I bought a new Springfield 1911-A1 last week. My father came over and he wanted to try it out. We weren't gonna do alot of shooting so instead of setting up a paper target we just shot at an old coffee can that we set on the ground.

After he shot 7 rds we walked over to see how many times he hit it. When I looked down I saw 2 bullets just sitting there on top of the ground. I thought that was a little odd. I put them in my pocket and then I shot 7 rds at the can.

When we walked up to check it out I found another bullet just sitting on top of the ground. Both times they were laying about 12" from the target.

Two of the bullets just looked dirty and the third had a dent on the nose like it hit a rock. I was using Speer Lawman 230 gr FMJ.

I've never found a bullet just laying on top of the ground right behind the target before.

Could they have went underground and came back up 1 foot from where they hit? Why didn't they stay underground? If they went under the dirt and came back up, why didn't they fly off somewhere instead of just laying on top of the ground?

Has this happend to anyone else before? Is it the ammo I was using?

funny you mention that, i just found the same thing for the first time ever a few weeks ago when shooting in a public gravel pit, the rounds were almost intact, in FRONT of the target.
i think if the hill is shaped just right, they skim the surface of the hill, richocheting back a few yards in an upward arc....

(edited to add that this is more common with .45 FMJ due to the low velocity compared to bullet weight.)

I've walked around our local range and seen intact .45 bullets laying on the ground also. Strange

OMYGOD!!!

You're describing a "MAGIC BULLET."

Every self respecting "expert" knows that that could NEVER happen.

Stop with the nonsense.

Now.

I've had this happen too.  Shooting at cans on a frozen pond covered with snow, we would find spend AK rounds lying on top of the snow.  There was a pretty big hill beyond the pond, but I don't know if they were coming back off of it.  The bullets were almost in pristine condition except for the rifling marks.

I see the same thing when shooting my 1911. This is normal. Think about it, the .45ACP round flies less than 1000 fps. which is quite slow. I know when I was in the army on the .45 range you could actually see the blur of the rounds going downrange if standing at the right angle. I have handfulls of what seem to be "pristine" projectiles that I have gotten from shooting my .45. On a similar note about 3 months ago I was out shooting my Detonics at a 25m spinner target. I fired and a split second later I felt something hit me in the gut. I look down and I pick up a fragment of a 230 gr. FMJ .45!!! So, lesson to be learned DO NOT FIRE FMJ ammo at metal targets!! DUH!!

Thats strange,... I have a similar problem,...

When I shoot 45 acp, .223 or 7.62x39, there is a huge pile of brass to my right. All in a pile. ALWAYS intact, but without a bullet lodged in the throat...

go figure...

45 acp hardball has a velocity of 850 fps in a 5" standard 1911.  That is slower than my german-made air rifle muzzle velocity of over 900 fps.  GI hardball will often hit the dirt berm and stop, barely deformed.  Hardcast SWC will deform some, but do pretty much the same thing in my experience.  So I wouldn't find this all too unusual.  I doubt you'll ever see GI hardball 45 fragment--jacket's too thick and velocity too slow for that to happen.

Quoted: Thats strange,... I have a similar problem,... When I shoot 45 acp, .223 or 7.62x39, there is a huge pile of brass to my right. All in a pile. ALWAYS intact, but without a bullet lodged in the throat... go figure...

Thats halarious..lol

I can understand .45 laying there, but I sure was surprised to find a couple of .30 rifle rounds sitting completely intact out at the range.  I understand that .30 doesn't fragment nearly as much as say a .223 but they still have a pretty good amount of velocity.  I would have thought there would be some pretty good deformation at least...espescially since they were HP.

Mike