Maximum "bounce" range?

[Tirod]

You don't have to ask Range Control, just measure the known impact zone behind the firing line.

At the Ft Crowder Range in SW MO, the training area behind is closed completely to everyone for a distance of about 2.6 miles. That's measured from the range lane, to past the southern gate. Range Fire days impact field training, can't have both simultaneously south of D highway.

2 miles is about what's printed on a box of .22 LR. Snipers are recording kill shots past one mile with the .300 Win Mag, add another 250% to that for bounce, and you get the idea. What shortens the impact zone in most areas are trees, which make great backstops. In open country, no such luck.

Press reports abound of shots randomly fired in the air coming down 2 miles or more away, it's common in third world countries to suffer bullet strikes from it. The FAA gets more than concerned near local airports, hunters can reach 10,000 feet with the .22, much less a .30-06.

It's not talked about much, the emphasis is know your backstop, rather than Can you skip bullets across the lake? Yes you can! Wet or dry.

 

[SSN Vet]

It's a legitamate concern...

The rod 'n gun club I shoot at had an incident where a hand gun bullet wound up poking a hole in a tonneau cover an coming to rest in the bed of a pick up truck in the condo village next door. This was odd, as the hand gun range is several hundred yards away from the lot line (while the rifle range is right on the lot line). Both ranges point parallel to the lot line, so no fire should be directed towards the codos.

The club had an NRA range expert come out and do a sight survey and several changes were made.

His best guess was ricochet off of frozen ground after passing through the hole riddled plywood back stop. This was only possible at the short range targets, as the common burm was just behind the 50 yd. line. The path of such a ricochet is very unpredictable. While any impact into the sandy burm should capture a bullet.

We no longer have moveable target stands. And each range lane now has a burm built up close behind it's target stand to ensure the bullets hit the burm and not the ground.

We also put timber "headers" over each range lane, so that there is no LOS from the firing line that points above the burm.

I appreciate the club making the extra effort and the emphasis on safety seems to pass through to the individual members. I always feel that this is a safe place to shoot and the other shooters are courteous and conduct themselves safely. This has all been achieved without range officers on duty.

Having a sand and gravel outfit on the other side of the property with a pro 2A owners donating materials and machine time helps a lot!

 

[Casefull]

Unfortuneately bullets can skip off of any surface(dirt, water, etc.) and lose very little energy. If the angle is even close to flat, beware. I assume the range from skips to be the same as the range of the bullet to err on the safe side.

 

[788Ham]

As stated in post #2, " Will go as far as a mile." Any '06, or any .270 will more than likely travel closer to the 5 or 6 mile range! If stated on a box of .22 ammo, that they'll travel 1 1/2 miles, why would an '06 round be held back to that distance ?, and this is not an unimpeded round. As my Pop stated many, many times over the years, "Once that round leaves the barrel, it can't be called back!" Its truly amazing to me, some of the folks on here think that once the bullets hits something, whether its a target backboard, a tree limb, or whatever, thats the end of the bullet, thats not always the way it works!

 

[KodiakBeer]

Go back to post #20 and watch. We're shooting at the side of a mountain 400 yards away, essentially a wall. Some of those ricochets wobble, but most are traveling away at 90 degrees and still at high velocity.