28 nosler, vapor trailing?

[Ingwe]

What you are seeing is water vapor in the air being heated and compressed by the passage of the bullet...kind of like miniature clouds or the white trails you see when a jet airplane is at high altitudes....they call that a contrail, or condensation trail.

Perfectly normal and cool to see isn't it?

 

[greenejc]

Long before Hammer bullets were a twinkle in someone's eye, vapor trails were known, seen and used by military snipers and spotters. Its just the shockwave of the bullet causing the moisture along the bullet's path to condense in the air. Its visible in a spotter scope when the scope is used to observe the bullet's path by placing the scope's focus about halfway to the target to 2/3 of the way to the target. Its listed as a technique listed in FM23-10 on page 3-14 as an observer field technique and explains what the vapor trail is and how its created. It has nothing to do with oil in the hollowpoint on a Hammer bullet, but is condensate due to the bullet shockwave as it goes downrange. By the way, this manual is one of the better tools for teaching long range shooting accuracy under field conditions. You should get a copy. It will answer a lot of your questions about advanced marksmanship.

 

[greenejc]

What you are seeing is water vapor in the air being heated and compressed by the passage of the bullet...kind of like miniature clouds or the white trails you see when a jet airplane is at high altitudes....they call that a contrail, or condensation trail.

Perfectly normal and cool to see isn't it?

Thats exactly what it is.

 

[RockyMtnMT]

Some great pics and video!

We blow out the hollow points with air compressor. It gets most of the oil out but does leave a bit. We have seen a diff in the amount of trail with the different cutting oils that we have used. So I do believe there is a trail left by the burning off of some leftover oil. I don't think there is any effect on bullet flight. The only other way that we have come up with to get the oil out of the hollow point is to make a centrifuge to sling it out. It has not been a priority at this point.

 

[yorke-1]

Long before Hammer bullets were a twinkle in someone's eye, vapor trails were known, seen and used by military snipers and spotters. Its just the shockwave of the bullet causing the moisture along the bullet's path to condense in the air. Its visible in a spotter scope when the scope is used to observe the bullet's path by placing the scope's focus about halfway to the target to 2/3 of the way to the target. Its listed as a technique listed in FM23-10 on page 3-14 as an observer field technique and explains what the vapor trail is and how its created. It has nothing to do with oil in the hollowpoint on a Hammer bullet, but is condensate due to the bullet shockwave as it goes downrange.

I don't think anyone was implying that the vapor trail is an exclusive trait of the Hammers. The cutting oil does make for a more significant "vapor trail" at times, which isn't actually a vapor trail at all. I'll see if I can find the video I have of shooting a 300 RUM loaded with 181 HH bullets from two different lot #s on the same trip. You can see the normal vapor trail with one shot, and the next much more of a smoke trail.

 

[Varmint Hunter]

I've only seen it a few times but the last time was when my guide recorded my elk kill with his PhoneScope. Interestingly enough, the bullet was a 181gr Hammer Hunter fired from a 30 Nosler.

 

[Rick Richard]

The bull in my avatar was shot at 650 yards with a Berger bullet and The guide could plainly see the vapor trail all the way to the impact.

 

[Andrew Massi]

No I was worried cause the bullet requires a 1-8.5 when my gun is only 1-8.6

Your barrel is likely a 1:8.5 twist with a typo on the website. Doubtful they would spin up two 28 cal blanks and differ the twist by .1
If for some reason it is a 8.6 your cartridge will more than make up the difference and stabilize just dandy.

 

[MagMan]

Caught this one today
6.5x47L with 124 HH

 

[Ingwe]

Caught this one today
6.5x47L with 124 HHView attachment 213579

Wow! Forget the vapor trai...who did the leopard paint job on your rifle?? From the little I can see of it it looks awesome!

 

[MagMan]

It's cheetah and a dip. Daughters rifle and she picked It. Thanks for the kind words it did turn out pretty cool.

 

[Randy Tidwell]

One of my favorite things to do set spotting scope just side directly behind the shooter in a misting rain, you ca actually see the hole in the rain.

 

[lyle2231]

I've had a hankering for a long time for a 28 nosler so I finally made a dream come true and went out and bought a seekins havak (it does have the seekins brake). I finally got her all dressed up with a leupold lrp and loaded up some adg brass from 78-81.5 h1000 shooting 169 hammer hunters looking for pressures and breaking in the barrel (the hammers do require a 1-8.5 and the Havak is a 1-8.6 but there was no key holing?)
While shooting my father noticed you could literally see a spiraled trail all the way too 100 yards but it was at the blink of an eye. I shot two of each loadings at .5 grain increments and managed to get this still frame picture of what im talking about in a video that is attached.
So what is causing this?
Sorry bout the ignorance just never had this happen before with any other Rifle before.
Thanks!

Afterburner cut in excess fuel burning off!

 

[oldpilot]

Yes, you are exactly correct about being slightly out of focus causing the trail to be more visible. That's what we were taught when watching for them. They can be seen as long as the bullet is creating a supersonic shockwave, so as long as the projectile is going faster than sound, you get a vapor trail. In high crosswinds it is very hard to observe, and in really dry environments the trail is less visible, but a good spotter can trace it to the target. As to oil in the hollow point, I think you'd need an awfully lot for it to be visible, and the amount in one of the Hammer bullets wouldn't even be a full drop. It would be vaporized in about 10 feet, I think. And since its in the front of the bullet, I think it wouldn't make any difference, since it would be held there by momentum and pressure. That's why the Military puts tracer mixes in the back of a projectile instead of in the front.

I have seen it on 20mm cannon shells in vietnam, on gunnery ranges in the south, but rarely on the Arizona or Nevada ranges. You could see it coming at you from 50 cal AA fire; great way to locate gf.