Hit by a ricochet

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gspn

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Last night I took my 11 year old to the range to shoot his new Ruger 22/45. After we were done I had to walk back into the firing range to get something. I'm walking about 12 feet behind the firing line (parallel to it) and right after a shot rings out I get hammered on the inside of my right thigh with something. It felt like a heavy bee sting. Big impact with some good stinging after the fact. I imagine it's what it would feel like if someone shot me with a small ball bearing from a slingshot.

It hit the inside of my leg as my right foot was moving forward. I'm glad I wasn't standing in the lane next to the guy...might have been hit in the nuts:what:
 
They do indeed happen.

I've been peppered with bits of jacket from steel a few times. I caught a .40 ricochet while shooting steel poppers at a match once. Whacked me right in the gut and left a pretty vivid bruise, but that was only due to me crouching as the stage required. Had I been standing, I might have taken it in the boys, which would have really been a bad day.

I also have a friend who caught some jacket in his calf during a bowling pin match at an indoor range in TX a few years ago. He bled a bit and missed a couple days of work (we were flight students, and he got a brief medical down check while he healed), but in the end was fine.
 
Good point on the eye protection...I "was just running back in for a second..." and didn't put mine on. The nuts still would have been worse but I don't want think about what that hit would have done to an eye. There would have been eyeball juice everywhere.
 
I ended up with a hole through my lip at the Knob Creek Machine Gun Shoot when I was a kid. A .308 came back and got me. Ricochets do happen, so make sure you have protection.
 
We replaced a back window in a Nissan Titan at my shop which had been parked at a local range. It was quite a ways back from the line, which makes you wonder just how far those things can go....
 
That's why I avoid steel targets as much as possible. Paper won't do that to ya, especially if you're at a range like mine with a nice heavy sloped dirt backstop. I stick to paper and cardboard. Paper's cheap. Emergency bills aren't. Just my two cents.
Have a nice night, y'all!
Dave
 
A buddy of mine was shooting his PSL at 600 yards steel plate and the bullet came back and nailed him in the hip.
I took him to the hospital and he had to have plates put in his pelvis and a replacement him. A lot of money for the surgery. He still shoots to this day with a funny waddle :D
 
watched a buddy of mine take a 9mm ricochet to the right side of his forhead just past the hairline. left a fairly small gash and was a very vivid reminder to why we were all wearing eye protection. also it was a great opportunity for some good old 9mm jokes! :evil:
 
Haven't we all seen Head Shot Willie's video of the .50 bmg ricochet upside his head? That was one lucky s.o.b.
 
I got whacked with a 22 under my right eye. The other shooter was a youngster and his dad, we were all behind the firing line. He touched one off aimed a little close in and I felt the hit right after the crack of the gun. I bailed for the car to go get a band aid and got stopped by the kid's dad telling me his son was aimed at the bank and there was no way it was his son's fault. He actually wanted to argue over it.... Tried to tell him ricochets happen and I didn't blame anyone, but it didn't matter.

I handed his boy the box of ammo I was using as a "don't worry about it" gesture, smiled, told him to have fun (dad still adamantly telling me his kid didn't do it) and left.
 
I was shooting at a muffler about 20 feet away and it came nearly straight back and hit me in the chest.

it was cold and I was wearing a coat so it didn't hurt.

I've got that bullet and it looks like a mushroom, (it was a FMJ).
 
was shooting 12 gauge 3" steel turkey shot at a abandoned car at a gravel pit we used to shoot at, ricocheted and hit me in the leg. Felt like a bee sting as gspn said.
 
Has not happened to me yet. But I suspect it will eventually. Yes, eye protection is needed at the range. But in your case, I probably wouldn't have been wearing it anyway. Glad you got away with only a bruise.

I handed his boy the box of ammo I was using as a "don't worry about it" gesture, smiled, told him to have fun (dad still adamantly telling me his kid didn't do it) and left.
Click to expand...

Yep. It is all about liability these days. I would be willing to bet the same Dad would defend his kid to the death if there was a problem at school with is son. I feel sure he is a great kid. Stuff happens. We all need to be reasonable.
 
About 35 years ago I got my first 458 rifle and for some dumb reason I shot at a pipe sticking up out of the ground (10' distance). Maybe 1/4" wall thickness with a 4" inside diameter. The 510 grain SP made it through the first side, stressed the far side to the point of cracking before bouncing straight back into my thing. Felt like getting "flicked" with a fingertip. Fully mushroomed slug was laying at my feet.
 
Obligatory mention of youtube vid featuring a .50 cal ricochet. I'd link it, but I'm firewalled here at work. "BAM! zzziiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnng! THUD." Do a key word search. You'll know it when you see it. And cring.
 
Here is the 50 cal video, I laugh every time I watch it only because I know he did not get seriously hurt. The way they talk about not doing it again just kills me.

50 Cal Ricochet
 
.38 spl came back at me from a 4x4 treated wood post and impacted my shoulder. Just slow enough to see it fly back, just fast enough to not move out of the way.
 
A group of friends and I have taken to wearing our body armor at local CQB (outlaw 3-gun) matches after someone with a FA Sterling stitched a steel table a few stages over, sending about a dozen ricochets in our general direction. The stage layout was obviously less than ideal.

As this and a couple other stories in this thread have stated, you can be doing everything right, and just have an unlucky or bad day. People used to ask me why I took my first aid kit with tourniquets to that range, but not anymore.
 
Was hit in the gut with a 9mm ricochet off of a steel target as I was walking behind the line to an open spot to begin shooting. It wasn't as hard as I was expecting and it didn't leave any bruise or anything, but I now wear my eye protection even if I'm not up to the line.
 
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