This might be the fastest ‘next post’ in a series ever. In the last post I mentioned the keyholing issue, which first made itself known firing Aardvark Bullets cast 124gr. RNL. I briefly considered that it might be these bullets, as I have had other Aadvark bullets with an inexplicable tendency to key-hole. Nah, I thought, what are the odds?

In response to my previous post today a couple people suggested that opening the sides of the weight might relieve the shockwave in the tube and keep the bullets from destabilizing. What the hell, it can’t get more broken, right? I locked the weight down on the drill-press and punched me some holes, then headed back to the range to see what would happen.

What happened was interesting. With the 124gr JHPs over 5.8gr of Unique groups were tighter and fewer bullets Key-holed. The tighter group indicates that the bullets were yawing less; the more they yaw the bigger the spread. There seems to have genuinely been a positive effect on the Jacketed bullets.

OK, not perfect but it’s a step in the right direction. Let’s see how the 124gr. cast bullets fare.

Poorly, as it happens. Every single bullet key-holed. Hmmm… my Spidey sense was tingling. I loaded an eight-round magazine for my Sig-Sauer P6 and took a few shots.

Every bullet key-holed. Against expectations the Aardvark 124 gr RNL lead appear to be crap. I couldn’t test the jacketed bullets through the Sig because I’d fired them all, but it looks like I need some new bullets to try, and this time I need to make sure that damn things fly straight before I test them in the project gun!

A bit of a roller-coaster day, but it appears this project is not dead yet. Stay tuned for further developments!

Stay safe and take care,

Michael Tinker Pearce, still 16 December 2021