Very Scary experience at the range today!
- Thread starter rjoy
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unspellable
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bounce backs
The idea of tire treads in the backstop scares me. Low velocity bullets such as the 45 ACP will bounce off a deflated tire tread on a regular basis.
Here in Iowa a while back we did have some one killed, allegedly by a ricochet at one of those very informal "ranges" where everyone dumps off assorted junk.
The little stuff can be serious. If a break in the skin occurs in a bruise it is prone to infection due to the bruise restricting circulation. Back in my home area there was once a case of someone shooting a deer in a Christmas display at close range with a wax or plastic bullet. The wound festered and the deer died. Happened to me too. When I was a kid I was reaching for something in the ditch. The neighbor kid fired a BB gun into the ditch, the BB ricocheted off a rock and hit the first joint of my index finger. Opened the skin a bled a little bit. Later on I ended up with blood poisioning and my whole arm swelled up. Would have lost my arm if they handn't invented penicillin first.
The idea of tire treads in the backstop scares me. Low velocity bullets such as the 45 ACP will bounce off a deflated tire tread on a regular basis.
Here in Iowa a while back we did have some one killed, allegedly by a ricochet at one of those very informal "ranges" where everyone dumps off assorted junk.
The little stuff can be serious. If a break in the skin occurs in a bruise it is prone to infection due to the bruise restricting circulation. Back in my home area there was once a case of someone shooting a deer in a Christmas display at close range with a wax or plastic bullet. The wound festered and the deer died. Happened to me too. When I was a kid I was reaching for something in the ditch. The neighbor kid fired a BB gun into the ditch, the BB ricocheted off a rock and hit the first joint of my index finger. Opened the skin a bled a little bit. Later on I ended up with blood poisioning and my whole arm swelled up. Would have lost my arm if they handn't invented penicillin first.
shooting time
Member
I was shooting bowling pins and got hit in the middle of the forehead with a ricochet.I have a steel plate range on my property and always wear protective glasses due to the frequent ricochets from the potmarked steel plates
These are all excellent examples of why new & inexperienced shooters need to be closely watched by those of us introducing them to the sport.
Most new people can remember the 4 rules and keep the gun pointed in a safe direction, but when things like bouncebacks or hot brass coming into contact with their body enter the equation, their reactions may not be very safe.
I've taken to adding "no matter what" to the "Never point your gun at anything you don't wish to destroy" rule.
Most new people can remember the 4 rules and keep the gun pointed in a safe direction, but when things like bouncebacks or hot brass coming into contact with their body enter the equation, their reactions may not be very safe.
I've taken to adding "no matter what" to the "Never point your gun at anything you don't wish to destroy" rule.
DarkKnight01
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sheesh !!! glad no one got hurt, makes you contemplate the idea of body armor at the range heh...
wanderinwalker
Member
WarMachine,
I once smashed a bottle of Hoppes with a firing pin from a Mauser 98. Scared the snot out of me and left a major mess. Served as a good reminder to be careful of objects under any kind of spring tension.
And I have suffered from the various BB bouncebacks and an occasional bounce from one of my air pistols out of the trap in the basement. Normally just leaves a red mark and a little hesitation for a while.
another okie
Member
A .45 bullet bounced back and hit me in the leg once. I was shooting on my own place into the side of a hill that I assumed then was all dirt. Actually there were a few rocks in there, so I don't shoot there any more. It stung but left no damage. I've had my share of splatter from plates, too.
BHPshooter
Member
I'm writing that down.
Wes
Twenty years ago, young men, guns, and a question...given the vaunted power of the mighty .45ACP, will it penetrate 1/8" steel?
Colt gubbmint model, .45 ACP, shooting at an abandoned car bumper embedded in a hillside 30 feet away. With the sun behind us, we started noticing little copper-colored frisbees flashing through the air toward us after each shot, and landing about 2-4 feet ahead. Closer inspection of these UFOs revealed nicely flattened 230 gr FMJs. And shallow dents in the bumper.
Lesson learned, all shooting at metal (read 'hard objects thenceforth involved hanging them from ropes (build a WOODEN stand if you have to), in order to absorb the momentum of the bullet...the spent bullets drop directly underneath the plate.
Other lesson learned, the .45 ACP ain't so vaunted...but I still love that fat, old, slow chubster.
(by the way, .44 Magnums, in any bullet weight, punch nice clean holes through bumpers).
Colt gubbmint model, .45 ACP, shooting at an abandoned car bumper embedded in a hillside 30 feet away. With the sun behind us, we started noticing little copper-colored frisbees flashing through the air toward us after each shot, and landing about 2-4 feet ahead. Closer inspection of these UFOs revealed nicely flattened 230 gr FMJs. And shallow dents in the bumper.
Lesson learned, all shooting at metal (read 'hard
objects thenceforth involved hanging them from ropes (build a WOODEN stand if you have to), in order to absorb the momentum of the bullet...the spent bullets drop directly underneath the plate.Other lesson learned, the .45 ACP ain't so vaunted...but I still love that fat, old, slow chubster.
(by the way, .44 Magnums, in any bullet weight, punch nice clean holes through bumpers).
ajax
Member
I had a friend shoot a old tire in the woods with a .22 and we heard it come back into the trees we were next to. Scary stuff.
I took a 38 Special bounce-back at an indoor range. It hit me on the top of my forehead, and felt like a smart little rap from a ball-peen hammer. It hurt fairly badly but I doubt it would have caused any real danger outside of a hit to an eye maybe, or a front tooth ; (
When a bullet bouncees back, it comes to a full stop first, at the instance that it reverse direction. It will have lost a vast vast majority of its energy. Similar (but not exactly like) shooting a bullet straight up - when it gets back down to earth it will perform exactly as if it were simply dropped from the height it at which it stopped and reversed on its own.
When a bullet bouncees back, it comes to a full stop first, at the instance that it reverse direction. It will have lost a vast vast majority of its energy. Similar (but not exactly like) shooting a bullet straight up - when it gets back down to earth it will perform exactly as if it were simply dropped from the height it at which it stopped and reversed on its own.
mr.trooper
Member
Thats why you dont shoot solid targets with ammo not designed to penetrate it.
You reap what you sow. sometimes you ever get to reap what others sow.
keep that in mine.
glockamolee
Member
Poor firearms Safety
For those of you in the Detroit area, you may remember the accidential discharge (into a customer) of a dealers firearm at the Gibralter Trade Show. Then there was a firearm safety instructor who shot his student at Double Action in Madison Heights.
We don't need the Anti Gunners to sink us, marginal gunpeople can do it to us.
For those of you in the Detroit area, you may remember the accidential discharge (into a customer) of a dealers firearm at the Gibralter Trade Show. Then there was a firearm safety instructor who shot his student at Double Action in Madison Heights.
We don't need the Anti Gunners to sink us, marginal gunpeople can do it to us.
Had a 45 ACP bounce back fragment off a steel plate split my chin open. Fair amount of blood. Got yelled at by wife for WHY DO YOU DO THIS AGAIN?
Made a mess of my shirt. So what.
Best whack I got was a 50 AE casing. I was behind the line and someone shot the gun and the casing bounced off the side of the lane and beaned me! Ouch!
Made a mess of my shirt. So what.
Best whack I got was a 50 AE casing. I was behind the line and someone shot the gun and the casing bounced off the side of the lane and beaned me! Ouch!
JesseL
Member
When I was a bit younger and dumber...
I got hit by a ricochet from a 308 that a friend fired at an abandoned/wrecked mining dump truck (it's still there if you look off the south side of Copper Basin Rd. near Skull Valley, AZ).
There was no perceptible time between when I heard the shot and the slug grazed my jeans right above my left side pocket. It tore up my levis a bit and left my hip with a small scrape and an enormous bruise. I was very relieved that I wasn't standing a few inches to my left
I got hit by a ricochet from a 308 that a friend fired at an abandoned/wrecked mining dump truck (it's still there if you look off the south side of Copper Basin Rd. near Skull Valley, AZ).
There was no perceptible time between when I heard the shot and the slug grazed my jeans right above my left side pocket. It tore up my levis a bit and left my hip with a small scrape and an enormous bruise. I was very relieved that I wasn't standing a few inches to my left
range dangers
I have a freind who was shooting bowling pins with his colt 45 and caught a richochet on his thigh he was ok only because the bullet was pretty well spent ,but a bigger danger is while training someone who has never been to the range before and they are firing suddenly they have a ftf and they turn to you and say hey it didnt go off and while they do this being new to firearms,9 out of ten times they will point the firearm right at you.
I have a freind who was shooting bowling pins with his colt 45 and caught a richochet on his thigh he was ok only because the bullet was pretty well spent ,but a bigger danger is while training someone who has never been to the range before and they are firing suddenly they have a ftf and they turn to you and say hey it didnt go off and while they do this being new to firearms,9 out of ten times they will point the firearm right at you.
sigstroker
Member
t-shirt is not body armor
A friend of mine caught a bounceback in the arm. A lead fragment went through his t-shirt and embedded in his arm. He's a tough guy, so he just pried it out, sopped up most of the blood, and kept shooting.
I've heard of .50 cal bouncing back behind the line after hitting steel targets 100 yards downrange.
Another story was an acquaintance of mine, but I wasn't there. There were 4 or 5 of them shooting M16's out in the desert when they noticed one of the group was lying down. Hit in the chest and killed. I never heard what the official determination was.
A friend of mine caught a bounceback in the arm. A lead fragment went through his t-shirt and embedded in his arm. He's a tough guy, so he just pried it out, sopped up most of the blood, and kept shooting.
I've heard of .50 cal bouncing back behind the line after hitting steel targets 100 yards downrange.
Another story was an acquaintance of mine, but I wasn't there. There were 4 or 5 of them shooting M16's out in the desert when they noticed one of the group was lying down. Hit in the chest and killed. I never heard what the official determination was.
entropy
Member
I had a .45 bounce off my boot last weekend while shooting bowling pins. Don't shoot them when they're already down. Standing up there seemed to be no problem, but I had ricochets from 9mm, .45ACP, and 7.62x39 (SKS) when the pins lying on the ground. Fortunately, that .45 was the only one that came back at me, and it had lost most it's juice...still, I did a double take when it hit, and picked the bullet up from where it lay just in front of me...
Boom-stick
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A couple of years back I had a .22 bounce back into the concrete step I was sitting on about an inch below the crown jewels, that was pretty scary, had another come back and hit me in the watch strap, split the skin, even though the strap looked undamaged.
Hot brass down the neck is another favourite, I think my scars from being on the 'safe' end of a firearm is the reason my wife is so reluctant to join me down the range!?!
(Along with my old rifle hospitalising my step father and best friend with severe scope-eye.)
Hot brass down the neck is another favourite, I think my scars from being on the 'safe' end of a firearm is the reason my wife is so reluctant to join me down the range!?!
(Along with my old rifle hospitalising my step father and best friend with severe scope-eye.)
unspellable
Member
KEEP 'em pointed right!
In the vein of keep 'em pointed right no matter what, in a previous life my wife and I were standing in the back of a pickup, drawing a bead over the cab and starting the trigger squeeze when the driver popped the clutch. We went appetite over tea kettle. I gave my wife a split lip and two loose teeth with my rifle butt. She cracked her tail bone on a bunch of iron mongery in the bed of the pickup. When she went over she kept her S&W revolver pointed up at the sky. When the dust settled we found the hammer down. The only explaination for why it didn't fire is that she must have tripped the sear and got her finger off the trigger qick enough for the safety bar to come up and block the hammer. What if it had gone bang? At least she had presence of mind to keep it pointed up.
Took me a long time to live down hitting my wife in the kisser with a rifle butt.
In the vein of keep 'em pointed right no matter what, in a previous life my wife and I were standing in the back of a pickup, drawing a bead over the cab and starting the trigger squeeze when the driver popped the clutch. We went appetite over tea kettle. I gave my wife a split lip and two loose teeth with my rifle butt. She cracked her tail bone on a bunch of iron mongery in the bed of the pickup. When she went over she kept her S&W revolver pointed up at the sky. When the dust settled we found the hammer down. The only explaination for why it didn't fire is that she must have tripped the sear and got her finger off the trigger qick enough for the safety bar to come up and block the hammer. What if it had gone bang? At least she had presence of mind to keep it pointed up.
Took me a long time to live down hitting my wife in the kisser with a rifle butt.
MLH
Member
Once did a fast draw on a fence post
And it shot back! I was wearing a heavy leather coat but it still stung a little. Very lucky (or unlucky) that day!
And it shot back!
I was wearing a heavy leather coat but it still stung a little. Very lucky (or unlucky) that day!- Status
