Bullet in my frikin wall!!!

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Newt

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Just to give you a quick description, I'm single and I just bought my first house last year. I've remodeled it and have repained pretty much every wall in the house. I live in a very small town; population not more than 400. It's a very rural area. Pretty much everyone around owns at least a 22 rifle. I sometimes have guests over, but I'm always there whenever they're there. It couldn't have happened by a ND while I was at home by any guest. It would've had to come from somewhere else. Now that that's out of the way, here goes...

So I was doing some cleaning last night about midnight when I found a 22 bullet burried up in the wall of my kitchen. By the way the bullet is burried up in the wall, I couldn't determine a trajectory. I know it's somewhat recent, because I repainted those walls just a few months ago. The way it looks, it would've had to come from the same direction the wall is running. I'm going to look at the exterior walls in the next few days to see if I can find any 22 sized holes out there. Also, I'm going to take some digital pics of it to post up so you can understand better. Neighbor kids?... distant hunters?... any input?
 
Neighbor kids?... distant hunters?... any input?
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Any of the above. A .22 will travel an amazing distance, even when fired 'flat' at a target. Imagine firing it into a tree at a squirrel and missing.....you're talking 1 1/2 miles later or more before it hits the ground.
 
Will a .22 have the ability to penetrate siding, insulation, and a decent amount of drywall at ranges exceeding even 500yds?

Not sure, but I'd doubt it, but I could be wrong.. (seems like I'm saying that a lot lately :evil: )
 
I would have to say yes. Siding isn't very thick, insulation barely counts, and drywall won't stop a freakin bb sometimes.
Incidentally, on one of my last shooting trips we found a car hood near our little shooting area. I was able to put 10/10 on the hood at about 500 yards with my 10/22. It took very little point of aim elevation to accomplish this.
 
Through an exterior wall and then into an interior wall? The more I think about this, the less I think that's the less likley route. Come to think of it, the bullet had almost no mushroom or deformation. I'll take some pics as soon as I can to show. I have left my windows open the last few days though, since the weather's been so nice. Maybe? I'm reaching now.
 
Well, if it didn't come from inside, and it didn't come through the outside wall (highly unlikely for a .22LR), it had to come through a window or an open door. Assuming you have screens on your windows, have you checked them for small holes?
 
I'll check the screens on the windows I had open as well as the exterior walls. My curiosity is up now. I have to figure this thing out. Any other input?


Again, I'll post pics up as soon as possible.
 
Any other input?
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Yea. I seriously doubt it came from inside. A .22lr will penetrate several layers of drywall and/or several 2x4's at moderate range (up to 100 yards). Seen it with my own eyes more than once.

I still believe its possible for it to travel longer distances and penetrate an exterior home wall. Most home walls are a layer of siding, one layer of pressboard, some insulation, and an interior drywall or plaster wall. Obviously, it could travel through an open door/window, so IMHO the abscence of a hole in the exterior would surely mean it did so.
 
Was it soft lead? Could it be a .223? If it didn't go thru open window and was fired from outside IMO it must be other then .22LR. Any chance a friend is playing with you and dinged something and stuck a fired .22 bullet in as a joke and forgot to tell you?
 
Or how about an AD with one of those CCI CB .22 shorts or .22longs? They are quiet enough to use w/o hearing protection. Even better, a CB used in a suppressed rifle/pistol. You'd hear the action cycle, but not much else.
 
If it was a friend, it's not a good joke by putting a hole in my wall.:eek: Seriously, I don't think any of my friends would pull something like this on me, but who knows.

It was soft lead. No jacket. Definatly not a FMJ. No sir, this is a 22LR. Pictures will show better.
 
Interesting. I've had to trace a trajectory through a window of an errant .22 bullet before, and found that it had been fired from the Farm To Market road that ran in front of the house. Scared the old lady living there to death, as it passed over her TV while she was watching it. I weighed the bullet after finding it, and established that it was a .22 bullet, but there was no way to get any rifling off of it-- the soft lead was 'way too mashed up.

My college roommate, about 9 years ago, was practicing dry-firing his SMLE, and then got into magazine-changes, and then accidentally touched off a 180g Remington SP .303 in our living room. It went through the panelling, through the exterior wall wood siding of our house, over the fence, and into the house next door. The bullet entered the corner of the house, making a nice keyhole in the outside siding, and a slight bulge as it ran along the interior wall. We ran outside (how did I get involved in this? I didn't pull the trigger!!) and checked the house. The neighbors came out. The owner, a carpenter, said he was just glad that it hadn't hit his new Nissan Pathfinder, parked out front. I was thinking "what about your son, who was on the bed under the wall that the bullet hit?!?" My roommate dropped off case upon case of cold beer for the dad and plate upon plate of fresh cookies for the kids for a month. Somehow *I* got recruited to spackle and paint the holes. :confused:

You know, this really would be a good on-topic discussion for General Discussion. I'm going to kick it over there.

--Matt G
 
I had a neighbor hole my house with an "unloaded" .45 ACP ball round. Through and through, but I live in a cheesy house.
 
A few months back, I was shooting off some 8mm. On bullet deflected, and took down a huge branch 30 feet up in the air. Of course, I immediately stopped firing, never heard of anyone's house getting hit, but I would guess something like this.
 
Depends on the tub, of course. But, most older tubs are made of very heavy gauge cast iron. So you get two layers of iron between you and the bullet. If the tub is on an upper floor, you have an additional advantage of less probability of a bullet coming in over the top.

I know a whole city that sleeps in their tubs at night - DC.
 
Many years ago my grandmother, aunt and cousin lived out in the desert in central AZ. Grandmother had her trailer, and my Aunt and cousin lived in theirs.

Grandmother had an ancient IJ .22 Revolver.
Shot a snake. Bullet aimed down at the ground. Hit the snake, passed through the snake ricosheting (sp) off the ground.
50+ yards later it passed through the plate glass window of aunts mobile home.
Then through heavy drapes.
Then through 2 internal walls.
Then through a double sided sliding closet door.
Came to rest on a shelf in the closet.

Scared the crap out of my cousin who was in the front room watching TV. Bullet passed between him and the TV at just over head level.

Strangely, with all the impacts, the bullet was in decent shape.

So the only way to determine where it came from is to trace it back.


Joe
 
Don't now nothin about how far a bullet will penetrate multiple mediums...

but (heh)

its often come to my attention that the denser the material - the more energy it takes to punch through it.

Take a book - a good paperback book/telephone book will soak up huge amounts of energy. Layers ya know - same way a "bulletproof" vest works.

Sheetrock is ... well - not dense - and very lil tensile strength - i'd assume less the 22lr was a hollowpoint that it wouldn't soak up much energy - and even then... only so much once the hollowpoint "filled up"

Tin or siding - once again - isn't known for its impact resistance - specially on a small diameter thing. The only example i might have for this is renesiance(sure i'm spelling that wrong) armour. Chain was decent against arrow heads - but nearly pointless against crushing weapons... plate was ok aganst crushing - but not so good against high velocity arrowheads. (obviously simplifying) point being that just cause "its metal" or worse... if its plastic siding - its not gonna take up a lot of the force of the round.

Is the outside of your house brick? Brick would have soaked up a LOT of energy - its not so dense - but compacts well. (obviously not talking about lone bricks on a range) Don't know that a 22lr fired from distance would make it through brick. (and just in case - no i'm no expert - so i could be completely wrong) but it would have to go through brick/SheetRock/insulation/sheetrock?

Angle of entry seem to come from inside the house? or just poking out and you noticed it in the wall?

bah - i'm rambling - later =)

J/Tharg!

heh edit - forgot to ad - my one ND (lots of circumstances) led to a .40 hydra-shok going through a mirror from about 2' away - pierced the SR, through another slab of SR, and impregnated the laundryroom cabniet door behind it w/ bits of left over bullet... so total - about six to eight feet. I don't know muzzle velocities and the bullet was not designed to penetrate... just the only example i have from Real Life...

J/Tharg!
 
By the way the bullet is burried up in the wall, I couldn't determine a trajectory.
Click to expand...
You could stick a plastic drinking straw in the bullet hole. That would point out the direction the shot came from.
 
When I did juvenile prosecution, I prosecuted a group of kids that were "plinking" in the backyard with a Ruger 10/22. Problem was that they were in a subdivision, and the neighbor's house was only 50 yards downrange, with an intervening roadway. To their credit, they started shooting into the hillside. To their detriment, they stopped after a while and started shooting cans from the top of the fence, which put the neighbor's house as the backstop. Officers recovered 18 bullets from her home. Of these, 9 made it inside. Two went through the storm door, five went through the picture window, and two went right through the siding, insulation, drywall, and into the living room. (Aluminum trajectory rods proved the penetration.

Waht amazed me the most is that one of the rounds through the picture window actuall crossed the room, hit and penetrated the oak china cabinet, and broke the lady's wedding china.

The loads, btw, were CCI minimags. None expanded.
 
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