The ricochet

[Rdlningcltchdmpr]

You could get permanent injury if you don't flex up before impact .

 

[Eccentric]

Were you hunting Arby's?

They have.........the meat.

 

[blackwidowp61]

I got curious one evening when I was at my brother-in-law's farm. It was getting pretty dark and I just happened to have a box of 30-06 tracers. I had my rifle and there was a small woods in an enclosed draw slightly below me. Popped a few off into the woods just to see what would happen. It was like watching a ball on a bumper pool table! A couple just died, but most bounced around like I couldn't believe. Wound up burning all 20 rounds that I had because it was so amazing. One even bounced through the woods, hit the hill behind and bounced up in the air. Quite educational.

 

[Bojo]

Those tracer rounds get lighter as they burn out ,, causes them to fly an unpredictable path after a certain distance

 

[RabbitSlayer]

Holy smokes some of these stories are insane. Maybe you will hate me, but this is why I think gun owners all need a basic safety course similar to hunters safety. People have no concept of anything happening downrange or what could happen.

I was in the desert shooting. There was another group shooting at a hill to my right 90 degrees, their backs turned to me. They were about 150 yards away. They had been there all day, and had only fired in that direction. They had their bench and everything setup shooting that way.Essentially I was 150 yards behind the firing line. So, I went out to put up a new target (100 yards). I hear a ricochet zing by my head. I thought I was hallucinating as that would require the bullet to change direction 180 degrees. Then I heard another one. I turned around and one idiot had separated from the group and was firing in the direction I had been shooting all day. He was shooting a handgun at a target on the rocky ground right in front of him. I screamed at him "hey!". He fired again and zing! I screamed louder "hey!!!!". He then told me to F off and went back to his group. Lot of self control on my part not to return fire! I dunno if he saw I was at the target or not. I think he did see I was down range but since he was 150 yards away and angled ever so slightly away from me it was safe. Those bullets were changing direction 45 degrees or more, but bubba was too stupid to think it possible.

I also see people shooting handguns and ARs at steel that is basically fixed in place like 10 yards in front of them. They are out of their mind.

I found a new spot in the desert that actually has a single steel shooting bench built into the ground. It is sort of hidden and requires high clearance. Best part is, only room for 1 person to shoot due to the brush. I drive an extra 10 miles to go to a spot where I do not see other people and have to worry about their complete lack of gun safety.

 

[hogpatrol]

.

Unless one has their own range, it's almost impossible to get away from the unsafe ones.

 

[Park ranger]

I went home for lunch and to let the dogs out. While in the backyard, I heard a rifle shot couple seconds, I hear incoming round strike the yard. Another shot, hear the round catch tree leaves and hit plastic play toys in the neighbors yard. I live a couple blocks in from the country, town about 3000 pop. A couple more shots and I hear one pass over and another strike metal. I get on the phone and call 911 and get my dogs and the neighbors in the garages. I hear more than a dozen shots by the time a deputy rolls up and he is standing out front as a shot rings out. Yelled at him to get close to the house. We did not hear that round. I sent him in the direction where I thought shots came from and he found 2 guys little over a mile away, said they had been target shooting with the target in front of a temporary pond in a farm field. 12 shots from a 243 and 1 308. Later I found 1 243 105 gr sp had struck the neighbors truck, 1 went through the other neighbors garage wall past over their kids play area and hit the garage door and bounced on to the entry steps. He came back before I found the first bullet and said "he told them to be careful". I called him when I found the bullet after my neighbor left for work in his truck, he came back and I showed him the 243, deputy asked if I was sure it was a 243 , I was. He collected it in a evidence bag and left. He went and told the guys charges would come if the failed to pay any damage claims, 600$ hole in neighbors pickup grill. Not sure of the siding bill.

You heard the gun shot, then the bullet zip by? Seems odd figuring a 243 is faster than the speed of sound. You would think you would hear the crack of the bullet, then the report of the gun, like when pulling pits in competition.

 

[Ballisticboy]

You heard the gun shot, then the bullet zip by? Seems odd figuring a 243 is faster than the speed of sound. You would think you would hear the crack of the bullet, then the report of the gun, like when pulling pits in competition.

Which you hear first will depend on the range and the nature of the ricochet. Projectiles tend to lose a lot of velocity in ricochet due to the ricochet itself and the resulting bullet yaw giving large yaw induced drag which will increase the time of flight to a given distance, the greater the range the larger the effect. The rifle sound will also travel in a straight line where as the bullet, because of the ricochet, has travelled a lot further to reach the same distance, certainly not in a straight line.

 

[DocDoc]

Join a club that uses and enforces NRA/safety. RSOs present and violators lose their membership and range access.

 

[blackwidowp61]

All by himself with a .50 cal...

 

[CaptainMal]

Join a club that uses and enforces NRA/safety. RSOs present and violators lose their membership and range access.

Where is that?

RSOs can work their butts off and still not come close to seeing violations. That happens all the time. Remember that most RSOs PAY to be that and PAY to work as RSO's. Even if they got paid and would be hopefully more diligent, they are human. I am one. I know. It is not reasonable to see all violations. Then dealing with violations can be a very unpleasant experience.

The range I am talking about is an NRA range. To join you have to be an NRA member. The general public can pay extra to come and shoot. Guessing NRA members are better quality shooters. "Guessing" is the operative word as I doubt anyone knows.

IMG_6079 by Larry Malinoski, on Flickr

To show that you just can't make this kind of stupid up - here is an actual picture I took of a local police tactical squad setting up to practice on the 600 yard range. This is on a day the overall range is closed and they can hold their own practice. Behind those banks on the right - the direction they are going to shoot UP at those targets and over or skip at the top of the side banks are HOUSES out about a mile. Straight behind the far backstop is a public park.

I saw this as I went there on that closed day to do volunteer work and could not here because of their practice. I thought they were just doing some kind of "dry firing". The leader had them shoot, I witnessed the bullet impacts on top of that side bank and maybe going over. I immediately got help from club officials and stopped the mess. Versions of this happen often. Even experienced and responsible shooters, not versed on ricochet/safety issues, get into this.

Range rental means money. Money has its' own way of speaking. Recently a Bergera group had a program there with steel set up at various yardages down range with no backstop. It was allowed to go on as scheduled and rented. In the future there will be safety changes but all too often things like this go on at ranges without miles of distance behind the firing line to handle ricochets. It's is a problem that will take education and enforcement to correct.