Hit by a bounce back!

[c.latrans]

After all the urban legends and videos on the internet it actually happened to me today! A couple of buddies and I were casually plinking. I stapled a paper plate to an old hardwood railroad tie used as a fence corner post on my property. At a range of about 20 feet, firing very mild .38 special full wadcutter loads out of my wifes S&W airweight, I had one bounce back and actually hit me between the belly button and the sternum. Not hard enough to break the skin, but it will bruise up! It was mild here today so I was wearing only a long sleeve T with a sweatshirt. The slug fell to the ground at my feet after it hit me, it is flattened down to perhaps 3/8 of an inch at the thickest point. Several other bullets are visible in the tie and we plucked a couple out with a leatherman. As I said this is a very mild plinking load that I have used for years.

My eye actually caught the bullet coming back, but I had no time to react. I am over 50 and have been shooting since my single digit years. I have seen some strange ricochets, etc. over the years, but this was a first. Just a reminder to wear those safety glasses, I could easily have lost an eye or some teeth at if this thing had hit in a more vulnerable spot. Be safe out there!

 

[rcmodel]

I had one off a railroad tie backstop a few years ago.
Factory Black Hills .45 Colt 250 grain Cowboy load out of a Colt SAA.

Thank goodness it hit me right in the stacked leather heel of a cowboy boot.

It took my leg out from under me and I almost fell on my azz.
Busted the heel clear off my good boots too!

I am convinced I would of put a hurting put on me if it had of hit me instead of my boot heel.

rc

 

[Certaindeaf]

I've had my most close calls with slingshotted .45 lead balls. Probably wouldn't kill you but they sure can bounce back.

 

[drsfmd]

I've had my most close calls with slingshotted .45 lead balls. Probably wouldn't kill you but they sure can bounce back.

Yup. I was hit in the shoulder on an indoor range with a 450fps 45swc. Didn't even briuse, but did sting a bit.

 

[rjrivero]

I shoot a three gun series. They used to have a stage where you would shoot slugs into some plates at varying distances. They stopped doing that when someone put a round into the frame, and the slug bounced back and hit a bystander in the forehead, well behind the firing line. We don't shoot slugs at steel anymore at that match.

 

[Dnaltrop]

I do *some* practice using wax rounds for point shooting with a Schofield .45 replica.

I used to shoot phone books with them, good burst of paper, maybe a bit of wax fragments come back at you as shrapnel

One book had just enough curve in it to catch a round, and slide it like a chute right back at me between the pages. All I saw was a burst of paper towards me, and the wax round Nailed me in the shin through my leather boots. Didn't break the skin but yowza!

Made me very aware of how curved surfaces react.

 

[txgunsuscg]

I shoot at an indoor range, and while I've never had a full slug come back at me, I've had several occasions where I have found pieces of jacket stuck into my forearms. At a match the other day, a round hit a steel plate, knocking the plate over, then ricocheted up and killed a fluorescent light bulb. Needless to say, they rezoned immediately afterward.

 

[LibertyOn]

I had one come back at a local range. I caught it out of the corner of my eye, but had no chance to move. Hit me dead center of my sternum. I dropped mag, cycled the action, set the firearm down and then looked around.

Two lanes over there was a person shooting a man sized target at three feet, I am not kidding, and they were having trouble hitting the target.

Went and said something (minimum distance to target) to the RSO who told me that a bounce back was impossible. Packed up, left and I've been back to a public range.

 

[Mike1234567]

During a rattlesnake and rat killin' rampage on a large ranch when we were 15-16 years old one of my friends caught a ricochet across is lower belly from a .22LR after he shot a salt lick. It broke the skin and he bruised a bit. He didn't do that again but he did pee on the cattle fence while barefoot on wet ground. He didn't do that again either. I've always heard that one can't receive a shock by peeing on an electric fence but he sure did jump. I didn't test his word on the matter. There was definite proof of the ricochet though... and I heard the round bounce of of him.

 

[Glock Doctor]

At the last big shooting match I attended I was hit by bullet or shotgun splatter three times in one afternoon!

Those things hurt, too! It was both funny and annoying. After the second time, everybody in my group began standing a good ten or twelve feet away from me. There was a lot of shooting going on. I wasn't near any targets; I wasn't in anybody's line-of-fire. This is just something that, 'the gods' must have had me fated for.

Anyway, shooting into a hard target at less than seven yards ain't the smartest thing you've ever done - Huh!

 

[c.latrans]

Must happen now and then....This one felt about like getting hit by a paintball. I know a guy who shot a bowling ball with a .45 ACP at close range several years back, the slug came back and hit him in the belly. Always wondered about the odds of hitting a convex surface and coming straight back like that............he must have center punched it!

 

[moxie]

It's happened to me with really light .38 wadcutter loads at two different indoor ranges. It didn't hurt, and didn't bruise. Just hit my stomach or chest ans fell to the floor. Amazing!

 

[rduckwor]

We shot a stage at a match once with crappy pitted steel. Crap was flying all over. That steel got retired quickly.

RMD

 

[TNboy]

I had a .380 fmj round ricochet on me once. I was shooting into a hillside about 20 feet in front of me. My mom was on the porch 20 feet behind me and it handed next to her on the porch. It was still hot when I picked it up. No idea what caused it. I've been shooting into that hill my whole life and have never had anything like that happen before. I don't shoot there anymore. To close to the house for bullets to be ricocheting.

 

[76shuvlinoff]

About 30 years ago I took a .38 slug out of a borrowed .357 on the ankle bone when I hit a bowling pin com. I thought someone hit me with a bat. I have never shot at another bowling pin.

My backstop is railroad ties. The only thing that has come back from those so far was a bb from a pellet gun that stung my daughter in the forehead while she was shooting at a paper plate.

I had a .380 fmj round ricochet on me once. I was shooting into a hillside about 20 feet in front of me. My mom was on the porch 20 feet behind me and it handed next to her on the porch. It was still hot when I picked it up. No idea what caused it. I've been shooting into that hill my whole life and have never had anything like that happen before. I don't shoot there anymore. To close to the house for bullets to be ricocheting.

We used to shoot up gravel pits when we were kids. Once you had the dirt blasted away the rocks would send way too much stuff back in our direction.

 

[45_auto]

I was shooting a Garand with .30-06 black tip (armor piercing) about 10 years ago. Took a shot at a 3" thick hanging steel plate at 100 yards just to see what it would do to it.

As the gun went off, something knocked my right arm back past my shoulder. I thought the gun had exploded or the operating rod had broken.

Turned out that the core of the armor-piercing bullet had bounced back and went into my right wrist, stopping in the center of my arm by my elbow.

4" higher and about 4" to the left it would have went in my eye, I doubt if my safety glasses would have stopped it.

Haven't shot any solid-core ammo at steel plates since then!

 

[plexreticle]

Why would you think a story about a bullet bouncing back is an urban legend?

 

[ms6852]

This happened about 36 years ago. I was shooting the 50 cal machine gun from my 109A1 howitzer. We were shooting at old tanks and bmp's when I felt like i got kicked in my back. I had been hit by a 50 cal round that ricochet twice. Once from the tank I shot at and the second ricochet was when it hit door of my turret than in to my back. I am convinced it would have killed me had it only ricochet once.

 

[guyfromohio]

It was a regular occurrence when I used to do pin shoots with my .38.

 

[rc109a]

While shooting steel plates I had one bounce back and strike the corner of my safety glasses as it struck my head. The round knocked me on my rear and I felt something warm running down my face. I was bleeding and a large lump was left behind. The on scene EMT looked at it and said I would have a nice bruise and that was that. A few days later I was still having headaches so I set up an appointment with the doc. He asked me what happened and I told him. He called the Sheriff's Office since this was considered a gun shot wound and he was required to report it. (Kinda funny since I was employed with them and this was considered workman's comp during a tactical pistol exercise put on by the office). After the x-rays they found a good portion of the bullet had lodged under the skin and embedded into my skull. They were able to remove it, but I still feel the indentation and beleive that they did not get all of it out. So it can happen. I am glad I was wearing safety glasses or I would have been short one left eye.

The round was a .40 Winchester Ranger 180g I believe.

 

[rcmodel]

I had a buddy in high school shoot a 30-06 AP round at a chunk of railroad rail about 30 feet away from the prone position.

The tungsten AP core came right back at him and went through both rear fenders of his 1950 Ford.
Went over his head by about 6" near as we could tell from the holes in the old Ford.

Another high school friend lost his left eye shooting a steel bridge support beam with a .243 at 15 yards.
He got most of a jacket base frag right in the eye!

rc

 

[Walkalong]

Learned my lesson as a teen after a close call with a .30-30. Talk about weak in the knees.

 

[HDCamel]

I'm pretty sure it happens to everyone sooner or later...

One that I got especially bad hit the hinge on my safety glasses (which I rented from the range) and broke them...

Needless to say, I bought a good pair not too long after. Never looked back.

 

[gspn]

I actually use that exact setup to do "superman drills". I shoot, watch the bullet coming back at me, then turn to the side and snatch it out of the air with my bare hand. On Kung Fu day I do it with chop sticks.

All kidding aside...I'm glad it was ABOVE the belly button...I hate to thing of catching one right in the walnuts.

I got smacked in the thigh last year at the indoor range...really made me appreciate the importance of shooting glasses at all times...and maybe a protective cup.

 

[icanthitabarn]

I know a guy walking around with a.22 in his nose. His brother shot the frozen reservoir they were on, in the 70's.