Boom Headshot - .50 style

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George Hill

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Looked like it took a one-hopper before it hit poor Willie. It's probably a good thing, too! If you watch close it looks like the bullet kicks up some dust as it hits the ground just before hitting him in the head.

Jason
 
To calculate velocity, one would need the velocity of the .50 bullet at 90 meters and the coefficient of restitution (COR how "bouncy" a material is) of a lead on steel collision. I suppose it would be important to subtract the air velocity of a tumbling projectile coming back another 90 meters, but that's trickier.

I can't find exact numbers, but everywhere I read says that steel has a very high COR; your choice to avoid steel targets in the future is probably very wise. While lead has a low COR, it's pretty obvious now that the steel is springy enough to redirect bullets at shooters.

Edit: Duh!

Just read the blog.

It's about two seconds from the steel target getting hit to the bullet returning. 50 ft/sec with a 700 grain projectile isn't anything to snort at.
 
Yay, math.

It's about 1.3 seconds from the "ping" to the "thup-OW!". Sound takes about 0.3 seconds to travel 100 yards. So 1.6 seconds travel time, or 187 feet per second. That's about 52 foot-pounds with a 668 grain bullet (assuming a complete bullet hit your friend, unlikely).

That's still quite a bit, about equivalent to a powerful BB gun. I think that bounce it took off the ground took a lot out of it.
 
I don't think a bb gun would knock the earmuffs off his head like that.
Even the most powerful BB guns at 1400 FPS wouldn't do that. That slug, however much of it was left, still packed a lot of momentum.
 
WoW! :eek: I'm glad Willies OK.

This last year at a bowling pin shoot a bullet came back 75 feet and smacked the backside of the scorer's laptop. It was enough to break the screen.
 
Perhaps too he was using ball ammunition which is far more prone to ricochet than a frangible bullet.

I was talking to a fellow shooter at a Military range last year and we were talking range safety fan issues. If you are unaware the fan got bigger over time. He made the comment that you just don’t know what is going on with these FMJ type bullets because you can’t see them. However, he had been shooting 30 tracer at a berm with a machine gun and he said you would not believe, until you see it, the bullets emerging from the ground and exiting virtually all directions. Including straight back.

The gun club I belong to just established a safe distance standard for metal targets and pistols. I have no idea what a safe distance is for .30 cal. We don’t allow 50 cal shooters, we don’t have the downrange safe zone. But from what I see, I think 200 yards still might be too close.

Obviously this shooter was too close to the steel target with that 50 caliber. Lucky darn thing the bullet was spent.
 
George, consider the difference between energy and momentum. A 668 grain .50BMG bullet going 187.5ft/s has 22.6 times the momentum of a 6.9gr BB going 800ft/s.

So, you're right. A BB gun couldn't knock Willie's muffs off, but a big ole .50BMG ricochet sure will, because it's got way more momentum - even though the two projectiles have the same energy. That ricochet has about the same momentum as a golf ball on a fairway drive. Ow!

By the way, I read your site. Great review of the P-01, I bought one because of it.

Egad. Back to work.
 
Was the steel plate vertical, or at an incline?

When I shoot steel, I generally arrange it so it's closer at the top than at the bottom, such that anything striking it would be deflected into the ground. I usually use a 45 angle.

If the plate was vertical, the bullet is much more likely to come back.

Glad to hear he's ok. I'd need a new set of underwear if that happened to me.
 
So that's what a .50 sounds like comming at you :uhoh:

I hope I never have such an experience.
 
Looks like the steel target was pretty tough stuff. My targets are 5/8 annealed 12"x12" and 12"x18" and AP goes right through while ball sticks the core over half-way in every time. And they go flying when hit.

Shooting at something so big, heavy and tough that the core won't penetrate and the target won't easily move is inviting just such an unpleasant return visit from a rebounding core.

But, the odds of getting the target set exactly square to the shooter, and him hitting it just right to get the bullet back to the head falls into the category of 'one of those amazing things that happen'.

Very grateful that no injury was suffered...other than to the earmuff. And thanks a bunch for posting the video. It's a keeper!
 
Willie had the plate set back at a 45* angle, and 45* to the side as well. That it came straight back like this is very odd. Someone upstairs was messing with him.

The muffs are the electronic Caldwells.
 
I still have a very faint scar right between my eyes from doing something similar with a 30-06. I was young and stupid and only about 50ft away with WWII AP. Ouch
 
Holy *crap,* Ogre. Glad your friend's okay. That footage is +2 to scary, and then some. The sound of that oncoming round dang near turns my bones to water; I can only imagine what it must have been like to be there.

"That's the last one o' them we're doin'!" Wise men, indeed.
 
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