Schwing
Member
I know it doesn't happen often but I think people underestimate how much energy can be retained in a ricocheting bullet. A few years back, my local public range used steel target stands made out of angle iron. If you were looking down range at your stand, the tip of the V was pointing directly at you. The range has been open since between 1916-1918 and had never had an incident before this.
A guy in lane 7 decided to screw with his buddy in lane 10 so he started shooting at his target with his .308. I don't know how far out lane 10's stand was but the minimum has always been 15 yards or more. He managed to hit the target stand just at the right angle and his bullet came back and hit the guy in lane 8. It almost killed him and he spent several hours in surgery having the bullet taken out of his liver. It did wonders for the insurance rates and now we have to use wood stands at anything less than 50 yards and NO steel targets less than 50 as well.
It was a freak accident that I would have never thought possible. It also punctuated to me to keep those steel targets angled down.
A guy in lane 7 decided to screw with his buddy in lane 10 so he started shooting at his target with his .308. I don't know how far out lane 10's stand was but the minimum has always been 15 yards or more. He managed to hit the target stand just at the right angle and his bullet came back and hit the guy in lane 8. It almost killed him and he spent several hours in surgery having the bullet taken out of his liver. It did wonders for the insurance rates and now we have to use wood stands at anything less than 50 yards and NO steel targets less than 50 as well.
It was a freak accident that I would have never thought possible. It also punctuated to me to keep those steel targets angled down.
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