Thread: Internal richochet?

I shot 45 degrees downhill at a rabbit with a 22 sub and heard what I thought was a ricochet onto an iron clad shed nearby. I thought it was a safe shot being down into a very wet paddock with nothing much else around it. The shed was 20-30m away horizontally from the rabbit, so if the bullet did in fact hit it, it would have had to make a 45 degree turn inside the rabbit, which seems unlikely. Possible it glanced off its skull or another solid bit, but there's nothing very solid in a rabbit. It could have bounced off some other hard object like a stone too I guess but I'm curious to know if its possible for a bullet to switch trajectory that much internally.... anyone experience this before? If 'yes' that adds quite another dimension to making calls on what's a safe shot.

Edit: another thing I just thought of is that it didn't eject the case, which is unusual for 1050fps in that rifle (10/22). That suggests the bullet wasn't going very fast (not enough powder charge to eject), so going slower it would have a better chance of bouncing off a rabbit head... still seems far fetched to me.

More than likely punched through the rabbit and hit something hard in the ground. Yes bullets can turn around and head back towards the shooter. No shot is ever safe realy, you just try and minimize the risk and ride the wave of luck everytime the trigger is pulled.
I have been hit with frag off poppers on ranges and even had a deformed projectile hit me in the leg while watching ipsc, that stage didnt have plates. Ive had a .22 projectile come back up the range and pass between me and another shooter in our bays while shooting issf.
Its going to happen no matter how careful one is.

I work on the theory that if you can hear it zinging while its riccocheting then its not coming towards you!

In 2013 a young shooter shot and killed a rabbit with steel shot but the steel richochet into a tractor 30 metres away.One bloody expensive rabbit and a valuable lesson learnt by all.

Bouncy .22 always dangerous, hard to get a ricochet from. .17 hmr with Amax and 2500 fps, I got hit on the hand black powder shooting on the range the other day, soft lead travelling slow 1100 fps bouncy! Came back 50 metres!

I shot at a rabbit downhill maybe 30 degrees, about 40m away shot it between the eyes (fluke it was windy, I was aiming for the front end) and I heard the pwwwwwwing and then about a second later there was a rattle on the shed roof about 60m away at 11 oclock from where I was shooting, I cant really figure that one out and a bit of an eye opener but it makes me want to seriously look at .17hmr as I often shoot with stock in adjacent paddocks.

Scary to think it can zing in a different direction.

This vid of 12g tracer shows a bit of deflection and this is soft 12g

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PkK1ayxBMCo

Shooting tracer into the bush is about the dumbest thing ever for many reasons

@Survy from reading about those tracers they're plastic glowstick capsules which you'd expect to bounce. Interesting in itself though.

@veitnamcam They're glowstick tracers, not pyrotechnic. Otherwise it would be yes...

Ah

.22 subs are about the worst thing for ricocheting. Head shooting for a night you hear several each night. Dead head shot rabbit and the bullet Christ knows where.....

Originally Posted by Wirehunt

.22 subs are about the worst thing for ricocheting. Head shooting for a night you hear several each night. Dead head shot rabbit and the bullet Christ knows where.....

CCI's segmenting hollow points are the biz, I've only used the hyper version, qwik shot - but they do a subsonic version too. Not the cheapest ammo though.

Used CCI and same thing. Not sure what model it was but I assume it was a standard one.