Range Report: richochet back at me

[Sir Henry]

Quiets and the CB 22 Shorts I shoot have the same velocity, about 710 fps. The only difference is the bullet weight, 40 grains versus 29. Even the CBs, though, have more energy than my most powerful air rifle. That's why I only use steel bullet traps and heavy metal swinging targets even when shooting CBs. At 25 yards, getting hit with a CB or Quiet ricochet can still be potentially fatal or at least capable of a serious wound.

One issue with your hanging targets that may be increasing the odds of a ricochet is that they can twist and turn when hit, rather than move only in a single direction when hit. In my experiments with air gun targets, I know that in order to reduce the odds of a ricochet with a pellet, the pellet must flatten completely. It's when the pellet only hits a glancing blow and fails to flatten completely that I've had ricochets. With hanging targets that twist and turn every which way, getting a pellet to flatten is much less likely. Probably a similar thing happening when those Quiets fail to punch through your pans. Even at only 700 fps, a glancing blow could push a Quiet bullet off course. If you secured that pan so that it couldn't twist side to side when hit, I think you'd reduce the number of shots that fail to penetrate. Also from experience, a curved dish at the sides like your pan or any bent out of flat target is a recipe for getting ricochets. The curved side on your pan could have been what sent the bullets right back at you.

Hope I'm not being a nag. Just want to be a good neighbor and share my experience with ricochets. You guys are like family to me. Don't want to see anyone get hurt.

I thing you are dead on about the pans being free to swing that prevents the Quiets from penetrating. Your solution of fixing the pans so they can’t would work. My solution is just not shoot the Quiets at them and stick with SV or HV.

And I’ve learned the same thing about the concave items I was using in Woodinville. My solution there was to turn them around so they were convex.

I’m also going to use more bullet traps.

[North Country Gal]

Sounds right. Hopefully we'll get some better shooting weather, soon.

[Sir Henry]

Sounds right. Hopefully we'll get some better shooting weather, soon.

Two inches of snow is in the forecast for tomorrow morning.

[North Country Gal]

Yup, it's that time of year in the north country.

[Oldbrass]

Ralphy tried this with his Red Ryder

[Mags]

Ralphy tried this with his Red Ryder

Ya me too. As a kid, BB richochet off concrete caught me in the cheek bone. Stung like heck, no other damage.

[rickhem]

AAF7A5D7-681C-4B25-AE3D-F72B305E70F3.jpeg

Is that the result of a .22 rimfire? That looks a lot like a jacketed bullet, and way bigger than I'd think a "Quiet 22" bullet would be.

We used to run a match for our Bullseye league that we called Action Pistol. We had lots of steel plates in all different shapes as targets. Eventually, as some of the thinner metal plates got dented and cratered from being hit repeatedly, we started getting those coin shaped ricochets flying back on occasion. They looked exactly like your picture.

[daytime dave]

Good lessons and advice here.

[Sir Henry]

AAF7A5D7-681C-4B25-AE3D-F72B305E70F3.jpeg

Is that the result of a .22 rimfire? That looks a lot like a jacketed bullet, and way bigger than I'd think a "Quiet 22" bullet would be.

We used to run a match for our Bullseye league that we called Action Pistol. We had lots of steel plates in all different shapes as targets. Eventually, as some of the thinner metal plates got dented and cratered from being hit repeatedly, we started getting those coin shaped ricochets flying back on occasion. They looked exactly like your picture.

Yes it was 22 rimfire quiets, 40 grain at 710 fps.