Thread: Richochet!!

I understand from the Engineer who surveyed our range that ricochets can occur off of most objects, especially when the angle of incidence is less than 30 degrees.
The direction of the ricochet is unpredictable so a large safe zone is required to accomidate this.

Bouncing like a cricket ball or skimming stones off of water is probally an acurate analogy for these ricochets.

We regulary see and hear ricochets off the dirt with most firearms in all calibres including Pistol, Rifle and Black Powder Rifles.
Although we have noticed considerly more ricochets over this summer with the ground being so hard and dry.
We allow tracer rounds to be fire during the wetter winter months and I've seen these in 303 and 308 calibre ricochet off the 100m dirt mound and carry on in unpredictible directions including climbing straight up at about 30 degree angles for several hundered more meters before being lost from sight.

So despite some very large hills as backdrops and earth mounds the range was certified as if it was a flat range and the safe zone extends for 2.5 kms from the shooting mounds.

Cheers
Pete