Guy at the range took some shrapnel

Status
Not open for further replies.

lionking

Member
Joined
Jul 6, 2006
Messages
3,107
Last weekend at the range a guy took a decent sized piece of shrapnel from a bullet jacket, it bounced off either the 10 yard or 25 yard lane and got him in the arm. Went in about 1/4 of a inch and he bleed pretty good. Must have ricocheted off one of the iron target stands.

I've done plenty of casual shooting in my days I didn't always use hearing protection but at ranges it is required and for good reason, but I wear prescription glasses so I always had eye wear but just one highroad member to others wear your safety equipment you never know. Imagine if that shrapnel had hit a eye with someone not wearing protective gear.

My range allows steel plates only at 50 yards for rimfire and only 100 yards for center fire. But even a target stand can get ya so it seems though very uncommon.
 
A few years ago, I was shooting a percussion revolver when a piece of the spent percussion cap hit my cheek, close to my eye. Immediately I thought "Yeah, that's why you wear eye protection"
Even just sunglasses are suitable, so if the thick 'ugly' glasses don't suit you.. but still, Safety over looks, at all times.
 
I was shooting sporting clays with some friends and after a shot something hit me in the chin. It happened to bounce off and get caught in my clothing.

A shot pellet. I had my eyes on so I did my part. That just confirmed why.

I’m sure it bounced off a tree. The clays course I shoot at is wooded.
 
A few years ago, I was shooting a percussion revolver when a piece of the spent percussion cap hit my cheek, close to my eye. Immediately I thought "Yeah, that's why you wear eye protection"
Even just sunglasses are suitable, so if the thick 'ugly' glasses don't suit you.. but still, Safety over looks, at all times.
 
We routinely shoot steel with centerfire handguns at anywhere from 7 to 100 yards. Been hit with "shrapnel" quite a few times. Just my personal opinion but I think it's actually more of a problem at 20-40 or so. Close in the bullets tend to disintegrate more completely it seems.
 
A good reason to shoot with coated lead bullets, maybe? No jackets!
Coated bullets still ricochet just as well as any other piece of metal. I have a mangled .45 on my desk (coated) that hit me while I was shooting. There's another coated .45 slug in the basement somewhere that we found perfectly intact one day BEHIND where we were firing!
 
Had a buddy at my buddies range get caught in the leg with part of copper jacket shooting 9mm at around 10yds. We've all had it come back at us 15yds or less, even with properly angled steel. It's just one of the hazards of shooting plates that close. Wear proper eye protection. I also always wear jeans.
 
Bought a set of six ar500 knockover bowling pin silhouettes to practice for pin shoots. I'd watched a Hickock 45 video on worst targets for shrapnel (knockovers with a steel base plate), then did some thinking about how that would most likely happen. Bullet hits target low, near the base, spatter hits base at somewhere around 45 degrees, bounces off and comes right back at you. So I set up my targets on a piece of heavy angle iron bolted to the BACK of a 2 X 4, so any low shots would go through the 2 X 4 and hit the angle iron, not the target. Spatter would be trapped by the wood. Shots over the top of the angle iron, the spatter downward would hit the angle iron on rebound. I figure if you can't see the base of the target, spatter can't come back at you from there. So far, so good, and I do find lead spatter laying on the angle iron.
 
Just my personal opinion but I think it's actually more of a problem at 20-40 or so. Close in the bullets tend to disintegrate more completely it seems.
You could be right. The only time I've ever caught a piece of "shrapnel" was a piece that bounced all the way back from a 50 meter chicken at an IHMSA match. It hit me in the forehead, between my glasses and my ball cap. There was no damage, it just stung a little.
 
Indoors i had a 5.56 hit me in the leg....left a welt w slight trickle of red. Was wearing jeans. Felt like snap or whap. Guy next lane running H&K.

Knew him. Just laughed and blew him some crap for hitting holder.

Years later we joke about it. Says im the only guy hes shot that lived.
 
Think bullet chunk got me....target was 21 ft. Bounce back indoors i think greater risk.
 
One of my shooting buddies took a jacket piece across his cheek like a razor, it left a 5/8” cut on his cheekbone that bled pretty good. We were shooting falling plate racks at 10 yds., his gun was a .45 with 230 gr JHP loads.

Can’t repeat it enough; wear eyes and ears! You only get one set of each...and repair is just about impossible once either one is damaged.

Stay safe.
 
I am a freaking bullet magnet anyway, so I don't shoot at steel targets. I had a .45 LC bounce off a log (my son actually fired it) , it arced up in the air and landed on top of my gut. I was squatting at the time. Just plopped there. So both my father and my son have shot me! My Dad shot a a duck in the middle of a mulberry bush, I was on the other side, he shot and dirt kicked up and hit me in the chest, but didn't penetrate my duck coat. I called him an MF'er, the only time I ever got away with that! I didn't call my son one, he was 11 at the time.
 
I can’t say how many times I have been hit with back splatter and ricocheting bullet fragments. I got hit in the face with a 00 Buck pellet that ricocheted off some Lexan we were testing for bullet resistance. That will ring your bell.

I always wear eye and hearing protection. The ricochets and fragments never seem to hit me where I am protected though. Haha :p
 
My old co-worker was shooting Russian bi-metal jacket .223 at thick mild steel at close range and ended with a permanent reminder lodged deep inside his lower leg.
 
At my club we occasionally find jacket fragments behind the line. Worst time though was when a member brought his grandson with a BB gun. Those things are livelier than golf balls against angled steel plate. Just about everyone got a stinger and the ROs had to ask the kid to put it away.
 
Splatter from steel is just a normal part of the hobby. There are also other things that can harm, like errant brass, or even something from a weapon or ammunition malfunction. Suitable eye protection is something that can never be understated.
 
I do not have a shrapnel story to tell. However, my wife and I just joined a gun club; eye and ear protection are mandatory on all of the ranges (no exceptions). Also, it was highly recommended that long pants are always worn to the steel handgun range. It all made sense to us - very good advice.
 
The club I belong too has taken a lot of measures to prevent this type of thing from happening.

  • Timber side walls separating lanes to 8' out
  • Horizontal timbers above each lane 8' out to prevent shooting over the berm.
  • All wood target boards and stands.
  • Plywood target boards slide into dado slots with no metal fasteners
  • Replacement boards always on hand and easy to swap out.
  • Stands kept in good repair and made without metal fasteners.
  • High berms separating rifle and pistol ranges and behind the target boards at different ranges.
  • Only paper targets allowed. No reactive targets, steel plates or bowling pins.
  • Falling plate range segregated form normal pistol range.
  • Liability waiver required to play on falling plate range.
  • Gongs only installed on the 200 yard line of the rifle range.
  • Gongs boxed in with wood on sides, bottom and top.
  • NRA range inspector comes every couple years to audit our safety plan and recommend improvements.
  • Land ownership in the name of a separate corporation than the club.
  • Good community relationships (as far as it depends on us) with open trap range days for non-members and a resident scout troop using our clubhouse and facilities.
There are many in our community who would love to see the range shut down, but we've been there for some 50 years and nearby condo complex has language in every single deed whereby buyers acknowledge that their is an active range next door, so they can't complain that they didn't know before they bought. So we're on pretty sound legal footing. It helps that our range is made available to the local police dept. for training at no charge. None the less, one serious accident and the whiners would be all over us.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top