Have you ever been struck by a ricochet?

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Yes. Numerous times. Happens when you spend a lot of time as a range officer. No permanent damage anywhere though.
 
When I was a teenager I was walking through the woods with a 12 gauge and a box of cheap Super Speeds, looking for stuff to shoot. There happened to be a Weber charcoal grill lid, concave side facing me. So I decided to blast it full of holes. I walked up to about 10 yards from it, aimed dead in the center, and pulled the trigger.

Ouch! That concave steel focused the shot right back at me. It felt like someone slapped my face really hard. I did not have any glasses on either. Amazingly, none of the pellets broke the skin or damaged my eyes. :what:
 
When I shot smallbore in college, in their 50 ft range, I got smacked by .22 richochets several times. Stung for a 1/4 second each time, never drew blood. Just reinforced me to wear my safety glasses.
 
Once twixt the eyes

Eyes are valuable, so I consider myself lucky to the enth degree. A riquocette once caught me in the bridge of my nose. Blood flowed down my shirt like I couldn't believe. Felt like a tackhammer slam, then numbness, but that didn't stop the blood flow. Ruined my newest shirt, is what I remember best along with not passing-out. I could have actually returned fire, if the "assailant" wasn't my favorite cousin. cliffy
 
Was at an indoor range with steel hanging target holders. The gentleman next to me hit one of the target hangers and I felt a sting on my left forearm. Looked down and saw a red line about 3 inches long that was staring to actually bleed a little. For some reason I didn't think anything of it and just kept shooting. That same gentleman asked if I had cut myself after I stepped back for a moment. I told him not to my knowledge. He just kind of looked at me and said sorry about that. I shrugged and moved on with life.
 
I've been hit at the indoor pistol range. It left a dime sized mark on my throat, and reinforced the need for shooting glasses. I couldn't tell who shot the round in question (the range was full), or what caliber it was, I was just glad it didn't do more than leave a mark.
 
Sure have. I was at a buddy's place shooting at metal tarkets, when i let my friend shoot my Kimber .45 and got hit in the right shoulder with a flattened .45 :)
 
Multiple times at an indoor range. Small piece to the arm, light cut. Struck in the foot, stung quite a bit. One .45 slug hit my brother in the stomach and then bounced into my arm. Wasn't much steam in that one. I believe I got hit two more times but can't remember.

I think it's this particular range's trap design. Everyone who shoots there gets whacked eventually.
 
Only once, working the targets down in the butts and got hit by a .308/7.62.....no damage done just stung a little.
 
Caught a lot of ricochets over the years, but last month at the IDPA match I felt a tingle on the side of my face. When I got home the wife asked what the scrape was on the left side of my face. Sure enough, there was a big scratch running about three inches from eye to ear...

Better yet, when I went to get undressed I kicked off my shoes and sat down to take off my socks and on the inside of my left ankle there was a gash about 3/4 of an inch long. There was a sizeable blood stain around the torn part of the sock and shiny piece of copper jacket sticking out of my ankle. I knew it had hurt since about halfway through the match but never even looked at it.

Scab came off my ankle today. Next IDPA match is tomorrow night...

The ricochet that really made me think was about six or seven years ago. We set up a target at 100 yards, but it was in front of some rocks. I was shooting a K98 Mauser with armor-piercing ammo. Third of fourth shot I felt a thump on my chest. The round had bounced back 100 yards and hit me hard enough that it left a big welt and made me tingle all over.

Now I make sure to set up targets in front of something that isn't as unforgiving as volcanic rock...
 
Only once, working the targets down in the butts and got hit by a .308/7.62.....no damage done it just stung a little.
 
Caught a lot of ricochets over the years, but last month at the IDPA match I felt a tingle on the side of my face. When I got home the wife asked what the scrape was on the left side of my face. Sure enough, there was a big scratch running about three inches from eye to ear...

Better yet, when I went to get undressed I kicked off my shoes and sat down to take off my socks and on the inside of my left ankle there was a gash about 3/4 of an inch long. There was a sizeable blood stain around the torn part of the sock and shiny piece of copper jacket sticking out of my ankle. I knew it had hurt since about halfway through the match but never even looked at it.

Scab came off my ankle today. Next IDPA match is tomorrow night...

The ricochet that really made me think was about six or seven years ago. We set up a target at 100 yards, but it was in front of some rocks. I was shooting a K98 Mauser with armor-piercing ammo. Third of fourth shot I felt a thump on my chest. The round had bounced back 100 yards and hit me hard enough that it left a big welt and made me tingle all over.

Now I make sure to set up targets in front of something that isn't as unforgiving as volcanic rock...
 
I had a small chunk of a .22 round embed itself into my calf once. It didn't go in too deep and only hurt like hell when Dad decided it needed to come out. He thought it was the result of us kids being careless with the rifles and wasn't exactly tender in his removal efforts.

Lots of frags over the years.
 
Quite a bit. Usually when shooting steel, but I've had a .45 slug come back at me out of a (heavily used) dirt berm. Also learned a painful lesson about why you don't use birdshot on bowling pins :).

As others have said, this is why good protective gear is so critical.
 
Yup. A few minor ones over these many past years.

One snowy Christmas morning, I was shooting my trusty Red Ryder carbine at a metal sign and the BB bounced back and shot my eye out..........no wait, that was Ralphie.
 
another day at the range

I was struck on the left side of my neck by a true ricochet from 7.65 round.

I was prone and a sniper in a tree at approximately 250 meters took aim on me.

God was with me, the first round hit the foot of a man in lying in front of me,
the second cut the back of my shirt; fatigue jacket, and his third hit a small mound to my left front. I had a man I was speaking to who saw the dirt being kicked up, and I saw his facial expression as he looked right into my eyes and we knew what was to happen. The round struck the hard clay mound and then hit me. Like a punch. I stuck my little finger in the hole to assay the damage. I could feel the base of the round under that diagonal neck muscle. It was jagged, and then my fear was that my main artery would be nicked and I would bleed to death. God was with me.
No spurting blood.

Then I became the target again, and I had to concentrate on other affairs.

The bullet was removed at Loc Ninh. It was perhaps the forward third of a bullet.

I didn't have my eye protection on that day either.

Ricochets are good.
 
Also at White Sands, my friend was shooting his 30/30 with jacketed rounds at a metal spinner target about 20 yards away. I was standing next to him. He hit the target, and immediately I felt an intense pain in my arm. I looked down and there was a pretty serious puncture wound. Had to go to the emergency room.

Turned out to be a part of the jacket from the bullet. Required several stitches and has caused permanent nerve damage. No loss of motion or strength though.

Anyway, if shooting at metal targets, please think about refraining from using jacketed ammo.
 
I've caught a piece of .357 jacket on the ear and it came to rest on my shoulder, scared me, I thought it was a bug.

Another time a buddy and I were shooting (at target pinned to an old telephone pole) and he got a whack in the chest.. Looked down and a slightly deformed .45acp fell to the ground in front of him. Makes me wonder sometimes about 45acp...
 
Shooting in the Nevada desert on our anual trip I was cut by a flying piece of a bullet jacket. It hit my side and sliced me about an inch worth. Not too deep but it hurt like heck.
 
Way back in the 90's I was shooting my 380 in our "homemade" basement range
and a 95 grain solid riccocheted off the subsoil we had as a stop and hit me in the thigh fortunatly it had lost a great deal of energy by then and it only left a light red mark. No more basement range for me.
 
Several times. Whether it was copper shavings or the entire fmj bouncing back a few inches past my leg, It's happened.

The only place I feel totally safe from that is at a very cool outdoor range. Two indoor ranges I frequent, almost every time I go, I either hear something flick past me,or I'm lightly hit with something.

I just found this. This range is the one where I've been stricken or heard things 'fling" past more times than a few. I was just a bystander.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAHRMx29CGY
 
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