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Posted: 5/7/2010 7:36:24 AM EDT
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Just curious:
Anyone here experienced or observed an injury due to ricochet from a friendly bullet (well, friendly until it came flying back)? If so, what circumstances caused it to happen? |
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.50 Cal Ricochet
I've heard rounds ricochet while shooting, you just have to be very careful about what you shoot at. Don't shoot rocks. |
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I caught a tiny fragment from a steel gong at my private range just recently. I was test-firing a revolver with WCs and, as I always do when shooting relatively close to the gongs/primary berm, I was shooting at enough of an angle that nothing should have come back directly my way. But it must have hit an existing gouge on the steel plate because a small fragment came back and hit me in the leg. Barely enough to break the skin, it stung worse than it bled, but had I not been wearing eye protection and if it had ricocheted up instead of down by some fluke (I was firing angled down and to the side) then it could have been enough to damage an eye. As always, when shooting, one can never be too careful.  |
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Absolutely. Shoot steel inside 25 yrds with jacketed handgun ammo and fragments are bound to come back at you. Never experienced it with rifles, but I was always 100+ yards away.
Even when the steel is angled to deflect ricochet towards the ground it can happen. Spattering bullets are highly unpredictable, just watch some of those slow-motion films of bullet impacts. |
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My wife had a 9mm jacket bounce back and hit her in the elbow. It went in and rested against the bone, but didn't do any damage (other than the entrance channel). It stayed in there for a couple of years and she had it removed because it started to hurt. She went to a couple of doctors after it first happened and they told her that it would do more damage going in to get it than it would just staying in there. The scary part is she was standing 20ft back from the firing line. There were several people shooting at the same time so we're not sure who it came from, not that it matters. We were at a friend's house and we knew the risks before going. In hospital right after it happened:  About a year and a half later, when we went to get it removed (scar from entrance):  Bullet:   Incision after she got it out:  |
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You know those little plastic cups that hold eggs in some refrigerators? Well, they're parabolic. I should have known it was stupid to shoot at it, but I just didn't think about it.
I let me wife (then girlfriend) shoot it with my target air pistol (single shot, about 485FPS with a .53 gram pellet). My dad and I were standing behind her and a few feet to her right. That pellet hit the egg holder on the inside bottom edge of one cup. It ran around and exited the top edge of the cup without so much as slowing down. It whizzed directly over our heads and punched some of the paint off the aluminum gutter of the garage behind us. Everyone had eye protection on and it probably wouldn't have been too bad but I'm really glad it didn't hit anyone. I for one don't want to dig a pellet out of my face. Not a great story, I know, but I'll add another caution of, "Be careful what you shoot at." |
Dayum!  Tough lady youve got there!Surprised they didnt go in to retrieve it initially. Quoted: My wife had a 9mm jacket bounce back and hit her in the elbow. It went in and rested against the bone, but didn't do any damage (other than the entrance channel). It stayed in there for a couple of years and she had it removed because it started to hurt. She went to a couple of doctors after it first happened and they told her that it would do more damage going in to get it than it would just staying in there. The scary part is she was standing 20ft back from the firing line. There were several people shooting at the same time so we're not sure who it came from, not that it matters. We were at a friend's house and we knew the risks before going. In hospital right after it happened: http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c353/AJErvin/Guns/bullet.jpg About a year and a half later, when we went to get it removed (scar from entrance): http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c353/AJErvin/Guns/bullet1.jpg Bullet: http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c353/AJErvin/Guns/bullet6.jpg http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c353/AJErvin/Guns/bullet5.jpg Incision after she got it out: http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c353/AJErvin/Guns/bullet2.jpg |
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No injury but it shocked me initially. When I first got into shooting, many moons ago, I made a target stand out of steel flat bar. A buddy and I were shooting one day and I pulled a shot to the left and caught this in my stomach. It didn't really hurt, just enough to get my attention. It was a 45 FMJ round, the copper is gone all except the tip on the opposite side.
The target stand died upon impact.  Since then, I have made my stands out of round stock or wood.
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| Growing up I was shooting a 7.62x39 Ak with Wolf ammo at some large rocks about 25yds away. I was having a blast shooting cheap ammo and making large rocks into smaller rocks when a piece of the jacket off one of the bullets came back and hit me square in the chest and stuck in my shirt. |
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A long time ago I shot at a wood chuck in the back yard with a 12 ga. goose load...three inch Steel No. 1 shot. A pellet came directly back at me and hit me just above my left eye. Turns out there was a piece of steel in the tall grass that I could not see. I was not wearing glasses as this was impromptu varmint control. |
| I happens often at the indoor range I go to. It's usually the copper jacket, that comes back and hits you. So far, they've all been below chest level, but I've seen one other guy get hit in the head. This is one reason, I don't like to frequent indoor ranges, when they are crowded. I've even gone to using mostly frangible ammo at the indoor range now. |
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Shooting pepper-poppers from 20 meters I caught have of 9mm jacket right in the tip of my nose. Didn't do a hole, but it did hurt. I had tears coming from my eyes for minutes. Funny thing was that I saw the piece coming all the way and it was a "curve ball": first it seemed to pass me by, but it turned in and hit right in the middle of my face.
Another, more serious incident happened in a 3 gun match where I and friend of mine were running a pistol stage. We were standing in the beginning of the stage and a shooter was shooting in the end of it. Stage ended behind a small hill some 25 meters away targets being further 25 meters downhill. So we were behind a hill 50 meters from the targets, just standing there and chatting when part of the bullet core hit my friend in the face few cm below his left eye creating a puncture wound. He didn't have eyepro on and had the hit been tad higher it would have punctured his eye. Eyepro came on right after the incident. Reason for the ricochet was one badly placed target: hits in the berm had uncovered a large rock, and the rounds hitting the rock were ricocheting right back towards the shooter and the staff of the stage. |
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It's happened to me at least three times -
When I was a teenager, I had a Marksman pellet pistol - looked like a 1911, fired BBs, pellets or darts. When you're 13, shooting at the bottom of a soda bottle seems like a fine idea.
It wasn't. The BB came right back and broke the lens of my eyeglasses - luckily, it didn't make it through. This was one of the few times I was glad that I have such bad nearsightedness. A few years ago, I was shooting at steel targets with a P-22. Not a good idea when the targets are rated for .38/9mm. again. A .22lr bullet hit the target and came right back into
my forehead. Here's where it gets extra-silly: Intellectually, I knew that I had caught a ricochet. But my emotions said otherwise - I had the perception that I had just been shot in the head. Without any conscious decision whatsoever, I emptied the mag at the target. I remember being enraged, and then relieved that I hadn't blown my own head off. I had a little ding from the bullet - just barely broke the skin. And here's one that the VA hometown forum guys will recognize - an indoor range here near Richmond is renowned for people catching ricochets there. I was standing at the line and caught another shooter's bullet with my forehead - looked like a 9mm or a fotay. Once again, it just broke the skin. The range employees expressed their concern by laughing at me and offering me a band-aid. Thanks, guys - I won't be taking my 5-year-old to your range, ever. I guess if I catch another one with my noggin, I'll have to change my screenname to Spongebob Bullethead. -Warren- |
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I caught a hunk of 9mm copper jacket with my neck at a plate match once .
I was standing a good 15 feet behind the shooter when it happened . The piece was about a half inch long shaped like a little arrow head , it sunk in about a quarter inch . I thought it was a bee sting at first because there were a lot of bees buzzing around that day . So of course my reaction was to smack at it which drove it in a little deeper
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I was hit by a piece of bullet last week from somone shooting steel plates in the next bay with a 12 ft high berm between us . IT stung but no blood. over the years I've bled from several pieces of bullets ricoceting back from cratered steel plates LESSON LEARNED wear safety glasses  I have a #6 shot embedded in my forehead from a ricochet bird hunting accident.
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Quoted:
Last year a young Montana boy 10-12 years old was killed when he caught a 22LR ricochet in the chest while shooting p-dogs. Really? Got an article link? For a .22LR to turn 180 and penetrate someone's chest deep enough to kill them would have to be almost a billion to one... |
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Quoted:
When I was 12 I got hit with a .22lr. That is why you don't shoot at old tractors! A couple years ago I was shooting an AK at an old cement truck and had a round (mostly jacket) comback and nail me in the forehead. It trickled blood but no permanent damage. Old cars, cement trucks, and tractors are great for this. |
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I shot my buddy with 7.62x51 ball. I was shooting an old hanging steel plate at 75 yards with a different buddi'es M1A. I was standing about 25 yards to my buddi'es left and the richochet came back and hit him under the left arm pit. He actually went down to the ground and I consider him a strong guy.
I was the only person who believed it to have been an actual bullet that penetrated––I mean, entrance wound only, but about 7.62 slug sized. He accepted only rudimentary first aid––flush the wound and apply field dressing. Three days later it hurt enough that he finally went to the dr. The slug was embedded just under his rib cage and that's darn ner your heart. They left it in. I felt several 45ACP bullets whis past my leg––actually brushing my pants––when shooting lead target loads at an old steel rim. |
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About ten years ago I shooting my '03 Springfield at my friends private range(dirt pile in the woods). I fired a shot from the hip and felt a powerful blow like a mule kicked me. I thought the rifle blew up, but looked down and there was a tiny hole in my shirt. I pulled up my shirt, and there was a hole in my pants, pulled down my pants, and you guessed it! A hole in my underwear, at this point I siad some 4 letter words and pulled my underwear down. And about two inches away from my pride and joy was a nice round hole, but no blood. I picked up all my gear and walked about half a mile back to my car and drove myself to the doctor. He dug out the complete copper jacket from a 30-06, it went in about an inch and a half. He also pulled out all kinds a fabric from the clothes it went through!
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| Shooting pistol at a state game land range I was standing on the line with my left hand hanging at my side before I got ready to shoot, as another shooter was shooting to my left. It was a cold day in the winter and I felt a pain in my left hand. I hadn't fired so it was from the other shooter, not sure what caliber he was firing. No damage or blood, but it made part of my hand numb and there was a noticeable mark where it had impacted with the bone below my thumb on the top of my hand. I didn't even think about looking down to find what hit me as I just went back to the table to see what happened. |
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