At least it missed ME!

S

Sisco

New member
Went to the range this afternoon to test some loads and do some serious plinking. While shooting steel plates at 25 yards with a .357 mag, LSWC rounds, I swore I heard something hit my pickup immediately after a plate fell.
Forgot all about it until I got home and was washing the truck and found a nice round hole in my tail light lens that wasn't there yesterday. Missed my by a couple of feet. Maybe in addition to hearing and eye protection, I should get me some kelvar??
 
Had a round of .40 S&W come bouncing back and hit my wife on the shoe one day. I think it hit a rock in the berm we were shooting into, ricochetted up and back. Safety glasses are a good idea.;)
 
Caught one the hard way

I caught a piece of .38 Special Saturday at the range. Surprised me and stung my hip but no damage. The guy next to me was having some severe issues with his revolver. He and his partner kept screwing with the sights until I thought they would come to blows. I should have payed more attention to what kind it was. He did have two misfires using Winchester ammo. One partially fired with smoke coming out of the barrel but the slug stayed put. He took it out, examined it, showed it to me since I was cocking an eyebrow at him, put it back into the revolver, and it fired. I have never heard of that happening- a partial firing.
 
A ballistic vest is a good idea for the range. You may not need it for steel plates per se. You are more likely to get a good bruise than a puncturing bullet wound. However, it is due to the behavior of others that a vest might not be a bad idea. For a while there, just about any time I went to the public range and there was more than 3 of us there, someone swept someone else with the muzzle. I don't like to be swept with a gun and even worse is that the people guilty of it often don't like to be corrected. Common retorts are "It wasn't loaded." and "My finger wasn't on the trigger." Hearing such comments always makes me feel very secure.

Chances are you will never be shot in anger by someone at the range, but mistakes do happen. For the time I kept track, at least 6 people were killed at ranges here in the states, several were in Texas. Most were self-inflicted stupid accidents. One Texsas incident was a guy tossing his range bag in his car and the gun in the range bag was loaded and went off. That killed him. Another in Garland, Texas was by the owner of a range who managed to shoot himself in the torso by accidenet. Dead.

Remember, mistakes are something that happens to everyone.
 
I had the same thing happen a couple of years ago, same place different gun. Shot the plate with a .41 mag, once again a lead bullet, that time the fragment hit me in the thigh. It broke the skin (wearing shorts) and left a bruse the size of a half dollar. Haven't left home without my safety glasses since. Maybe I should start standing behind the truck?
 
I learned the hard while dove hunting. I was wearing my contacts and didn't want to wear my Oakleys. I shot just about straight up and got unburnt powder in my eye. Damn that hurt. No I have like 4 pair of shooting glasses and my good racquetball ones. And I'll probably get some Berettas to match my new gun (if).
 
And I thought all you had to worry about was the idiot in the stall next to you. I need to start wearing eye protection one of these days.
 
I once had a 230-grain lead roundnose bounce back off of a bowling pin at a match, and it hit me about two inches over my belly-button. It stung, and left me with a bruise for a week. It certainly would have blinded me if it hit me in an unprotected eye (I wear shatter-proof glasses), but I'm also glad it didn't hit me in the crotch. :-)
 
But there really wasn't much chance of a crotch shot with a bunkered belly, right? Sorry, you are probably one of those skinny guys who does build a shed over his tool.

I got hit below the eye shooting mobile steel targets. It was a piece of shrapnel. It hurt like hell, but fortunately was a small fragment, maybe only about 1/2 of the 230 round and the jacketing had stripped off already. You know, bullets can do some harm, but on the ricochets from steel or pins, I think I am more leary of the loose jacketing slicing into me.
 
Apple a Day, about the partial firing. Did the bullet stay in the case? I've never heard of that. Can't imagine how it would happen.
 
Originally posted by Apple a Day:
One partially fired with smoke coming out of the barrel but the slug stayed put. He took it out, examined it, showed it to me since I was cocking an eyebrow at him, put it back into the revolver, and it fired.
Click to expand...

Huh? You mean something like a half-hangfire that he was lucky enough to get back in the chamber before it went off? Or did he drop the hammer on a fired primer a second time and it went off? Either way, this sounds most bizarre!
The very first time I used Hodgdens Titegroup, I loaded up a box of .45 Colts and the sixth round was a dud. I tried it a couple more times and upon returning home I pulled the bullet and found that the powder charge had completely burned leaving a noticeable amount of residue in the case but had failed to unseat the bullet at all. Also very strange.
 
I thought it was strange myself!

I started a thread asking about it (the goofy hangfire/FTF/whatever that was) . I am almost convinced that the smoke was just vented from the barrel from a previous shot and the guy just had a light hammer strike or hard primers.
I don't think it was a hangfire because he took the round out, carried it around for two or three minutes, showed it to me, went back to his lane, put it back in the revolver, and managed to fire it on the next trigger pull.
After he switched to another brand (+P or magnums since there was a noticable increase in noise and muzzle flash) he didn't have any more problems.
Jbar, man, that's REALLY wierd! I wonder how long the powder sat there and smouldered. Yikes!
 
That's why I belong to a gun club. I would not hesitate to correct someone at the range, and if they didn't seem amenable to a reminder of the rules, I would be happy to refer their name to the board for removal from the club. Arrogance has no place on a gun range.
 
One day, its been several years ago now, my dad and I were out shooting, and we had taken moms Ruger Blackhawk in .30 carbine along with the standard .22's.
Dad was shooting at a tin can on a small hillside, and hit a gypsum rock (or thats what we figured it was) and the bullet ricocheted off and came tumbling back through the air towards us. It made a realyl weird twhup twhup thwup sound as it tumbled (like chopper rotors). it hit in the dirt about half and inch infront of dads boot toe.
Pretty freaky.
We moved to a new backstop after that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top