The flight path of a bullet at the range.

[Nowhere Man]

When you have two ranges side by side and persons are shooting on both sides of a 10 foot high dirt berm, how do you convince someone that it's safe? They believe that those bullets from the neighboring range are going to jump over the berm and kill them dead.

Is this a real problem?

 

[3dflyer]

Weird things happen when a bullet becomes a ricochet. Here are a couple of examples.

In April a Georgia man injured his mother-in-law when a bullet ricocheted off an armadillo, "hit a fence, went through the back door of his mother-in-law's mobile home, through a recliner she was sitting in, and into her back," local TV station WALB News reported.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-st...red-by-ricochet-shot-inside-fairbanks-library

http://www.vvng.com/3-year-old-child-wounded-ricochet-bullet/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23432122​

The odds say you're pretty safe but Murphy frequently has something to say.

Regards

 

[Shynloco]

The solution...find another range to shoot at. Another example of a range owner who has more money than brains. But then one accident and the money is gone in the lawsuit that will surely follow.

Alex

P.S. If you choose to go to that range, may I suggest you up your Life Insurance.

 

[ED3]

When you have two ranges side by side and persons are shooting on both sides of a 10 foot high dirt berm, how do you convince someone that it's safe? They believe that those bullets from the neighboring range are going to jump over the berm and kill them dead.

Is this a real problem?

How long, and how wide are these ranges?

 

[watercam]

If both are of short range (25 yards or less) it should be safe. If one or both are longer and one range is Hot while folks are changing targets on the other, I would be terrified. Ideally there would be communication between the lines so that cease fires are coordinated.
I shoot at a club where there are three different 1000 yd. ranges immediately adjacent to each other. Only one is ever 'open' at a time for obvious reasons. We still get guys (never gals) who can not see the problem of shooting on more than one at a time since they always insist that they 'Never miss'.

 

[Regnar]

Seriously, if there are10 foot berms and you are not in danger. when we shoot idpa or idea events there are usually people on both sides of the been shooting at the same time and often shooting into the berrm towards you while you are doing the same time. Not only at soft targets but at steel as well.

Yes bullets do ricochet, sometimes even 90 degrees but they will not ricochette 90 then another 90 which is what would be needed to go up and over a berm them back down.

You have more danger pulling targets in the pits than you do shooting next to someone on another range next to you.

 

[Immike]

Several clubs have short range training bay's side by side without issues. Some have had 50 yd walls for generations. (Walter Cline) holding national events side by side with different relays.

 

[DRNewcomb]

I've never seen it happen but if a shooter on the adjacent range was shooting at something hard (e.g. a bowling pin) a bullet could ricochet back at any angle, including being lobbed over a 10' berm and whacking you on the head. This is the reason that ranges have rules about what you can use as a target and wearing eye protection.

 

[dickn52]

Our range has a 100 yd rifle with an 8-10ft hardened concrete block wall separating them. By hardened I mean blocks are set then filled with a hardened concrete to make the wall solid. We have had splatter from a pistol steel set onto the rifle range, but it's not going very fast when it goes up and over the wall.

 

[savagedasher]

Just make both ranges cold at the same time you shouldn't have a problem . Larry

 

[SheepDog]

My standing rule is that you defer to the guy who doesn't feel safe. The local range has berms separating the 7 pistol ranges and if the guy next door asks me to stop shooting while he goes down range I take a smoke break or a coffee break. The burms are designed to stop ricochets and even bullets fired directly into the wall. They are well over the 8.5 feet suggested by the NRA but if someone doesn't feel safe it isn't worth the time to argue.

 

[Nvreloader]

It is quite obvious your friend has not been under fire, LOL.

When I built the NDOC rifle/pistol ranges, side x side,
the state REQUIRED that the dirt berms were 10' high,
with a minimum of 6' at the top.

The pistol side was 50 yds long, and the rifle side was 300 yds long,
this range was used to train new officers that NEVER had handle any weapon before.

It was fun to see their faces when a ricochet went singing past from the pistol side etc. LOL

Tia,
Don

 

[scubohuntr]

Weird things happen when a bullet becomes a ricochet. Here are a couple of examples.

In April a Georgia man injured his mother-in-law when a bullet ricocheted off an armadillo, "hit a fence, went through the back door of his mother-in-law's mobile home, through a recliner she was sitting in, and into her back," local TV station WALB News reported.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-st...red-by-ricochet-shot-inside-fairbanks-library

http://www.vvng.com/3-year-old-child-wounded-ricochet-bullet/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23432122​

The odds say you're pretty safe but Murphy frequently has something to say.

Regards

Now that's just lame. Guy shoots his mother in law and blames it on the armadillo.

 

[Immike]

Now that's just lame. Guy shoots his mother in law and blames it on the armadillo.

Tiger woods couldn't make that shot! What a coincidence to be shooting towards her house. Lol

 

[Ned Ludd]

If a bullet jumps a 10' berm or ricochets off an armadillo and hits you, then your time was simply up. How it happened doesn't really matter, it was going to happen one way or another.

 

[dcali]

Common sense indicates that there are bigger risks than Oswald's magic bullet making a comeback. Then again, people are dumb in unimaginable ways, constantly inventing ways to thin out the herd.

 

[firemedic2000]

This is an interesting subject. I was at forum shoot today. We were shooting at targets at 200 yds away. Plus some people were shooting handguns. Some of the people were shooting steel hanging on chain at 200 yds next to the berm.

The berm dividing the lanes is over15 ft high at least. R.O.s comes over to us and tells us that we had a round come over the berm and go through someones jacket sleeve. Ricochet he thought from the steel maybe who knows. So we relocate all steel to opposite side of range.

So let me get this straight. Rd hit hanging steel went over a berm at least 15 high travel at least 40 yards comes down and backward and goes through a jacket sleeve.

The R.O.s harrassed us on the range after that till I just loaded up and left. They kept coming back every 20 mins looking for something a reason to evict the forum off the range.

From my understanding when this happened they were up close to targets shooting steel. If that is true. I this the ricochet might have come from there own range. R.Os was wanting our R.O.s insurance info to. Just in case.

That got me thinking they were trying to cover their butts. By blaming someone else for a ricochet that actually happen on their range. We've been shoot there for years and never had this problem with range before. At least 4 events a year. But its under new mangement.

 

[LHSmith]

I prefer paper targets. IMHO there is not practical reason to shoot at steel.http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/?s=ricochet&submit=Search
Liability insurance for ranges is high enough as it is. Absolutely no reason to create greater risk to club members or increase the risk of the local municipality forcing closure of the range.

 

[DRNewcomb]

This is an interesting subject. I was at forum shoot today. We were shooting at targets at 200 yds away. Plus some people were shooting handguns. Some of the people were shooting steel hanging on chain at 200 yds next to the berm.....

So, the only steel on your range was 200 yards downrange? I'd really doubt that any ricochet off a gong could go 200 yards back the way it came. Did they show you the spent bullet?

We used to shoot bowling pins at one club. The ricochets were so bad off some of the pins that we had to put a Plexiglas shield between the shooter and referee and the table. In the end they ended up ditching bowling pins and going to steel plates. Even so, the worst anyone ever got from a ricochet was a hickey on the leg.

 

[people]

The USMC runs three rifle ranges separated by a berm only. Millions of rounds have been fired everyone I know survived.

Consult a ballistic chart. you will be fine.