Shooting steel ? >>>Projectiles bounce back !<<<

[OS OK]

The Grim Reaper just missed collecting this fellas brains in a bucket...50BMG woulda left a mark!

https://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=AwrSw7LcbkJaBwoAokL7w8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTByYX I3cnIwBHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDdmlkBHZ0aWQDBGdwb3MDNA--?p=WILLIE+THE+BULLET+MAN&vid=b6af5f823f3512d914bef7e1b0d23929&turl=https%3A%2F%2Ftse4.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOV P.P_QbT1YPPIoq06osoLmL_wEsDh%26pid%3D15.1%26h%3D22 5%26w%3D300%26c%3D7%26rs%3D1&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailymotion.com%2Fvideo%2Fx5 l3g0o&tit=Man+Dodges+a+Bullet%2C+Literally&c=3&h=225&w=300&l=42&sigr=118i0usbu&sigt=10uc7t2jr&sigi=12rf6q4am&age=1494022552&fr2=p%3As%2Cv%3Av&fr=aaplw&tt=b

[smokeater]

Couple years back my wife and I were shooting at a steel plate rack with our 9mm's and a piece of the bullet jacket with a shard of lead came back and hit me in the arm. Went deep enough that it took a couple of weeks before my forearm swelled up enough to pop it out. Needless to say, we do not shoot steel with jacketed bullets and even with lead we stand back further than the line and rope from the rack. I have since bought us a steel plate target that we sat out at 30 - 40 yds to shoot but even then we wear all appropriate safety stuff. Love to hear the clang.

[lightman]

The pistol backstop at our private range is made from old tires. Think heavy equipment used in mining. Huge, heavy, 24+ ply tires. Occasionally, one will throw a pistol bullet back. 25 yards is pretty safe but 21ft can get your attention! Rather than moving closer to the backstop I'll move the target closer to the firing line and try to maintain some distance.

[Pumpkinheaver]

I caught a 230 gr .45acp bullet last summer that came back off of a bowling pin at a match.

[marek313]

I shoot cast 99% and we shoot plates often when its nice out. I never had anything dangerous come back at us but couple of shards came down from the sky few times because it thats where it mostly goes when its splatters on the plate. Nothing like that video but I'm always pushing everyone back when they get too close.
Shooting steel with cast 45acp though is not the same thing as 50BMG obviously. I dont think I'd shoot steel plate at a 100yards ( I'm guessing) with 50BMG I think I'll be fine shooting that on paper

[Echo]

Shooting an All AF Match @ Lackland 'way back, during a slow fire 45 HB stage, I was hit by a washer - well - I guess it was the base of the lead in the HB round. Somewhat larger than a nickle, the bullet must have struck the angle-iron on top of the berm and popped the base of the lead back - or something. Still have the washer...
(And I didn't shoot the round - generally, my rounds went into the target, not the angle-iron 3' below the black...)

[Ballistics in Scotland]

I remember an "American Rifleman" letter in the 60s or 70s, in which a man shot at a piece of railway track, presumably not in use, and lost the sight of one eye to a circular piece of jacket the diameter of a cigarette, which ended up behind his eyeball. I don't remember the range, but it wasn't long, and yet didn't seem foolishly short. Nothing that shape is likely to retail velocity really well, and it probably wouldn't have done him serious harm anywhere else, but enough to be unwelcome, and even if your eye is behind a scope, you've got another one that isn't.

I sometimes fired rifle shots at a large brass block I had. It made approximately spherical little lead-plated cavities, narrower at the mouth than inside, with quite attractive little outward turned petals. There was never any sign of solid metal inside till I used Nosler solid based boat-tails, and then I gave up in a hurry. I found a little cupro-nickel button loose inside each cavity, which was the solid base. I reasoned that for them to stay there, the rest of the bullet must be going somewhere predictable by the laws of physics. Since I couldn't predict any way for it to go left, right, up or down, I reasoned that it might be coming straight backwards.

[kens]

that is why many of the steel gongs are hung such that they are tilted for the bullet to go to the ground.
Hang steel gongs such that the fragments or bullets richochet towards the ground.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

That should be a big help, but not the complete answer. You'd think of something to say to someone firing even small fragments of metal from a shotgun into the ground in your direction. The best thing is hanging the gongs a long way off.

[marek313]

That should be a big help, but not the complete answer. You'd think of something to say to someone firing even small fragments of metal from a shotgun into the ground in your direction. The best thing is hanging the gongs a long way off.

Thats fine but not all shrapnel is going downward. It splatters in a full circle so some of it goes up and because of this angle now it bounces back at the shooter. Good part is that it loses momentum pretty quick and by the time it comes down its harmless. Some of those do lob with some range though.

[17nut]

Tilt it (steel target) away from you in a 90+10degree manner and whatever splatter will be upwards and will never catch you!

[Walks]

Steel plates for Cowboy Action Shooting are spring-mounted to their stands and tilted down at at a 15 degree angle. When you go down range to pick up the targets after a match you will see a groove in the dirt just in front of the target legs where the bullets impacted, coming off the target.

[wistlepig1]

The guy with the 50 was lucky, good day to buy a loto tic. I to have seen bullits come back, started shooting at angle now.

[W.R.Buchanan]

The accepted minimum safe distance to shoot steel targets with pistols is 15 yards. With shotguns with slugs 35 yards and Rifles are 50+.

Also like mentioned above targets should be constructed so as to deflect boolits downward after hit. Most cast boolits will flatten on impact. Jacketed not so much, and they will come back at you if the circumstances are just right.

I have seen whizzers come back at the line during a Rimfire Silhouette Match coming off little bitty chickens at 40 Meters.

You can't be too safe, but really if you get hit from a ricochet is more about blind luck than anything you did wrong.

I guess Karma is real!

Randy

[Texas by God]

Don't shoot steel pock marked by rifle bullets either. I have a scar on my forehead to explain why.

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[derek45]

wear good eye protection.

I've been shooting steel for decades without trouble.

targets and stands designed for steel are very hard, and the lead splatters off.

shooting pitted steel or steel not designed to be target steel can cause trouble.

https://i.imgur.com/AAkv9vm.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/819aqep.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/LRtE3Si.jpg

[OS OK]

Every time I see this range it makes me think of Hickock on the U-Tube . . . :bigsmyl2: . . . I keep trying to find the 80 yard big round gong!

[MyFlatline]

So far,,knock on wood, my set up has done well

210360

[OS OK]

The only thing that bothers me about steel is not being able to get my Pb back...have to install a tire around the plates to keep that Pb.

[MyFlatline]

Agreed, I use these for more long range. If I can hit the 3" gong at 150, I'm happy.

For pistols we have a sand/dirt back stop, I made a gold miners trough to sift the sand and reclaim...Yes, I am that cheap..

[DHDeal]

I'm not tell anyone anything they don't already know, but the majority of the zingers that come back at cha are from dimpled/pockmarked steel. Angled or steel set up on chains (or best of all, both) rarely causes the duck reflex.

Rifle grade steel is a worthwhile investment, but if your buddies just want to shoot a few rounds of whatever from their AR or AK, politely refuse.....

[w5pv]

When I was a kid about 12 years old I was out pinging with a single shot 22 and shot the metal band around a electrical support pole the bullet bounced back and hit me in the chest in the heart,I was very lucky that I was wearing a pretty heavy winter coat and no damage to me other that it hurt.It could have been a tragic mishap but it taught me a safety lesson I have not forgotten in about 65 or so years don't shoot at metal objects that are heavier than a beer can

[fredj338]

When I shot CAS, a lot of bullet bounce back. They are only going 500-700fps, & many are too hard to deform & even then, a 200gr bullet flattened is still formidable under 10y.

[Gtek]

Years ago I learned that some wood can also be dangerous! A good while back buddy just had to have a Judge, he picked one up. Brought it along one day and after our morning long range fun off to the pistol area we go. Brand new plywood (not chip board) on 15 yard line, he started with the cartridges and saved the shot shells for last. I am standing on his left loading 1911 mags and he pops one off, next thing I know my legs are on fire. I am dancing around to his wonder/laughter followed by a no way from him. His disbelief turned into name calling and then a poor judgement position switch soon followed, now there is one more believer!

[Road_Clam]

My gun club does not allow steel gongs unless they are hung at a 15° angle downwards. I never realized the true riccochet hazard until recently shooting subsonic ammo with a supressor. You literally hear a violent whirling from the copper and lead shraphnel in all directions when you don't have the traditional supersonic muzzle blast . Note that subsonic ammo is only traveling at about 1050 fps, shooting supersonic is 2400 +

[303Guy]

Many years ago there was a news report in which a 22lr bullet entered a U-shaped bent pipe in the berm. The bullet struck either the shooter or someone else at the firing line in the heart, killing them.

[10gaOkie]

20 years ago at a IHMSA match, my son was hit in the thigh from a 7mm copper jacket after bouncing off a silhouette target. My son was 25 yards behind the firing line when hit. He still carries the bullet in his leg. My wife nearly killed me over that one. /Chris

[sw282]

Been shooting IHMSA silhouettes since it started in the late 70s.. l have never personally seen anyone lnjured by a ricochete boolet. 25yd chickens are our closest targets in Field Pistol. l have witnessed a couple of falling plate and cowboy matches... Those steel targets are too close for me. l have been cut once in all my shooting days.. l once tried the old movie trick of the padlock being shot off its hasp. 0nce was enough!! l wont try THAT again.

ps. Don't believe all you see on TV/Movies.. ESP the news!!!


282

[derek45]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uy5sAjyh-_s

[458mag]

We were in florida on vacation one year and visited an old army watch post on the coast. The old log book was sitting on a table and was open to a particular log in witch the writer described an incident where they were trying to make a device to smooth out the gravel road to the outpost. They were going to bore holes in a piece of rr rail and drag it behind the trackter. They couldn't find a bit to drill the holes so one soldier decided his 03 would do the job. He fired point blank at the rr rail and the bullet bounced back and entered his chest just below his left forearm and pierced his heart. The writer said death was very quick and he did not suffer.

[Thin Man]

Many years ago I was watching LEOs qualify on their improvised range. All of their target frames were constructed from angle iron with cardboard backers. One fellow was firing his snub nose .38 Special with the issue wadcutter training ammo when he shouted and fell to the ground. The range officer immediately shut down the line and investigated the issue. The shooter said at the sound of his last shot he could see the boolit coming straight back at him but had no time to react and move away from it. He was hit on the forehead between the eyes and just above the eye brows, made a small gash with light blood loss. The boolit was not found. His employer gave him 3 days off with pay to recover from the incident. The target frames were taken down that very day. On the day after this happened this shooter was spotted on a local golf course with a bottle of Scotch in his hip pocket. Rather than go to a hospital for treatment he decided on the "home remedy" approach to the event.

[Texas by God]

Many years ago I was watching LEOs qualify on their improvised range. All of their target frames were constructed from angle iron with cardboard backers. One fellow was firing his snub nose .38 Special with the issue wadcutter training ammo when he shouted and fell to the ground. The range officer immediately shut down the line and investigated the issue. The shooter said at the sound of his last shot he could see the boolit coming straight back at him but had no time to react and move away from it. He was hit on the forehead between the eyes and just above the eye brows, made a small gash with light blood loss. The boolit was not found. His employer gave him 3 days off with pay to recover from the incident. The target frames were taken down that very day. On the day after this happened this shooter was spotted on a local golf course with a bottle of Scotch in his hip pocket. Rather than go to a hospital for treatment he decided on the "home remedy" approach to the event.I didn't treat my rebounding bullet head wound with golf and scotch.
I used Wild Turkey 101.

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[HangFireW8]

Do what you gotta do to recover. Nothing like a round of golf to remind you how much more fun you would have if you went shooting!

[OS OK]

I didn't treat my rebounding bullet head wound with golf and scotch.
I used Wild Turkey 101.

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Your gonna make me 'YAK'....I got sick off that stuff in 66 on the 'Salt Grass Trail Ride' in Brenham the first night...now I can't even smell it without gagging! that was 51 years ago. I guess that lesson stuck!

[David2011]

One range where I used to compete had the steel mounted to the stands with a carriage bolt passed through the target and then an automotive valve spring. The target gave a little on impact and while it didn’t stop all ricochets it certainly helped. Light loads using cast boolits probably ricochet worse than faster ones.

A friend needed a couple of stitches after an open class bullet jacket bounced off of a steel plate and punctured his arm. He was tall. The jacket passed through a group of people around him at their eye level.

[RoGrrr]

Do what you gotta do to recover. Nothing like a round of golf to remind you how much more fun you would have if you went shooting!

PI$$ ON GOLF ! Waste of a good target range

[Jayhawkhuntclub]

The accepted minimum safe distance to shoot steel targets with pistols is 15 yards.
Randy
Accepted by who?

[ioon44]

IDPA rule 2.14 Steel Targets must be engaged from 10 yards or more.