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Bullets leaving range hitting houses

ngoforth

A local shooting range is being accused of bullets leaving the range and hitting houses. They have been accused of this multiple times over the past few years. Is it possible to use some math to prove if they did or did not leave that range? The house is about 5000 feet from the back of the range and the lastest incident is a .224 bullet but not sure of the weight. I do not have any affiliation with either parties but am curious.

https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-new...pwVVf8dkeJBLKk6FALEHvKPf9vM3O5jtFhRtrlfTKCzHY
 
Just plug it into a ballistic calculator, pretty easy to solve for. 5000 feet behind the range, lets call it a mile just for good measure. lets assume its a really nice 1000 yard range. in round numbers - 2700 yards is distance a 223 would have to travel.

plug that into my calculator for a AR-15 launched 55 grain FMJ.... its moving 431 feed per sec and has 23 ftlbs of energy at when it hits at 2700 yards.

16,312 inches of drop over 97,200 inches (2700 * 3 *12).

Assuming a completely parabolic flight (which isn't right, but close enough for this thought experiment) the bullet peaks at 16,312 and 1/2 the distance to her house (48600 inches). That means the bullet was shot at a 18 degree launch angle from the range. If someone lights one off while sky loading, or getting the gun in and out of a case on the bench, etc its 100% possible (and probable) even a light 223 bullet could get that far...

I would hate to be a range owner without 1000 acres around me =/
 
1-mile sounds like a mid-range shot for K02M.

Heck, Jerry M. hits balloons at 1000y with a 9mm pistol.

All Math will do is tell you that at a steep (near 45 degree) angle and shooting with the Coriolis effect (Shooting west?) That a bullet even from a 22lr can and will travel a distance not generally measured in "feet."

-Mac
 
Watching some of the shenanigans that go down at our local range, Yes, entirely possible.
I watched as our range installed heavy beams above the 25yd handgun range, and literally a day later, there were already impact marks on the beams furthest down range.
 
The range owner has video of his range with noone shooting and gunshots going off in the background after other incidents. I just think that if the range is safe I hope they can prove it and if its unsafe to be upgraded or be shut down. It makes all shooters look bad no matter what since it made the news.
 
Whoa....not good. The 200 yard lane runs parallel with the semi trailers in the business next door. The range berms face east. The N-S residential road with the house hits is east of the firing line only 0.9 miles distant. Almost directly inline with rifles. Used google earth to view and measure. Looked at website pictures for range layout. I wonder if the N-S rail road tracks has active traffic.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Lake+Bailee+Recreational+Park+&+Gun+Range/@39.4424219,-84.5122432,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1sAF1QipMqBPJ_e5_ZdGOgjdeQz8DpdDMz08pP7W1w14_J!2e10!3e12!6shttps://lh5.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1QipMqBPJ_e5_ZdGOgjdeQz8DpdDMz08pP7W1w14_J=w114-h86-k-no!7i4160!8i3120!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0xccae8d82da09fdc8!8m2!3d39.4424219!4d-84.5122432
 
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We had it happen at our sportsman's club about 20 years ago. Club had been there for 50 years and a trailer moved in near the area. Claimed noise was too loud and filed complaint. Police said they shouldn't have moved so close. Nothing they could do said the police. Then less than 6 months later, a bullet hole in the side of the shed on their property. Investigation proved it was shot from less than 5' away. Not sure how they determined it but you can see where the story is going. Needless to say, the club still exists. Never know what people will do to get what they want. Especially anti gun nuts.
 
bobm said:
Whoa....not good. The 200 yard lane runs parallel with the semi trailers in the business next door. The range berms face east. The N-S residential road with the house hits is east of the firing line only 0.9 miles distant. Almost directly inline with rifles. Used google earth to view and measure. Looked at website pictures for range layout. I wonder if the N-S rail road tracks has active traffic.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Lake+Bailee+Recreational+Park+&+Gun+Range/@39.4424219,-84.5122432,3a,75y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1sAF1QipMqBPJ_e5_ZdGOgjdeQz8DpdDMz08pP7W1w14_J!2e10!3e12!6shttps://lh5.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1QipMqBPJ_e5_ZdGOgjdeQz8DpdDMz08pP7W1w14_J=w114-h86-k-no!7i4160!8i3120!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0xccae8d82da09fdc8!8m2!3d39.4424219!4d-84.5122432
Click to expand...
The railroad line is active.
 
ngoforth said:
A local shooting range is being accused of bullets leaving the range and hitting houses. They have been accused of this multiple times over the past few years. Is it possible to use some math to prove if they did or did not leave that range? The house is about 5000 feet from the back of the range and the lastest incident is a .224 bullet but not sure of the weight. I do not have any affiliation with either parties but am curious.

https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-new...pwVVf8dkeJBLKk6FALEHvKPf9vM3O5jtFhRtrlfTKCzHY
Click to expand...

Googole Earth shows that complex to have a trailer park in direct line with the impact berm and closer than I would be comfortable with.

On another note...back in the late 90's and early 2000's I and my son raced karts at the track outside of Camden just up Hwy 127 a bit. Our summer national was held there every couple of years. Great corn!
 
We had a great 1000 yd range in Central Texas until a developer bought the land adjacent and claimed he found spent rounds on the land. Didn't have to prove anything for a judge to shut down the range and now they're out of business.

Developed land pays bigger taxes than underdeveloped.
 
Texas10 said:
We had a great 1000 yd range in Central Texas until a developer bought the land adjacent and claimed he found spent rounds on the land. Didn't have to prove anything for a judge to shut down the range and now they're out of business.

Developed land pays bigger taxes than underdeveloped.
Click to expand...

Texas does have a problem with some of its judges. They don't really act like judges......
 
If a bullet penetrated my window that faces a range’s berm, for a third or fourth time, and struck an object on a table inside, I’d “start” by running string between the points. (I’d actually start by going to the range at that exact moment and noting with 8 megapixels of resolution cars I passed along the way, but she’s 90 and nervous).

Between the string and the condition of the recovered bullet you are going to have a pretty good idea whether an errant hunter fired the shot, or it left the range more than a mile away.
 
5000 feet is 1666 yards. My .308 would be going 842fps at 1600 yards. I would have to aim 106MOA over the target. That's 1.77 degrees. Sure you can shoot the houses.

This image here shows you can easily shoot above the targets. Nothing prevents high-shots.
ExOvPVk.jpg


As bobm says, you can see there are houses directly down-range.
cns2swJ.jpg
 
Had a guy accuse me of bouncing a .223 FMJ off the ground and going through his window 1700 yards away. I tried to explain to him that I could not hit his house from there even if I was trying. He was totally out of control so I tried to defuse the situation. I showed him the .223 rounds I was shooting. He looked at my RRA Varmint rifle and said it looks like a .45 to me. I surmised from that statement that someone a lot closer to his house put a pistol round through his window. I told his to look closer to home. He called the Sheriff to come investigate and left before they showed up. They didn't know much more about ballistics than he did. I think some where along the line the guy realized he made a mistake and that is why he left. I know once a bullet hits the ground it doesn't go far. I decided to make a video to prove my point in case I ran into another problem. I set up my 5X5' 1000 yard target and camera 50 yards away. I loaded 10 rounds of 55 FMJ and 10 rounds of 77 SMK. From a standing position I fired them in the ground 15 to 20 yards in front of the target. All the FMJ cartwheeled and key holed all over the target. The 77s literally fragmented. End of story.
 
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