Thread: it can happen to anyone! Please be safe

Just because it docent make a sound doesn't mean it hasn't ricocheted either. When doing goat control I bought a few thousand rounds of 7.62 tracer ammo. That stuff changed how I shoot too this day. The number of shots that flew in weird directions was incredible. Back over our heads a few times. But the one that really got me thinking was its ability too hit the ground, go over a crest of a hill, and then get airborne again.

I don’t understand why for pest control people don’t use 410s and ring around all the neighbours to tell them prior. Much safer.

Originally Posted by whanahuia

Just because it docent make a sound doesn't mean it hasn't ricocheted either. When doing goat control I bought a few thousand rounds of 7.62 tracer ammo. That stuff changed how I shoot too this day. The number of shots that flew in weird directions was incredible. Back over our heads a few times. But the one that really got me thinking was its ability too hit the ground, go over a crest of a hill, and then get airborne again.

Much the same how my old man taught me about how projectiles behave, one sopping wet evening on dark he took me out on our pine block at the time, he dumped a magazine of 7.62 nato tracer across the valley to a face above the track above one of the old haul road and watched them piss off in all directions bouncing around.

“All bullets can do that, just because you can’t see it don’t assume it hasn’t”

Probably not the best way to teach a 10 year old how dangerous projectiles can be, but I still remember it to this day maybe 65% of those red beams whizzing on all angles, probably the best educational display of visual lethality I’ve witnessed.

Makes one wonder if the causal shooter is actually aware of what a projectile is able to do once it has contacted a surface/object and if that is something taken into consideration.

I have been present to witness a 7m08 pinhole a sitting stationary goat, ricochet of the dry clay ground behind it and get airborne again and ping into an adjacent clay face, the shooter was able to dig out the projectile remains and was rather stunned as he expected it to just stop when it hit the goat.

I very nearly kneecapped myself with a 12 ga solid.shot a big ram through brain inside Woolshed,slug then bounced all around the walls n rails,stopped by my feet spinning on the grating. It had lasting impression on me. I was killing dog Tucker's and rams were just too hard for my young teenage body to overpower...used the .22 outside of shed after that.

Originally Posted by omark

I don’t understand why for pest control people don’t use 410s and ring around all the neighbours to tell them prior. Much safer.

Yes they can be, but in some places not easy to feed and also not as common as bog standard 12ga. Short shells can be quite useful for pest work if you can get the right loads - a mate was using light clay target loads for relatively short range rabbit work and with the right choke setup they were quite nice to use. Lead pellets though, so not everyone can use those...

410 very limited range and killing power - the rifle is safe its the nut behind it thats not - when I was a firearm instructor we taught everyone supervision is right alongside the young or new shooter- I got a hard lesson in that one day teaching a 12 year old to shoot - he had no strength after a life of watching bloody space games - I gave him a standing shot with my BRNO .22 - he put it up and tried to get a bead on a can I put out - ohh god he says its heavy and drops it down towards his feet fully cocked - I was able to tip the barrel up in time to avoid him plonking a round thru his foot - packed it up and went home still shaking