.50BMG shooter hit by richochet, luckest man alive

p99guy · Post by **p99guy** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 11:47 am

http://www.madogre.com/PowerHouse/50caliber.wmv

Good gawd! EEEEEK! That last item you see held up is part of the insides of electronic shooting muffs

"well, we'll be throwing this pair of underware away"
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Paladin · Post by **Paladin** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 1:34 pm

Glad that the shooter is okay. The sound of it comming back was distictive. Wonder what kind of target he was shooting and what the backstop was?

Drifter · Post by **Drifter** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 1:36 pm

That would certainly put a crimp in one's day!

I have wondered how often something like this happens when pistol shooting at steel targets. It looks (looked) like a lot of fun, but I've never had the opportunity to try it. I know the targets are tilted/angled to reflect the bullet away from the firing positions, but ....

Anyone have any similar close calls?

HighVelocity · Post by **HighVelocity** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 2:24 pm

He was very lucky. I have been there myself and know exactly what NOT to shoot at steel targets and that's a high powered jacketed bullet.

Sometime around 1992, I was sighting in an SSK built Contender in 375 JDJ. I was shooting it at 100 yards from a sandbag and had just gotten it dialed in when a fellow shooter gets a 10" steel plate out of his car and suggests I shoot it. At 100 yards, a piece of that 300 grian Sierra bullet came all the way back with enough force to tear my shirt and draw blood. Had it hit me in the eye, even though I was wearing safety glasses, I don't know if it would've stopped it.
FWIW, the bullet DID penetrate the 1/4" thick plate.

Don't shoot steel with high powered weapons. It's just a bad idea.

NcongruNt · Post by **NcongruNt** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 2:39 pm

Drifter wrote:That would certainly put a crimp in one's day!

I have wondered how often something like this happens when pistol shooting at steel targets. It looks (looked) like a lot of fun, but I've never had the opportunity to try it. I know the targets are tilted/angled to reflect the bullet away from the firing positions, but ....

Anyone have any similar close calls?

That actually happened to my girlfriend the first time she went shooting. It was nothing as major as this video. The guy to her right was shooting steel targets and a ricochet caught her in the leg. She didn't even notice it at first, and it started bothering her after a bit. When we got home, she found that she had a small bruise on her thigh.

jimlongley · Post by **jimlongley** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 6:04 pm

There was a gong sound before the round came back, I bet they were shooting at some kind of steel target.

I have been hit several times while shooting steel, and one of our IDPA shooters was hit bad enough to require a trip to the hospital.

My mother hit herself in the chest shooting at an oak log with a target on it, with a .22lr.

Safety glasses are a good thing.

Hey HighVelocity, not to doubt your word, but how does a projectile that penetrates a 1/4" thick plate then come back and hit you? Did it bounce off the backstop?

HighVelocity · Post by **HighVelocity** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 6:17 pm

Hey HighVelocity, not to doubt your word, but how does a projectile that penetrates a 1/4" thick plate then come back and hit you? Did it bounce off the backstop?

That's a good question. The answer is that when the bullet punched through the plate it shed the copper jacket. It was a chunk of the jacket that came back to me.

ScubaSigGuy · Post by **ScubaSigGuy** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 6:34 pm

HighVelocity wrote:
Hey HighVelocity, not to doubt your word, but how does a projectile that penetrates a 1/4" thick plate then come back and hit you? Did it bounce off the backstop?
That's a good question. The answer is that when the bullet punched through the plate it shed the copper jacket. It was a chunk of the jacket that came back to me.

I sent a buddy of mine a link to this video and he told me the same thing happened to him shooting a Desert Eagle. A piece of copper jacket hit him just above the eye hard enough to draw blood.

jimlongley · Post by **jimlongley** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 7:50 pm

HighVelocity wrote:
Hey HighVelocity, not to doubt your word, but how does a projectile that penetrates a 1/4" thick plate then come back and hit you? Did it bounce off the backstop?
That's a good question. The answer is that when the bullet punched through the plate it shed the copper jacket. It was a chunk of the jacket that came back to me.

I've seen something like that happen on silhouette shots.

Thanks.

KBCraig · Post by **KBCraig** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 10:02 pm

Here's the Youtube version. Lower quality, but faster loading.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ABGIJwiGBc

Ayup. That's a scary incident!

Closest I've had was a shredded jacket from a pistol round, cutting my face. And then there was the time my wife shot herself in the head. *WARNING!* Strong language! Definitely not safe for the 10 year old daughter; matter of fact, our 17 year old daughter isn't allowed to read it!

I've batted away plenty of hot brass in my time. But those lethal bumblebees are in a whole 'nuther category!

Kevin

JLaw · Post by **JLaw** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 10:37 pm

That is very scary...

JLaw

J.D. · Post by **J.D.** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 7:11 am

Wow

amazing

Mithras61 · Post by **Mithras61** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 10:44 am

Paladin wrote:Glad that the shooter is okay. The sound of it comming back was distictive. Wonder what kind of target he was shooting and what the backstop was?

I don't know what he was shooting, but the last clear words on the video are "Nope. No more iron." which sorta implies an iron sheet of some sort...

Liberty · Post by **Liberty** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 10:52 am

While he got tagged pretty hard, its a big hunk of lead and copper. But there wasn't much energy (at least percentage wise) they were shooting several hundred yards away and the bullet took another bounce off the dirt before it hit the shooter. A one in a million shot The bullet seemed to hit the target instantly but took over a second to come back