I was hit by a bullet fragment today

The backstop material at that range is shredded tire bits, piled into sloping bays and held in place with rubber mats...
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The range I currently shoot at is an outdoor range, and you move to and from the berm to shoot different distances. I shoot everywhere from point blank out to about 50 yards, and Ive occasionally had things "zing" by while shooting, and have found spent and deformed (obviously hit by other bullets while in the berm) bullets laying amoungst my brass when I was picking it up.
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Direct bounce-backs of a bullet should be pretty rare, given high velocity and the relatively inelastic deformation of lead. However, consider what that impact does to a medium like piled dirt or shredded rubber. Other hard items embedded in the medium like rocks, other lodged bullets, fragments, and bits of jacket can be rapidly accelerated, either directly by impact or indirectly through movement of the medium. Rubber only makes it more interesting...
 
I've noticed that sometimes accumulated lead in a barrel getting pushed out all at once sometimes results in a mistaken case of fragments coming back from the backstop or barrier......

If you shoot a lot of soft lead, keep an eye on your barrels, especially with revolvers.
 
Where we used to live much of our shooting was at an indoor range that had the usual steel backstop angled down at 45 degrees.
In front of that and straight down from the ceiling was a thick drape of rubber that captured the bounce backs.
The targets were in front of that.
It worked very well; don't remember any time did the targets shoot back.
 
One reason we should all be using eye protection/safety glasses.
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And keep your mouth shut!
If you shoot at a range where you might be facing sideways to the direction that bullets are travelling - say, talking to the person standing next to you - wear glasses with side shields.
I've been hit by lots of junk bouncing back from steel targets, and more often than not the bullets were not fired by me.
Only rarely have the bits been big enough and moving fast enough to penetrate the skin, but I was hit one time by a jacket shard that I could literally see coming from 15-20 feet away, and it stuck in the bridge of my nose, just above my glasses.
At bowling pin matches, it's not unusual to have intact bullets come flying back uprange.
 
I had the exact same thing happen.
The shard of the jacket stuck in my nose, after hitting my eyeglasses, and had to be pulled out with pliers.
Bled like all get out, too.
Maybe our noses are too big.
Very glad the eyeglasses held up.
The range rules stated in plain English that steel was only to be shot with lead, no jacketed bullets.
Trust no-one.
 
had the same thing happen to me, in the gut wearing a thin T shirt, i wear a Carhart jacket now, and a hat....always wear safety glasses, cant see with out them.
 
I think I'll write it off as a cost of shooting. Dirt bike enthusiast break bones, we occasionally have a two way range.

To answer the question about the range 'triangles', they basically angle back to the berm at around 30 degrees, and help protect the edges from sides of the range. Without them, I can see a ricochet running down the wall until it found a seam or ridge and splattering back. Of course, if it is dished out, it's not doing its job very well. I've seen them on other steel walls ranges, but not on ranges with CMUs or other masonry. Maybe the concrete breaks up the strays better, or its a newer design.

The next time I go the this particular range, I might mention it again to the manager while checking in (and maybe wait for a better lane).

As far as the rapper names, yall crack me up. I've been called Chinstrap more than anything because of the bandage I wore yesterday, and Frag and Ricochet by my wife.
 
Same happen to me at a indoor range. I was loading a magazine not even shooting and some shrap from the shooter to my left hit me in the cheek. Burned like hell for a second or two then I wiped my face and sure enough I was bleeding. It must have been a very small fragment that came from the back stop. Kinda of scary. Good luck and be carful to everyone,best wishes.
 
I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've been hit by chunks of rebounding bullet or jacket over the years. Stings for a moment, then goes away.

The worst, the one that REALLY hurt, though, was at a falling plate match some years ago. I was behind the line watching another shooter and a pretty significant chunk of lead came flying back and hit me in the mouth, under my lip, right on the base of the one lower canine. I let out a yell and a curse because it hurt like bloody hell. I was half afraid that it broke my tooth, and it did draw a little blood.

I'm pretty sure that Mal was at that match with me that day.
 
Many moons ago, I was hit in the face by copper fragments, from an ill-timed .44 magnum. Was asked to check it and advise. Upon inspection, found copper fragments on one side of forcing cone, and promptly referred him to the gunsmith. Should have definitely checked that first-live and learn, but it instilled in me the importance of safety equipment, even though I still pulled fragments out of my face.
 
I had my chin split by a fragment off steel. Bloody - yuk. The scariest was seeing a guy hit in the head by a rifle round fired in another lane that hit something and came back. It gave him a solid whack. I would have had it checked it but he just kept on doing what he was doing.

Saw a 45 ACP bounce off a tire and give a guy a solid whack in the chest. Just bruise.
 
Many small fragments have hit me over the years, but once I had about 1/4 of a .45 ACP slug ricochet real hard onto my belly. It stopped right bellow the skin. Scary as hell, and quite painful. Left a scar, too. Dumb*ss in the next station had hit the ceiling.
 
In the early days of shooting IHMSA, lotsa people were hit with fragments. A lot of ranges used softer steel scrounged from wherever they could find it, and often it got pockmarked and would let pieces fly back at you. I have been hit a lot from that sort of stuff, and even saw a car windshield behind the firing line get cracked once.
 
I was shooting in a pin match about 20yrs ago and while standing well behind a shooter, watching his performance, I had a complete, jacketed 230gr 45acp bullet come back and hit me on the left foot...hurt like a son-of-a-gun, too.
 
I'm scratching my head on this one...
Inside Range at 3 feet? You must have pulled heavy on the trigger enough to twist your wrist radically in order to hit guards on the side. That sounds like a significant miss at 3 feet from the bull's eye. Most indoor ranges have a 25+foot distance down range.
 
I do pistol shooting weakly with steel targets and it is the rare occasion that I do NOT get hit with some sort of fragment. Drawing Blood is rare but I wear long sleeves and long pants so area exposed is small. Outdoor range with multiple shooting bays. You can sit under awning and hear it rain fragments
 
Flint lock muzzle loader

Flint chip pushed by gas from flash hole drawed blood above my left eye, 14 feet away.
 
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