Lessons learned at the range, such as...

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BHPshooter

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Cinder Block is NOT adequate cover!!!

About a week ago at the range, I found some cinder blocks lying around, so curious as to how they would react to being shot, I set them up.

2 shots, 2 disintegrated cinder blocks. I'm not kidding you, the things crumbled and pieces flew about 40 feet in many directions. The ammo was WWB 100-rd value pack, 115-grain FMJ, fired from a Browning MkIII.

I'd sure hate to know what a 7.62x39 would do to one of those puppies.

I have since been thinking about this a lot... where I work, EVERYTHING is made from cinderblock. :uhoh:

So let's hear your useful real-life lessons learned at the range.

Wes ;)
 
Do not take twitchy, nervous friends shooting. I took a friend (my current roommate) shooting with me. He was holding my gun, aiming it down range. The guy two lanes down fires a round, and the sound scares my friend, he jump squeezes and sends a bullet flying into the ceiling about 10 feet infront of himself. Last time I shoot with that guy.
 
I'm not entirely sure on this one, but I thought cinderblock was usually filled with concrete and steel rebar when it's used in the construction of a wall.

Anyone here in the construction trade?
 
preacherman, dare i ask how you were shooting on that particular day?




if it were me, my groups would probably suck even worse. lord knows i cant think and chew gum at the same time, much less enjoy the beautiful creations the Lord made and get 'em in the ten-hole.
:evil:
 
One of the more interesting things I have learned at the range is that a gallon milk jug full of water will literally disintegrate into multiple fragments when hit with high velocity varmint ammo from a .223 Makes you think what would happen in the case of a headshot. :barf:
 
I thought cinderblock was usually filled with concrete and steel rebar when it's used in the construction of a wall.
Click to expand...
Jim - round here at least ...... and if you are lucky enough to have block walls! ........ they are laid as they are .. the cavity providing a small amount of insulation factor.

I doubt it's often they are reinforced and filled ... unless perhaps on a major structure .. not domestic anyways. If there were tho - then they would I imagine become very good stoppers, tho the outer cinder skin would fragment still.

A 7.62 or 8mm ... would (DOES) make VERY short work of these blocks ..... fragmentation is an inadequate word!:p Even a .22lr, will chip away one of these ... quite quickly!
 
My buddy was at the dump plinking with a center fire rifle. We don't know what he hit, but a piece of bullet jacket came flying back...put an ugly scar on his cheek about one inch below his left eye. So I learned to pick a good backstop. A nice, soft impact area for the bullets to STOP in. I like to bring home all the pieces and parts God gave me. :D
Mark.
 
Cinderblock is adequate cover, when laid in a wall, grouted (filled with concrete or mortar) or not. Within reason of course (I wouldn't dare a buddy to try and shoot me with a 308 at 50 yards behind a cinderblock wall, but you catch my drift)

Kick a cinderblock with a steel toe boot. Now go kick the foundation of your house. Report back with results.
 
I learned a similar lesson about car bodies. Didn't get a chance to test out the engine block, but the body and doors wouldn't even stop .22LR fired from a pistol. I think I could actually hear the 7.62x54R rounds laughing as they went in one side of the car and out the other.

Also (learned this in an airsoft skirmish), you can't outrun bullets.
 
That I will never trust my life to 165 grain Federal Hydrashocks in .45ACP.
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Kodiak ... hey - that's not fair! We need the ''why'' answered. Please?


I did remember one fairly salutary lesson .... with a morcel of pain. Buddy and I were ''ventilating'' a gearbox and a back axle once .. using some milsurp in my Enfield. Quite effective and enjoyable .. plenty of holes - as well as escaping oil vapor etc.

But - we did this at too close a range really .... and a shard of copper jacket came back and bit me in the finger. Incredible degree of bleeding - made me realize just how horrendous injuries must be from shell splinters, frag grenades etc ...... these are ripping and tearing lesions. BTW - we did both have eye protection.

Impressed on me the potential for things comin back ... so - make the distance safer and ... check for decent (energy absorbing) backstop too.
 
I witnessed the firing of a 12 ga with a 20 ga shell in the chamber first.
"pressures akin to a grenade"

The gun...forget the gun...I was looking for the guys thumb...I found it. He has it back on...don't work like it used to tho'...
 
Just because the front sight of your AR-15 clears the barricade does not mean that the barrel will do the same.
 
My friend "Harry Potter" learned a lesson he won't soon forget about eye relief of scopes on high power rifles.

I've... um... learned something, I'm sure of it. I just can't remember.


/Arcli9ht

edit: Ouch, capt...
 
Use enough powder in bowling pin match rounds, so they don't bouce back and hit the RO in the 'nads....it was funny much later, but hurt kinda bad at the time. That guy STILL apologixes when he sees me....:p
 
Thankfully, the barricade was made of plywood.

M855 ball *will* tumble after passing through a single sheet of plywood. Just thought everyone should know.
 
I once learned to be at least 100 yards away from a half empty propane bottle when shooting it with an armour piercing incendiary .50 caliber BMG round...because the valve might try to smack you upside the head...and for some reason it is very,very hot..:what:

I also learned to never shoot a potato gun at a car over 350 yards away when you think there is no way in heck that you can hit it...:scrutiny:

Never drop your 12 pound cast steel benchrest on reactive targets when they are sitting on a concrete bench.:fire:

Never shoot tracers at targets that are more than 600 yards away. It takes long enough to to get there(at a dead run) so that by the time you get there your small grass fire is no longer small...:cuss:

Never shoot reloads from a guy that has reloaded less than twice... at least it was his rifle...:uhoh:

And last but not least, NEVER, EVER shoot an armadillo if he is less than 10 yards away with an AR15 loaded with 55 grain hollowpoints.Since they have lt least 5 gallons of blood in them, chances are exellent that you will wear most of it home.:banghead:
 
Whoa -- that HydraShok thread is scary. Man, if it won't expand in WATER, it might not expand in ANYTHING!

Another lesson: When shooting at 3-liter bottles full of water, get back. Unless it's hot, you could use a soak, and you want to see how well your CLP works. ;)

Wes
 
Regarding shooting cars: A .308(FMJ) at just shy of 100yds will chop a 350 Olds block to pieces very quickly. This is why I quietly laugh when people dismiss the idea of shooting an engine to stop a car. If they can mangle a cast iron 30 year old V-8 I hate to think what they could do to a little aluminum 4cyl...but I'd love to find out! :)
 
2nd A .... Interesting point tho re your mention of the ol' V8. Cast iron is notoriously brittle ... it has about zero on the malleability, elastance scale. This when impacted by a high energy projectile will usually shatter .. big cracks .. chunks displaced leaving holes etc.

Now Aluminum OTOH is in many forms .. very much more ''elastic'' .. not necessarily malleable per se but .. certainly much better at absorbtion of energy. I fired high power rounds into a piece of scrap 1" Al plate ... and it was astonishing how there was just a half bullet's length stuck in it ... the tail stickin out!

So in a ''block contest'' .. I'd sure prefer NOT to have cast iron.
 
Lessons Learned

A good spotting scope will attract lazy shooters when you are on the 100 and 200 yard shooting lanes.
 
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