Rounds should penetrate trees not riccochet. If they are indeed riccochetiing off the trees then the bullet has pretty well spent its energy already.
Not necessarily. Bullets can glance off the heads of animals, people, or the exterior convex surface of trees.
The other aspect is a compromise. You can have bullets that penetrate an edge or small limb, but continue afterwards in a deviated flight path. The result is both penetration and deflection.
What is there to be said? If the range has rounds leaving the range property they are causing a problem for others. If they are there should be physical evidence of it where the wild rounds have hit the trees/ground. If that exists the home owners have a case against the range. If the claims are false and there are no rounds escaping the range there won't be any evidence of it and there won't be much opportunity to making a case.
Right. Rounds sometimes leave ranges. Unintentional causes are as ricochets or negligent discharges.
Look at the rounds that manage to fly over the backstops. Some of the rounds are deflected high and then only pose a very limited falling rock risk sort of risk. Other rounds can be seen skipping of the group and leaving at a low angle with velocity. Some manage to be direct fired over the berm...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCsnSr6lqKM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifYSNO93vbI
In my own experience, I have seen tracers skip off the top of a dirt berm and continue down right at velocity.
While neighborhoods and such may grow up around gun ranges that originally were fairly isolated out in the country, it is still the responsibility of the range managment or owners to see that rounds don't leave the ranges in which they were fired and of those that do, not leave the range's property boundaries.
From what I can tell, many isolated country ranges bank on having a safety buffer of land surround the range that is unoccupied. Hence, any rounds leaving the range are no threat. The problem is, most ranges do not own the properties around them that they are counting on as a safety buffer. Using land you don't own as a buffer zone is really a bad idea and potentially illegal as it involves shooting across property lines.
We were doing shooting drills from on our backs at Thunder Ranch in Texas. The angle of the shots from shooters into their targets was such that rounds would impact very high on the berm or completely miss the berm and leave the range a full velocity. This wasn't a safety issue, explained Clint Smith, since the land beyond the berm was managed by TR and hence was being used as a buffer zone. I didn't like this given that we could not see beyond our target and bacstop, but Smith proclaimed responsibility.
