learned long ago about keepin your powder dry and fresh . I dont believe the lube had any effect on my load either as i clean my gun with nothing more then water and dry it with several patches and then use a very light amount of bore butter to finish but i cant say fer sure that may not have had an effect . Thanks for yur in put .

 

[BS]

That must be one tough critter! :shocked2:

 

[harryo]

this is why i am baffled as to what happened there was no brush in front of him so no branches to be hit as far as the load the powder was fine it came out of a new can that was only 4 months old and had not been opened till the day before the hunt I learned long ago about keepin your powder dry and fresh . I dont believe the lube had any effect on my load either as i clean my gun with nothing more then water and dry it with several patches and then use a very light amount of bore butter to finish but i cant say fer sure that may not have had an effect . Thanks for yur in put .

Are you absolutely sure the ball wasn't short started?

 

That's absolutely amazing! I've never seen or herd of such a thing before! At least you got him with the second shot.

PS: I did'nt realize they had Dall Sheep in Texas.

 

[dmills]

Do you dry patch the barrel before the hunt to remove that bore butter before you load to shoot? Also, do you pop a cap or two at that time before you load the powder?

 

[John Wasmuth]

I was amazed as well, I was on that hunt with Thunderheart and caped out the critter. Never seen anything like it, that .50 round ball punched thru the wool, tore open the skin, cut about an inch into the meat, then went backwards. Left us all very puzzled. Texas Dall are a bit smaller than Dall Sheep, the breed was developed here in Texas at, I could be wrong, Texas A and M, many years ago. Beautiful rams, and not near bad on the spit neither.

 

[Slamfire]

Maybe he was kin to the ram Elmer Keith said was immune to 7mm Magnum ammo. :rotf:

 

[ThunderHeart]

yep! ball was nice and snug to the powder i have my ram rod marked just to help prevent that from happening . it was very interesting to say the least ... i wish someone had gotten a pic of my face as i walked up to him.. i was about 5 feet from him when he suddenly lifted his head looked right me and hollered what im sure was something not very kind in sheep language and then jumped to his feet and ran away with a couple of his buddies . I guess i may never know exactly why that ball didn't do its job . But i put him in the freezer in the end so i guess it dont matter that much and he was mighty fine eatten ! I just wish micanopy could have been there when i shot him to see him jump up LOL! at least he got to see it when he caped him out fer me at any rate it's events like these that make good stories of past hunts when your sittin around the campfire !! Thank you all for your input .

 

[roundball]

I'm going to make a comment that is nothing more than food for thought...usually when things happen which just make no sense at all...like a "round ball bouncing back out of a game animal"...it's almost always because we have not made the final, correct conclusion.

Backdrop:
I hit a buck too high on the shoulder with a powerful .35Rem cartridge out of a Marlin lever action and knew it when I did it...but he dropped in his tracks 50yds away, figured I'd hit his spine and began making my way to him...but like your situation, before I got all the way over to him he awoke, leaped up, and ran away like he was shot out of a cannon...I could see that I'd hit him in the layer of muscle tissue just above the shoulder but below the spine...no vitals hurt.

IMO, this may have been what happened in your case:
1) The powder charge was strong enough to deliver the ball with enough "whompability" to stun the animal, making it fall motionless for a while so that does not suggest a light load;

2) The ball didn't "bounce" back out of the game animal...that wouldn't happen...it was in there, but it simply wasn't found...round balls can change direction dramatically once entering a large bodied animal and could easily have take a 120 to 90 degree angle off in an unexpected direction where you wouldn't have looked for it;

3) The hit was high enough to miss the Rams vitals but close enough to the spinal region to deliver a temporary stunning shock effect to the spinal column (like my deer) then he recovered and got up;

There has to be a logical explanation and that's a very plausible possibility on how it may have happened.....just my .02 cents

:v

 

[Elkinde]

What's a guy doing with a picture of a modern rifle kill doing on a traditional muzz forum?

 

[guncobbler]

I think he's asking a legitimate question and getting a good answer. He looks pretty proud of the critter he just got. Appears to be following all the rules too. Congrats Crowhop! GC

 

[ThunderHeart]

i can tell you with the utmost certainty that the ball was not in the animal.. it bounced off.. the shoulder i hit was not damaged in any way from that shot! There was no damage done to that shoulder except the damage done to the hide and the first inch of muscle had it done what you suggest there would have been damage to the shoulder from the direction change of the ball there was none . I do agree the hit knocked him silly for a while but i didnt hit him that high. your ideas are good and i thank you for your input but that ball bounced off .. there was no entry wound anywhere on that side of his body other then the aforementioned wound and it did not penetrate the body cavity .I ate this animal and there was no round ball or lead fragments anywhere in the meat This is the theory i have come up with.. where i hit him on the shoulder he had some dense wool.. i believe the wool acted as a ball proof vest so to speak. As the ball made impact and began to expand the wool kept it from going any deeper then it did i realize how crazy that may sound but i do believe its a possible theory.

 

[Rebel]

Kevlar wool coated sheep. Nature is catchin' up with us. :grin:

 

[roundball]

".....where i hit him on the shoulder he had some dense wool.. i believe the wool acted as a ball proof vest so to speak. As the ball made impact and began to expand the wool kept it from going any deeper then it did i realize how crazy that may sound but i do believe its a possible theory.

That may well be all there is to it...
:v

 

I hear ya.Ill remove it.

 

Just out of curiosity ThunderHeart, What do those Sheep taste like? I've had samples of most wild game but I've never had sheep. Just don't tell me it tastes like chicken! :rotf: