Ricochet

Hit by BB

When I was about 8 I shot down into my mother's cast iron was pot (some of you youngsters may not know what that is) the BB came back and hit my left hand, lesson learned early and didn't do that again. That was 66yrs. ago. Al

Don't mean to hijack, just wanted to share a story... I've been shooting since I was 4 years old. However, the first time I ever fired a BB gun was when I was 16. That first shot was trying to pop a balloon. It bounced back and hit me in the eye. "You'll shoot your eye out! You'll shoot your eye out!" I couldn't believe that years of shooting real guns yielded no injury at all and one shot of a BB took me to the Doctor. LOL

Anyways, a guy in an indoor stall next to me once got hit by one of my ricochets. He thought it was hilarious, but it freaked me out. I guess it's more normal than I originally thought.

Shot into a pond with my .45. The round ricocheted ~90* to the right and buzzed right over the campsite around 100 yards away.


When it hit the water, it took an immediate right-angle turn and whizzed right over the camp. Bullets do some damn strange things sometimes...

Live with it and get over it. Or not

Our range had some pock marks in the back stop and the occasional .22 bullet would come back at us when shooting. Either whole or as splatter so we fixed the backstop yet again. I wish they had the cash to put in armor plate when the built it.

We get splatter all the time.

Couple of years ago had a shooter catch a 22 magnum jacket in the soft tissue above the right hip. Went to the hospital, got a picture of it and they left it in there. The ER called the police and they interviewed me because it was at my private range. The "accidental shooting" was in the newspaper the next day with a google map to my property. Mountains out of molehills.

splashback

I know I post up a lot of the same pics regarding the shooting of steel and problems arising from doing so.
If It's too repetitious, I apologize but feel some people don't see them so it's a first for many.
Points I try to make.
Shooting at scrap steel is just dangerous unless done so at relatively long distance 150 yds ++++ ++++++

Shooting flat mild steel ( non hardened or AR rated) with rifles is dangerous within 100 yds. Mild, like scrap junk targets should be shot at 150+++ and be one time, sacrificial use.
I have shot AR500 steel in a carbine class as close as 50 yds without issue.

Shooting mild steel with pistols CAN be OK as close as 7 yds although AR400, AR500, 550 and armor plate is preferable. Shooting mild should be limited to non magnum calibers and not with any pistol caliber carbines.
This is dimpled mild steel. The edges should be surface ground off between sessions.


This target was shot at close range ( with a rifle) when we went to another bay. We believe one of our party tried to get the plate to swing over but no one ever admitted to doing so. This is heavily cratered steel and if a bullet hits partially into the crater, there is a very good possibility of some coming back at you.



It was part of this setup ( just set here for pics).


This swing setup was used for quite a few group shoots with as many as 50 participants. The plate was 1/2" mild steel and after thousands of hits, started to bend slightly. The spring plates were shot at with pistol cal carbines. We disallowed further shooting when noticing how severe the rounds dented the 2" steel supports. The 2 lower right resetting Colt speed plates are AR500 targets purchased from MGM targets. These are 3/8" thick and can handle any pistol fire.



This 3/8" thick 8" round was hit with a S&W500 and Cor-Bon ammo. The bullet stuck in the plate at 20 yds




The spring plates were modified to angle forward to defect more bullet frags to the ground. You can see the outline of spatter down the support steel.


I ended up giving all of these away (except the AR rated ones) and purchased AR500 8" rounds from a guy on this site.

This was an experiment to see how much penetration various rifle and a few pistol rounds did to a piece of 1/2" thick mild steel. I shot from behind steel cover and set up paper to know POI before shooting the steel. I got no frags back that I'm aware of ( no dings or noise from the protective steel in front of me). I used 9mm, .40S&W, .44mag, 30-30, 30.06, .300 WinMag, AK & SKS 7.62X39, FR-8 and Ishapore 2A1 7.62X51, Wolf .223 (guess what's what )

Yes.

I was hit in the head by a ricochet from a 45 at an indoor range.

Best part was, I loaded it ( the cartridge) and my wife shot it.

I was bending down to grab some brass off the floor while she was firing...and WHAP...right in my melon...well, off the hat attached to my melon, anyway.

I personally have never been caught by a ricochet but my my cousin in-law has. Him and a friend were shooting a 22 rifle and a piece came back and hit him over one eye. Ended up looking way worse than it was what with how much you bleed from the head and all. Scared the crap out of everyone though, probably why I don't like the idea of shooting steel with anything.

Almost forgot, I have however been shot in the face with an arrow. Long story.

I haven't been hit with a ricochet...yet. I'll occasionally shoot the steel plates at the outdoor range I go to and have experienced quite a bit of splatter. I've even picked large-ish hunks of lead off of my clothing. I've had splatter draw blood twice..once on my forearm and once on my cheek. Didn't realize the cheek one until I got home. This is one of the reasons I shoot hardcast in most all of my handguns.

Ricochet !!!!!!!!

Years ago I was in the forest and shot a bowling ball with a Ruger in 45 colt. I shot it with a mild load that struck me on the forehead . It really rang my bells. It left a welt for about 6 months. I have never shot at anything at close range again. I dont know who left the bowling ball there,but I bet he was behind a tree laughing.

I was hit in the left temple with a 260gr 44mag bullet that came directly back from a bowling pin at 30ft. Bruised the snot out of head and dazed me. No blood, but man it stung! We found the bullet and it was fully intact! The one drew blood was on the skeet field. I was shooting a low 3 target and as soon as I broke the target a #9 lead pellet hit my left cheek. It stung a bit and bled a little. After the round I went into the restroom to have a look and saw a something shiny in the impact spot. Squeezed it and the pellet fell out opening the flood gates of blood. It took a few minutes to stop the bleeding and week or two to heal. Nearest we can figure is the pellet ricochetted off the target.

2 times, same range, same day

The first hit, struck me 2 inches above the eyebrow.

It drew a little blood, but didnt hurt much......

After a few minutes, (my customer still wanted to shoot)

I figured...... Whats the chance of that happening again????

30 seconds later a bounced round hit me on the first knuckle of my left hand..... Right on the end...... Sort of like having a ball peen hammer smacked on you......

I havent been back since.


I think the back stop was full of lead, and needed to be changed

12 gauge slug to the back, I almost got out of its way............

Took a jacket fragment from a 4" 586. came almost straight back and hit between my first and middle fingers of my firing hand. drew some blood too.

I'm recovering from a ricochet right now. A novice shooter managed to hit a steel frame around her target with a 9mm. Part of the jacket came back and lodged in my thigh, severing 25% of my femoral artery. We applied direct pressure and elevation, and while I laid there in a pool of my own blood, I made a point to forgive the lady who made the shot. You never know, right?

A vascular surgeon removed the fragment and patched me all up. I'm expected to make a full recovery. Financially though, that's another matter. Even with insurance, this will cost thousands.

I'll never shoot at, be around anyone shooting at, nor allow my loved ones to be around anyone shooting at anything steel, rock or other objects that I feel could likely cause a ricochet.

Got hit on the head by a fragment of .22 once. No damage, just felt it

Got hit in the shin by one when deployed, we were at a improved range when some tankers came up to 'qualify' with their pistols, one of the tankers shot a rock (small, about fist sized) about 15 feet in front of the line, it came back and hit one of my guys in the toe of his boot, bounced up (perpendicular to the line of fire) and hit me in the **** before hitting the sergeant next to me in the bell right under his body armor...

none of us were hurt past some nasty bruises, and I think I got the worst of it, and yes it was the bullet, not a clump of rock. Made us question 9mm... and if tankers should be given guns.

That said, one of the closes time I came to dieing was as a kid, some idiot was shooting cans on a small pond below my neighbors place, and sending ricochet up the hill, one went past my ear close enough for me to feel and hit the tree right in front of me. I have little patience for those shooting on the water, if you have a clear down range, then OK, but don't tell me that it's OK and you aren't bouncing bullets, I happen to know better.

How does a 45 bounce off a bowling pin.

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most likely, it did not. what probably happened is the bullet entering, hit a bullet previously lodged in the pin, and that came back out of the pin. i have had that happen several times. it is pretty scary if you stop and think about the potential.

a bounce is a matter of force, elasticity, material composition..... it happens, some things are MUCH more likely to bounce something than others, and hard wood can cause a ricochet, it's all in how it's hit, think of bullets bouncing off trees, it happens.

so it is bent pretty bad in the middle

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Concave plates (center further away from you and the edges) or pockmarked plates should be retired as they can focus the splatter back at you. Of course you can reverse a concave plate or shoot the other side of a pockmarked plate if your mounting arrangement allows.

IMHO shooting steel targets made form anything lesser than AR500 armor plate is asking for trouble eventually. The really hard plates don't pockmark and leave little more than dust when the bullet strikes.

Yes. Hurt like heck too.

Good thing I had my mouth closed at the time or I would be missing a few front teeth.