Guy Catches 50 Caliber Round In Ear Protection After Ricoceht

Ken McCracken  •  July 5, 2007

Real or not?


That sort of a straight-back-at-you ricochet seems like a one in a million thing to me. I’ve certainly never seen it happen, but while I’ve shot a lot of rounds out of a lot of guns in my life I don’t claim to be any sort of an expert.
Thoughts?

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  • http://Array 2Hotel9

    Or a steel core rd. It would strip the jacket, the core could well come back. I think one of them says “no more iron”, it is a bit garbled.

  • http://vdvfamily.com/ Sphagnum

    Something definently came back, I don’t think they could have or would have faked that. I’ve heard that whistle sound from ricochets a few times, it’s real sounding.

    What a lucky guy.

  • 2Hotel9

    Too right, Spaghetti! Nothing quite so soul freezing as that high, wavering scream. Especially when there are multiples and you do not know the source of fire. Elevated pucker-factor for certain.

  • Pilgrim

    We do a shoot and run training exercise that involves iron targets but they’re on hinged swivels and fall over backwards when hit. Even then rounds sometimes bounce off of them. If an iron target (which I’m pretty sure they were referring to when they mentioned iron) were fixed and didn’t fall over I think the round has a pretty good chance of bouncing. If, like I said above, it’s a ball (non-jacketed) round.

  • 2Hotel9

    Something came back. You can see it strike the ground just in front of the bench. And it most likely hit the shell of his hearing protector, not his head. Lucky idiot.

    I have seen a lot of strange things at ranges and in the field. Shooting at ironplate targets with to light a rd can get a direct line ricochet. Seen .50 rds snap back from armor targets half the distance to the firing line. That is why TRADOC regs stipulate that metal targets, tanks, APCs, artillery pieces, be a minimum 300 meters from the firing line. And firing positions along the line must be 5 meters elevated above the position of the target.

    At least that was the reg in mid ’80s.

    Safety first, kids! Till the fire flies both ways, then safety is in the crapper.

  • docdave

    Hmmm, why didn’t they show the side of his head? And the whistle effect seemed fake.

    What was he shooting at? A rock? I thik if you were hit in the head with a 50 cal. bullet ricochet or not, you wouldn’t be walking around much sfterward.

  • 2Hotel9

    Rob, we shoot .22s at spinner targets made of steel, and on 2 of the long ranges I shoot at there are iron target, one has spinning round targets, the other has 2 foot x 2 foot hangers. Never had any problems. Shooting at rigid fixed metal targets is the BAD idea. And shooting vehicles with motors still in them is a less than stellar idea, also.

  • 2Hotel9

    Iron targets are OK, as long as they swivel freely.

  • http://sayanythingblog.com/ likwidshoe

    This could all be prevented by shooting at animals. Flesh doesn’t lend itself to ricochet. Get some caged bunny rabbits, let them free, and make it a sport.

  • Pilgrim

    If the round were an unjacketed ball type round and they were shooting an iron target it’s very possible that it bounced back at him. Jacketed rounds generally won’t because they smash apart on impact.

    I’ve seen .45 and 9mm ball rounds bounce off of iron plate targets. With the incredible velocity of a .50 cal, teah, it could happen.

  • http://sayanythingblog.com robport

    I have never, ever shot at metal targets and refuse to for that reason. Just no reason to take the risk.

    We shoot at paper targets with a nice soft hill as a backdrop.

  • http://sayanythingblog.com robport

    Someone definitely says “no more iron.” I took that to mean no more iron targets.

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