I shoot Dirt.
I was born in the mid 50's and Mentors & Elders were shooting dirt, before I was born.
I still shoot dirt.
Here is the real deal.
Guns were designed to shoot ammo of certain specifications and for an example, .38spl revolvers were manufactured to shoot 158 gr bullets to point of aim/point of impact. [POA/POI]
Another is 1911s and 200 gr loads, though the Military wanted a 230 gr...if memory serves 200 gr was what JMB designed the 1911 for originally.
200 gr HB 68 is a very accurate and very good load I and mine have used out of 1911s for all sorts of things, including handgun hunting for critters.
200 gr "flying ashtray" is another.
So factory ammo was shot, to determine feed, extract, repeat (reliability) , POA/POI.
Then Dirt.
The reason was to see how bullets held up.
Comparing store bought ( factory) to reloads.
Folks cast lead bullets, and getting the hardness and all set up, to reduce leading and get performance and ...
Check out any of the metallic loadings, designs, and whatever...
Investigate & Verify is just how I was mentored.
Dead serious, when I share how darn scary this Dirt test, revealed actual recovered bullets from critters felled, including two legged varmints!
Just a hand written record with bullets marked and kept in glass bottles medicine came in.
Shoot a critter, and compare bullets shot into dirt, with one recovered, with notes on gun, factory or reloads, and all the recipes.
Now critters have "coverings" , humans for instance have skin which is Elastic.
Very important to take into account elastic and other "coverings" such as fur, adipose fat and what-not.
Shooting Dirt.
Tom Givens tickled and surprised the daylights out of me, sharing he did this Dirt Test too, and wrote about it, in a Rangemaster Newsletter.
He even shared how human skin is elastic.
We took a box, and filled it with dirt.
Something elastic was stretched over the front to represent human skin.
Shoot the box through this "elastic" front.
Carefully get into the box of dirt to "see" and recover bullet, pellets, shotgun slugs, whatever "projectile" , including arrows and knife blades.
Investigate & Verify, like I said I was raised to do.
You see, there are a lot variables in all this "guns-n-loads" and one has to know what their and loads will do.
Mentors reloaded, handgun, rifle and even made slugs for shotguns, in .410, 28, 20 and 12 gauge.
We shared information as a "starting point" with each other, to sorta alleviate some time and resources for folks testing ammo, bullets, and what-not.
No need to use a store bought, or reload recipe, or cast bullet recipe, if a number of folks had had negative results.
Instead use the "suggestions" and narrow down Investigate & Verify loadings, find one/some , and tweak that load(s) for that gun, for that person's use.
Two guns, like shotguns, right off the assembly line one right after the other for instance, will not always shoot the same loadings the same, on pattern board for patterns, or slug groups.
Shooting that Dirt, assisted in them slugs (factory or homemade) in what worked in a shotgun for deer, or for hogs.
WE tested pellet loadings...even #9 shot, to #5, to 00 buck , any and everything, as pellets vary from how much antimony, and how "hard" they are.
Some shot is really soft, ( chilled) and even the "hard" ( target) differ in how soft or hard they are due to percentages of components.
Heck, some are not very round from the get go...
We KNEW what was was, as shotguns back them were fixed choke, and I still would rather have a fixed choke.
I know about them pellets, and deformity, and other Art & Science as I was raised to shoot dirt.
So this comes into play when using a shotgun for doves and quail, and then for small game and there is a difference in a wabbit and a Swamp wabbit, and duck and goose and...
Yeah, I know what projectiles looked like shot into that dirt, and what they looked like recovered from critters, including two legged critters.
Cows.
Dead Serious.
Not too long ago a 1928 Colt Detective Special and Vintage Model 36 ( forget year) using standard pressure, 158 gr, Lead Round Nose (LRN) put down a cow, with one shot.
Each gun, was used to put down one cow.
Each did so with one shot.
WE knew what them loads would do, as we had shot Dirt, and we had seen this load recovered from critters.
*old ways*