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Posted: 12/30/2006 12:13:42 AM EDT
Some LEO friends of mine and I were shooting at an indoor range. One of the guys was shooting a revolver and it was shaving lead off the wad cutters he was loading in it. So we all stopped shooting to hash over his problem.
One self proclaimed gunsmith screwed around with the handgun and said problem solved so we all went back to doing our thing. After about 4 rounds down range the cop with the problem gun is on the ground holding his stomach ( solar plexus area ) and hollering " I'm shot, I'm shot "! The cop who fixed the gun thought it blew up and was hollering " It's my fault! Shit! Shit! I screwed up "! Of course every one ran to his aid and after prying his hands from the area so we could see how bad he was wounded we found no blood but did find under his hands a perfectly formed wad cutter. After convincing him he wasn't shot and canceling the 911 call, come to find out through an on scene investigation that a perfectly formed wad cutter bounced off the backstop, came back and hit him in the gut leaving a red spot and large bruise What are the odds of this happening? Ever hear of this happening to anyone else? |
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I've taken multiple fragments from indoor ranges, including one to the forehead that opened a gash and left blood streaming down my face. I got a ticket for a free range fee for my next visit. w00t. I have heard of .45 ACP rounds bouncing back whole at relatively low velocity, but I have not yet seen or got hit with a whole bounceback round. |
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This is why I only shoot outdoors these days. Not to mention I don't care to breath lead dust. |
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Know for a fact a woman had her nose almost completely amputated by a rifle bullet. Someone was shooting at a 100 yard gong that had deep pits in it, and it bounced almost straight back hitting her. A very freak accident.
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I have heard of and experienced the cores of jacketed bullets coming back, but a whole and undeformed bullet? What kind of backstop does this range have? EDIT: We once had a .50 cal tracer ricochet back at us at the range. Weird, watching this little point of light quickly getting bigger and bigger as it arced up, and then back down, heading straight for us. Finally we came out of our stupor, and everybody dove down into their turrets. |
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I was shooting some bowling pins once with my 1911 using FMJ's, hit the pin and saw the bullet come back and nail me in the shin hard enough to drop me. Learned only to shoot plain lead bullets now.
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Shooting steel I have been hit by a fair amount of "stuff" but never an intact bullet. Not saying that it could not happen, I am just saying I have never seen it.
IPSC_GUY SIERRA II ALPHA |
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Lots of times. Watched a guy shooting steel poppers with a 10mm tag himself with a bullet jacket. Cut him like a razor and stuck in the kneecap. Had a heck of a time stopping the bleeding, he managed to sever something pretty sizeable.
I have bits of a .300 Win mag round in my left hip and thigh personally, jackass next to me shot the concrete bench leg. Too small to be worth digging for, it felt like getting whipped by a stinging nettle. My main claim to fame is catching a 7.62 round in the right leg. Bounced off something downrange and came back at about a 60-degree angle to the firing line. Hit me just hard enough to penetrate about 2". That was my first flight in a Blackhawk. Ask and I'll show you the scar. |
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whenever I go to the range and the NASA security people are shooting, I get hit with multiple fragments. They shoot the target holder, the ceiling the walls I quit going when they're there, I even call ahead to make sure they're not there.
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I've been hit by .22s that hit other bullets in my mound, but never intact ones.
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When I was in high school we had a kid on the rifle team we nicknamed The Magnet because he could never go one practice without getting hit by backsplatter. He was the only person during my four years on the team that this happened to.
Once while shooting outside at some old frying pans my grandmother didn't want anymore I had a .357 slug bounce back and hit me square in the right nut. I immediately fell to the ground and vomitted. After puking I started screaming and tearing my pants and underwear off. Luckily for me, no damage (well, no blood, I couldn't sit or walk confortably for several days), it didn't even penetrate my pants. |
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Got hit by a .40 copper jacket at a 30 yard range.
Hit me right between the eyes, I bled like a stuck pig. I have had a couple of .22 LR's bounce back at me and hit my legs. I stopped wearing shorts to the range. |
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Note to self: "Don't shoot at frying pans". Eeek. |
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It definitely happens at indoor ranges, especially if their shooting the target carriers.
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It happened to a buddy of mine a few years back. We were at an indoor range, he was shooting a .357 at a pile of lead. I saw his head snap back. A deformed bullet was sticking on his forehead, like his head was bullet proof. I said "Damn, you have a hard head." Went and asked for a band-aid, got free range time and ammo.
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I've hit people with handgun ricochets off an icy backstop. It's not fun when you get tapped on the shoulder and asked "Are you shooting 9mm FMJ???" We gotta do everything we can to be safe on the firing line, because shit does happen!!! |
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this happnes more than you might think, that is why you always wear glasses, . Never let someone you don't know work on your gun at the range, hell don't let most of the people you know work on your guns.
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ive gotten dinged a few times, nothing serious though. Ive been hit with paintballs that hurt worse.
Always, ALWAYS wear good eye protection. I'd be blind if I didnt. |
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Years ago, my brother shot his wife in the abdomen. He was shooting a .38 snub revolver at a target in the woodline, and somehow, then LRN bullet bounced around off of something and hit her. Wierd part is, she was standing directly behind him.
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It happens. I took one in the chest once, it can be scary.
I know of an outdoor range in cali where if you go to the far left pistol bay and shoot a .45 at the bottom target, it will about 50% of the time ricochet back over the shooters and hit a car in the parking area. You could have filled buckets with .45 FMJs by policing the ground near the cars. |
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I caught a 9x18 round in the head from a friends Makarov at a bowling pin shoot.
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It's happened to me and I've seen it happen to plenty of other pistol shooters |
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LOL at self chlorinating your gene pool! |
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some backstops are worse than others
MUCH WORSE *cough* shooting sports on dale mabry |
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My Dept. has an indoor range. During annual qulification, I see stuff coming back all the time. As long as the range is hot, I keep my eye protection on and stay well clear of the firing line until it's my turn to shoot.
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Been in the same situation, I got hit by a rebounding .357mag. I was wearing a brandnew leather jacket that I had just bought that day and it put a nice round burn mark where it hit.
I would have hated to just have been wearing a t-shirt, as the strike was just below my heart. I have don't the jacket or the bullet anymore, I gave the jacket to my father when he got the big C ( sort a hoped that it would bring him luck) and I lost the bullet someplace. Glad to hear that your buddy is okay. Tony |
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I know for a fact that oak trees will throw 158gr JSP's from a .357 right back at you.
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The wadcutter would be the last on my list of expected ricochets.
The first would be Blazer TMJ rounds, which were completely encapsuled in a copper jacket, all the way around. They'd regularly bounce back at us. |
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I once shot a 45 A.C.P through a pop can and it bounced off a tree and hit me in the thigh. Slug was not deformed and left a nice red mark and bruse.Scared the hell out of me though.
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Yup, 5 stitches in my abdomen due to a copper jacket coming back and hitting me. I acted almost exactly like the person you mention.
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This thread and my personal experience suggests that most shooters aren't aware of how easy it is to induce a ricochet. Of the three bowling pin matches I have attended in my lifetime, all produced at least one ricochet, with two producing multiple ricochets. The bullets hit the ledge of the pin table and ricocheted into the shooter or a shooter next to him. Injury was limited to a welt on the skin. They were all fired from a .45acp handgun. This leads me to believe it is the slow, large diameter bullets that most easily ricochet.
But I have experienced rifle ricochets. When a sibling and I were firing 7.62x39mm rifles in a farm field, I heard a peculiar twanging noise. At first I thought it was the sound of a barbed wire fence reverbiating from hits or the disturbance caused by near hits. Later I realized it was the sound of a ricocheting bullet whizzing by us. I assume the bullet(s) hit an unseen rock in the ground and bounced off. That cured me of unprepared field shooting with centerfire rifles. Galland |
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They do happen. I personally prefer NOT to shoot at steel or bowling pins with pistols for this reason. |
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This is a real eye opener. Can you till I'm new to shooting. Thanks to all for the stories.
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Uhhhh... what kind of ammo was it, and are you saying the bullet penetrated her jeans and then her skin? That sounds awful weird - as there is nothing containing the bullet. Unless the bullet was really long, the brass really thick, and the case backed up into something so it couldnt move backards... putting all the force on the bullet moving towards her. That's gotta be a 1 in a million. |
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Was shooting a plate rack while moving the other day, and I caught 9mm bits into my right arms from the other shooter. That fucking hurt.... O well.
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The Crack MN HTF investigators determined that she probably was hit by a piece of the case from an undetermined caliber, or it could have been a Bullet. It did not penetrate the skin very deep, it was a flesh wound more or less. |
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Aparently it was more like 1 in 20 |
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That explains A LOT !!! J/K |
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This happened to a friend of mine at the local LE range about a year and a half ago. They were doing some kind of drills and were lined up waiting to take turns. All of the sudden he got this really bad charlie horse and thought the officer next to him had punched him in the leg as a joke. The other guy said he never touched him and wasn't laughing so he figured it must of been a ricochet. There was no damage to his pants but when he went to the restrooms to drop his drawers he found a giant red mark and some swelling.
Here's a pic of the aftermath about 2 days later. Btw, they were all shooting Sig P220s and they never did find the .45 that hit him. http://img117.imageshack.us/img117/5177/legshotwr6.jpg |
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I usually shoot on the farm, took my CZ52 to Minute Man indoor range. Every round shot came back...
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Now that makes a lot more sense. A case rupture, with a fast moving brass/steel fragment. |
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ohhhhh man that must have hurt lol |
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At a shoot a couple years ago, the penetrator from a .50 AP round bounced back from a piece of steel 400 yards downrange and shattered the window of an RV, stopping mere inches from terminating the life of a full half gallon of Jack Daniels...
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I been hit shooting steel targets.I wear my vest now.If I place the targets I try to put them on a slight angle.
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God shooting glasses are a must, how many of us use them, I know that I don't. Toe |
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Got hit in the chin with the jacket of a Rem. 7.62x39 a few years back. Some rtard in the next lane was going apeshit with his AK. Felt like a bee sting, but it gushed blood like a faucet. The range workers thought I shot myself; this was right after some lady killed herself in a FL range.
Thought it would leave a cool Han Solo scar, but no love. |
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