At the range today...

[WNYBuckHunter]

A buddy and I were at the range today with our 223s just burning some time and ammo. He had found some old golf balls laying around so he put them up on the 100 yard mound. I put a few up at 200. I started shooting them and when we went to check them I discovered a shot that I had made that will probably prove to be once in a lifetime. I shot a golf ball at 100 yards in such a way that the round got caught inside of it. I found the ball laying at the bottom of the berm wh a small hole on one side and big bulge in the other. I brought it home and just got done cutting it open. The following pics are what I found. Pretty cool.

Heres the ball, you can see the entrance hole and the chunk I cut out. also the bullet and a casing...

Here are a couple shots of the bullet...

And one more of the inside of the ball...

I probably couldnt repeat this again if I tried. 

[biggamefish]

How far out was that shot.  I would think that the bullet would have went through.

[WNYBuckHunter]

It was at 100 yards. I couldnt believe it. I hit another one at 200 that went right through the ball. I dont know why, but this one just hit the ball the right way to get it caught in there.

[Geno C]

mohawk action

[ny hunter]

Very cool.Just another one of those things that can't be explained.

[nyslowhand]

I probably couldnt repeat this again if I tried. 

Come on, give yourself some credit.

Bet you could!

I'm amazed it entered the golf ball, would have thought it'd deflect the ball...?

Some day I want to try the watermelon or gallon jug of water, looks neat.

[WNYBuckHunter]

Oh I could hit another one, thats not that hard lol. I just meant I probably couldnt hit one just right so the round stayed in it. Most of them that I was shooting would go flying up over the berm into the weeds and we couldnt find them, others would roll to the top of the mound and then back down, but the bullets went right through, but this one didnt.

[Doc]

How was the golf ball supported? Was it sitting against a dirt bank? Or was it sitting on top of something?

It looks to me like it might be a case of how much resistance (inertia) to moving back the golf ball encountered. for example if the ball were supported so that only its weight caused the resistance (as in sitting on top of some horizontal rail or something), there might not be enough inertia to cause complete penetration. If you were to set the ball against a dirt embankment where its rearward movement were obstructed, the results might be considerably different. That sounds like a fun experiment.

Doc

[Mr VJP]

Golf balls are pretty tough.  Most of the shot probably didn't hit the ball dead center, so they could pass through.  But this one looks like it hit the center core which is very tough, and could stop it.

Were these FMJ bullets?  Maybe this load had a little less velocity?

[WNYBuckHunter]

The balls were sitting on the dirt embankment. Some of them were pushed into the dirt a bit, I dont know if this one was or wasnt. I think VJP is right, it hit the core in a manner that slowed it down enough to stay in there. I have another one that went right through, but it wasnt in the core, it stayed in the outside layer. These were FMJs, Remington UMCs to be exact.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

was it a par 3 or a par 4 range?

[WNYBuckHunter]

Well, the longest shot is 200 yards, so par 3 lol