When traveling south from Gayndah in Queensland we heard a loud bang from the caravan area so stop check out the caravan to se what may have caused it , There was no sign of what had cause the bang and today I noticed a hole in the side of the Caravan near the wheel arch I have posted some photos can anyone think what may have caused this hole we were driving on a sealed road at the time .
From the inward pointing metal edges, it is obviously something that has gone through it from the outside. Maybe you kicked up something like a big metal nut?
But is at the front of the wheel arch and if the tug has flick up something I would think it would have hit the front of the caravan and the entry angle is from well to the left to side of the caravan
That aluminium is pretty thin - looks to me like something with a flat leading edge (pic 2 + 3) has impacted when moving towards the rear of your van. Could be a towbar, firewood someone was carrying, maybe even someone has plunged a crowbar/knife into the side and then levered it forward going by the shape of the hole. Any witness marks?
I was thinking a bullet hole as well. A mate who used to be a peanut farmer out Wondai way had a bad incident.
He was riding his tractor doing what farmers do when he had intense pain in his ankle.
A .22 bullet. No one around. Heard nothing.
Shattered ankle. At least he got to tell the the story. A few degrees higher & maybe not so lucky.
A small bullet passing through,say a small branch, would flatter out and loose a lot of momentum. Making a hole like that.
Scarey thought but there are idiots out there.
.. to me it looks like it could be a smallish stone which hit from a forward position.
the rough edge (towards the front) resembles a stone/rock entry point .. the other edge appears to be folded back inside showing the smooth fold line ..
My guess is the item is still inside .. where and how it came from to be there would need closer scrutiny ..
-- Edited by Jonathan on Saturday 13th of September 2014 06:54:44 AM
We had a similar thing happen on the Burnett Highway just north of Biloela, nothing to be seen for miles/klm's then this loud bang, we looked every where and found a large dint/groove in the near side rear section of the Nissan Patrol bumper bar.
We looked around for what may have caused the damage but the road was clear and I walked back for about 100mtrs and could not find any thing that could have caused the damage laying on the side of the road, so to this day it still remains a mystery to us.
The only thing I could think of was a bit of steel or may be a wheel nut of a truck or farm machinery.
Not saying its the same cause as yours, but my cousin's van got a large hole in the door of his caravan similar to that when he clipped a main road sign at the side of the road (the type that says workers ahead etc).
Apparently the sign swung around and one of the legs on the sign punctured the van.
The word "bullet" was used. A shotgun mostly ( but not exclusively ) uses "shot". Various size smaller pellets expelled in a group & gradually spreading out.
A bullet is a single body propelled from a rifle,handgun or similar.
Generally of lead or a lead core coated in copper.
If that passes through a sold substance ( tree branch as mentioned above) it can continue to travel but the impact deforms it ( Flattens).
This deformed projectile can travel a remarkable distance.
A tiny .22 cal bullet can travel over 2 Kms and still cause damage.
Deformed, it would be much less but 1/2 Km would not surprise me.
A gunshot injury and a shotgun injury are very different.
In clarifying all that, the wheelnut & sign leg suggestions sound interesting.
We may never know but it is fun to postulate.
I would say it was just something on the road that has flicked up. Once I watched a rock fly forward off my front wheel hit a tree and bounce back to break my windscreen. Many possibilities but possibly something flicked off your car hit a white post or tree and then the van. Whatever the cause just put it down to one of life's little mysteries and get on with enjoying life and vanning. Certainly wouldn't want you thinking about mad gunmen taking pot shots at caravanners
but, I was in the ARMY for 12 years and done a lot of shooting when I was younger as well...
but that there looks like a bullet hole to me... it has the classic characteristics...
but that doesn't mean it wasn't a stone either...
the "bang" is of concern to me as well... if a stone went through then you would not have heard it from your car.. I wouldn't think, but I could be wrong..
I've literally seen thousands of hole punched through aluminium in my times, and wow.. bullet hole...
classic shape...
and again.. that's not to say a similar shaped projectile couldn't make the same hole.. ie... a stone
