Bouncing bullets off water on purpose

[jsalcedo]

Several years ago I saw a thats incredible type show where
target shooters using large caliber single shot rifles bounced bullets off of a pond into paper targets on the opposite side of the water.


The shows segment lasted only 5 min but it showed shooters
at covered professional style shoting benches making bullets ricochet off still water and hit standard size targets.

Is this type of shooting still around?

 

[jmbg29]

Is this type of shooting still around?

I certainly hope not.

 

[45R]

Huh............ thats like breaking one of the gun safety rules!

Never shoot at hard objects............

 

[Blackhawk]

Probably requries an EPA Environmental Impact Statement....

 

[geekay]

Are you sure they didn't have to shoot as they climbed through fences. Might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb.

 

[JohnBT]

We used to do it with .22s when I was a kid. Of course, the farm pond had a mountain behind it for a backstop. JT

 

[Quantrill]

Back in the sixties, some police were taught "skip firing" which was shooting a shotgun in front of a "riotus crowd" and the pellets hitting the ground and "skipping into the crowd". It was supposed to reduce fatalities in the crowd but still shoot them. The pellets hitting the ground tended to become little oval "flying saucer" type projectiles that would stay low and hit the bgs below the knee. It was supposed to be done with birdshot as opposed to buckshot. I always thought it was a stupid thing to do but I practiced with the rest. As far as I know, it was never used in a real situation. This was about the time that plastic shot came out with the purpose of stinging as opposed to killing. That did not stay around very long either. Quantrill

 

[HSMITH]

I was taught to shoot the floor covering in the Navy to splatter buckshot and shards of broken epoxy into the intruders. A very useful technique for shooting around corners and such without exposing yourself.

I have skipped bullets off of water too as a kid. It was fun, it was interesting and we could not hit much of anything but the water. Skipping it and hitting a target would be interesting to see. We endangered no one but ourselves doing it, and if I choose to endanger myself I have every right to do that. No different than skydiving or something like that.

Some of you guys need to relax. There are situations where things can be done safely or by necessity that otherwise are bad ideas. Less coffee maybe........

 

[jmbg29]

We endangered no one but ourselves doing it, and if I choose to endanger myself I have every right to do that.

So you were uprange, and downrange, virtually simultaneously. Now that, I'd like to see.

 

[KMKeller]

When I was in Rambo School (Navy SSEW/SSET) they taught us to fire at the ground in front of the bad guy. Double ought buck shot ricocheting down the corridor on a ship is pretty effective.

 

[Bonker]

We do it here with 22's all the time just to watch the bullets skip. It's neat to see how different rounds go faster/farther than others.
Where we do it is on private land and is VERY safe. The bullets go into a gigantic mud berm (on top of a 20 foot high riverbank)where the river bends about 300 years away, although most never make it that far.
I know someone's gonna tell me it isn't safe but don't tell me that until you've actually seen the way we have it set up.
We have over 100 shooters there and most are Sherrif's deputies and other LEO's and most own full-auto although we don't skip those

 

[blades67]

I've shot at a pond before, but I've never seen anybody hit a target that way.

 

[ambidextrous1]

If you can find video of the infamous North Hollywood bank robbery and shootout of a few years ago, you will see that the first perp brought down was hit by skip firing. The officer was unable to see the BG, but fired under a vehicle with good effectiveness.

 

[Bonker]

"I've shot at a pond before, but I've never seen anybody hit a target that way."

You'd be amazed how straight they go. You'd think the spin would make it curve but it really doesn't. But i've never seen one bounce very high off the water so unless the target was only a few inches at most above the water you'd never hit it.

 

[ball3006]

Did it when I was a younger....

kid. When I lived in south Texas we used to shoot down canals, they were straight and went for miles in farm country. Most visible skips I saw was two....chris3

 

[Bonker]

Ball you should try harder. I've gotten at least a dozen at times although they are very close together.

 

[BHP9]

Where we do it is on private land and is VERY safe.

It is not safe under any circumstances and here is a sad stroy to prove it.

Around 15 to 20 years ago there was a man in a boat out fishing that took along his surplus British .303 Enfiled and shot at trash he threw into the pristeen lake. The bullet bounced off the water and went through a fence and through a forest missing all of the various brush and trees and then went a mile across an open field out to a freeway.

A young girl was driving to work with her window only cracked down a hair to let in some air. An FBI man happened to be following her on his way to work also. All of a sudden he saw her slump over and crash her car.

At the hospital even the doctors were having a tough time figuring out what happend to her when one doctor happened to pull back her hair and see a tiny entrance wound which he new right away was probably a bullet.

It was later determined that if her window had not been slightly down the bullet would not even have gone through it.

The fool who did this was actually captured when the police hired a psychic and he led them to a nearby housing development. He went up to a house knocked on the door and when a man came to the door he asked him if he owned a British .303 Enfield. The man immediately broke down and confessed he was the one who had accidently shot the girl. He had been watching the news and put 2 and 2 together and realized it had been himself that had shot the girl.

 

[Yohan]

The fool who did this was actually captured when the police hired a psychic and he led them to a nearby housing development. He went up to a house knocked on the door and when a man came to the door he asked him if he owned a British .303 Enfield. The man immediately broke down and confessed he was the one who had accidently shot the girl. He had been watching the news and put 2 and 2 together and realized it had been himself that had shot the girl

Right.. and I bet the aliens who had guided the psychic were also the same who had assasinated Kennedy's clone.

 

[Average Guy]

I learned the hard (but not the hardest) way that bullets ricochet off water. I was shooting my .22 at the surface of a pond; shortly thereafter, my buddy on the opposite bank started yelling for me to stop (rounds were either impacting beside him or flying past).

Didn't do that again.

 

[Drjones]

It was later determined that if her window had not been slightly down the bullet would not even have gone through it.

So she had her window cracked what, like 1 inch? 2 maybe?

And the bullet went through that crack and then down into her?

Last I checked, most people don't sit with their heads touching the roof of their car. Obviously the bullet would have had to travel downward to hit her.

 

[Matt G]

Sure, there's safe times and places to do it. Over a wide (read: miles) bay, for instance. Over a large private lake on private land. On a river that bends into a cliffside.

On the ocean.

Ummmm.... into a kiddie-pool placed halfway down an underground range. (mental note: remove kiddies.)


I've always wanted to try it over a large still lake or bay with 12 ga. slugs from a low angle, just to see how many skips I could get.

My father tells of a time 3 decades hence, when an escapee from the local jail sparked a major local manhunt. When they narrowed the location down to the Trinity River (here in Ft. Worth), cops were converging on the escapee from both sides. The escapee didn't stop when told to "halt" as he forded the river, and Dad found himself on the receiving bank's side of numerous ricochets as officers on the other side shot at the escapee in the river. Suddenly realized that he was in the WRONG PLACE TO BE.

 

[4v50 Gary]

In the days of wooden ships and iron men...

That use to be the practice in naval warfare. If the gunner wasn't aiming for the mast (French practice) or the hull with "hot shot" (heated iron red so as to cause a fire), gunners would hole the hull by skipping a solid round ball into the hull.

A bit more modernly, the German Schutzenfest competitors would do that too. As we all know, anything "German" along with the schutzenfest fell from favor when we went to war against the Kaiser. It may still be practiced in Germany or Switzerland, but I'll defer to one of Deutsch or Switzer for confirmation.

 

[Azrael256]

shot at trash he threw into the pristeen lake. The bullet bounced off the water and went through a fence and through a forest missing all of the various brush and trees and then went a mile across an open field out to a freeway.

The water has less to do with this than the fact that he broke rule #4. What is the difference between this and shooting at a random object in a field and hitting a rock, bullet bounces across a highway, etc.?

 

[El Rojo]

I too found out the bad way about bullets impacting any amount of water. There is this large hill not to far from my house. It overlooks this large basin area that is about 1000 yards across. In the basin are numerous mud pits. In the winter and spring they fill with water. So the cool thing is you can shoot your guns at them and watch the water fly. If there is a speck of moss or something in the one at 300 yards, you can shoot at the spec and see exactly where you are hitting from the large geyser. The hill is pretty tall so I figured I was at a critical enough angle that the geyser was caused by the bullet going into the water.

Well somehow I acquired some glowing bullets (yes glowing bullets. Not tracer rounds, they are illegal in the PRK). I shot these at the puddles and ponds of water. To my surprise they bounced right off the water and back into the air and out towards the direction of the oilfields! The only conclusion I can make is every bullet I shot at those ponds went skipping out and into the oil patch. A little bit scary. Ignorance was bliss as I used to have a great set of ponds to shoot at. Now I know those bullets don't sink, but keep on going.

No matter what angle you are at, don't shoot at water. It is a bad idea. And darn cause it was so fun.

 

[4v50 Gary]

El Rojo - were you using Hornady? It's not quite a tracer but has a sliver of magnesium to allow you to track the bullet.