Guy hit in head with .50 caliber ricochet

[Big Shasta]

I got to shoot the barrett 50 cal a sniper friend of mine has. I don't know what kind of round it was but we shot at a ~2 inch thick steel plate and the round wouldn't penetrate but would stick in the target and bulge out the back. Crazy but at 5.00 per shot, one was enough for me.

Dayum, from what I have heard those Barretts cost about as much as a small used sports car. Shesh what a weapon.

doctorj

Yeah, they do...and if I remember correctly, he had painted it camo...YEAH, PAINTED IT WITH SPRAY PAINT!! He had so many guns it was insane...most needed paperwork, some silencers, supersonic and subsonic ammo....I would NOT piss this guy off...

His favorite story to tell was about the psycological exam to get into sniper school..."Finally passed it the third time"

I helped him load the steel target in the truck to go to the range, I asked him what that was for and he said.. "You don't shoot a 50 cal at paper!"

Just an all around fun guy......

 

[old&slow]

Must have been REALLY unlucky to have a 50 cal. ricochet back from a 1000yd plate ...

must have been a really thick steel plate ,, the 50 cal will go thru quite a bit of steel..

A 30-06 will go thru regular 3/8 steel and leave a hole that looks like a drill press was used...

Competition shooter shoot steel all the time.. I was at a rifle match yesterday with folks shooting

steel from 100 to 300 yds.. I shoot steel match with handguns all the time at ranges from 10 to 25 yds..

The lead or jacketed lead pistol bullets usually just fragments into small pieces ..

But protective gear is Always used ,,safety glasses ,, eye protectors ,,, ball cap ,, etc...

Don't figure steel core AP stuff would react the same...

 

[Wee Willy]

That was a hoot. They sounded like a group of good ole boys too. The time between sounds was kinda telling though...if the video isn't doctored, and it doesn't appear to me to be so, here are some takeaways:

The time between firing and the downrange hit is significantly less than 1 sec. It's a couple of tenths actually. With a muzzle velocity of about 2,800 fps, in one tenth of a second a 50 cal will be at ~ 100 yds. Add the time for the sound of the hit to come back to the camera and this tells me our shooter is firing at what sounds like a metal target placed about 75 - 100 yds downrange. This significantly ups the shooter's chances of getting secondary fragmentation from the bullet if it impacts and doesn't penetrate. Lots of things have to go just absolutely right for what happened to happen: wind, plate angle, shooter's position and hold, etc. If the plate were at 1,000 yds, the odds of this happening drop to almost nothing.

So they're a bunch of good ole boys who know when they've had enough fun. Good for them. As MC riders, most of us know the most important lessons sometimes come at the expense of a close call...I've been there.

BigShasta, what service was your buddy in? In the Army, there was no psych test when I took the training back in '84. Only folks I know of who were doing that were the D boys.

Cheers,

W2