Limiting ricochets

[Dunwaters]

Allegedly of a branch if memory serves.

Reports at the time said that he fired at a crow in a tree, so probably not a ricochet.
Ricochets are a fact of life with a .22, if you hear one whine off you can take comfort from a couple of things.
(1) You’re hearing it because it’s deformed and tumbling through the air, it wont get far.
(2) Its highly unlikely to have enough energy to do much harm because it will have dumped a lot of its energy in the collision.

You can frighten yourself bright green worrying about what “might” happen if you want to, and theres no end of possibilities if you extend the chances of it happening into the 1/10million range, but thats not really a readily foreseeable event, its a fluke accident.

 

[Heym SR20]

A pretty stupid video, but skimmed through. A 22 LR against a human dummy. Complete pass through of a ballistic human dummy at over 400 yards with 22 lr bullet. Rather makes you think.



As regards ricochet and energy etc it will really depend - a shallow angle skimming type ricochet probably won’t reduce the energy levels significantly.

A deformed bullet however will have much greater drag than a standard bullet so won’t travel as far.

 

[25 Sharps]

I cannot attest to the accuracy of the report, but on my Pre DSC1 day, an example was provided of someone killed by a .22 round (cant recall the specific details). Long and the short of it was the shooter shot at a crow in a tree, missed and the bullet travel over a hill, hitting the unfortunate chap on the other side fatally wounding him.

Lots of urban (rural) myths like that, no one can ever actually cite the fa the and location though. Same as the story of the young boy having a picnic struck in the temple and killed by a ricocheted .22.

That’s not to say either story didn’t happen, but they are probably not all true.

 

[Foxyboy43]

Lots of urban (rural) myths like that, no one can ever actually cite the fa the and location though. Same as the story of the young boy having a picnic struck in the temple and killed by a ricocheted .22.

That’s not to say either story didn’t happen, but they are probably not all true.

The crow in the tree and a ricochet off a branch (like really?) was the so-called defence the idiot in my post #26 cited when he very nearly killed a 5 year old. The following makes utterly harrowing reading - remember too that the 5 year old was in his primary school playground when he was hit by the .22.
The injuries to Darragh will be with him for the rest of his life. The .22 bullet from Cleary's rifle smashed through the back of the schoolboy's skull and travelled to the frontal lob of the brain before hitting a bone and ricocheting back.
"He still has fragments in his brain that they will never be able to remove," said Jeannine.
She said the resulting disabilities would always be with him.
"The eyesight he lost - he will never get that back, and his left side will always be weaker than his right side," she said.

 

[Smellydog]

The crow in the tree and a ricochet off a branch (like really?) was the so-called defence the idiot in my post #26 cited when he very nearly killed a 5 year old. The following makes utterly harrowing reading - remember too that the 5 year old was in his primary school playground when he was hit by the .22.
The injuries to Darragh will be with him for the rest of his life. The .22 bullet from Cleary's rifle smashed through the back of the schoolboy's skull and travelled to the frontal lob of the brain before hitting a bone and ricocheting back.
"He still has fragments in his brain that they will never be able to remove," said Jeannine.
She said the resulting disabilities would always be with him.
"The eyesight he lost - he will never get that back, and his left side will always be weaker than his right side," she said.

That's sounds more like an assassination attempt than a falling bullet.
The trouble with these events are that there are just to many points of speculation to draw any meaningful conclusion or direction from.
Other than don't shoot into the air on a crowded island!
Funny how we've never heard of a piece of heavy shot from a shotgun hurt someone!
Back to wee lad at school, the fact the chap did not come forward immediately on hearing of something bad just makes me wonder. I mean why try and cover that up??

 

[Foxyboy43]

That's sounds more like an assassination attempt than a falling bullet.
The trouble with these events are that there are just to many points of speculation to draw any meaningful conclusion or direction from.
Other than don't shoot into the air on a crowded island!
Funny how we've never heard of a piece of heavy shot from a shotgun hurt someone!
Back to wee lad at school, the fact the chap did not come forward immediately on hearing of something bad just makes me wonder. I mean why try and cover that up??

Yep - and over two years before he admitted firing the shot! Fined £5,000 and that was that. Meanwhile 50 plus adjacent firearms owners had their rifles lifted and ballistically checked. The dreadful injury to the child aside I just wonder what all of that cost - in money and worry…

 

[Smellydog]

Yep - and over two years before he admitted firing the shot! Fined £5,000 and that was that. Meanwhile 50 plus adjacent firearms owners had their rifles lifted and ballistically checked. The dreadful injury to the child aside I just wonder what all of that cost - in money and worry…

It just smacks of a hint of deliberate action to me.
I am a cynic though...!

 

[Dunwaters]

It just smacks of a hint of deliberate action to me.
I am a cynic though...!

He deliberately lobbed a.22 several hundred yards and shot a child in the head?
He definitely kept his head down afterwards though.
As an aside, how common are ricochets with FAC air rifles firing slugs?

 

[old keeper]

I used to shoot rabbits on some land bordering a large lake. I had several ricochets and was surprised at what short distances they travelled into the lake. Some of them were no more than 20 yards or so.

 

[Eddie P]

Stopped using my rimmy .22 on flat arable years ago.

Use a .17 HMR instead. Noisier yes, but better range and I believe far safer.

Nothing is nosier than "that wizz"

 

[Smellydog]

how common are ricochets with FAC air rifles firing slugs?

I don't know, never got around to doing a study into it.

 

[MarinePMI]

There's a reason military troops are trained to stay at least 18", preferably 24", from walls when in an urban environment.