Popper Bounce Back

[tyler2you]

Shot a local match today and got hit pretty good by some bounce back.  I had just engaged 3 paper targets and taken a step forward to engage 2 mini poppers from around 10 yards.  First shot on the popper and I felt a whack under my shooting glasses that made me think something came apart on my gun.  I was a little stunned, but managed to finish shooting the stage (not very well after that).  It took a while to stop bleeding and was somewhat swollen.  I drove home and didn't think much more about it.  It was still oozing when I got home, so I took a closer look and thought it looked a little darker than it should be.  I poked around with some tweezers and could feel something hard which I assumed had to be some metal.  Sure enough, I had a good little chunk embedded in my face which was very difficult to get ahold of to pull out.  Glad I was able to get it out now before it got infected or healed over.

 

Just a caution to be supicious if you get hit with bounce back to make sure there's not something hiding under the skin.  Popper had some slight curvature, but wasn't pocked or excessively damaged.  Guess it was just a freak occurrence.  

 

[wgj3]

Ouch

[caspian guy]

Glad you are ok... i had something similar happen while shooting a plate rack... fired a round, plate went down,  I felt a sharp sting in my chest, reached down an found a piece of bullet jacket that went through my shirt stuck in my skin. Took pliers to get it out.  I've caught splatter plenty of times but thats the worse in almost 20 years of uspsa. 

[motosapiens]

jacketed bullets are dangerous.

[Schutzenmeister]

Been there, done that ... got the scars!  Ever wonder why we have an absolute rule about eye protection?

 

And it's not just jacketed bullets.  I've seen nasty splatter injuries from hard-cast lead, too.

[tyler2you]

Been there, done that ... got the scars!  Ever wonder why we have an absolute rule about eye protection?
 
And it's not just jacketed bullets.  I've seen nasty splatter injuries from hard-cast lead, too.

Yep, was surprised to find the piece I pulled out was lead and not copper.

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[OPENB]

Worse was cowboy action. Velocities are so low, lead doesn't flatten on steel, bounces back.

[9x45]

You can take your ears off, but never your eyes. 40 cal frag came off a popper into a concrete block then into me. 

 

 

[tyler2you]

1 hour ago, 9x45 said:

You can take your ears off, but never your eyes. 40 cal frag came off a popper into a concrete block then into me. 

 

Ouch!  Was the popper in good condition? 

 

I've been hit by splatter coming from other bays numerous times and have seen folks get hit where a piece of sharp jacket drew blood.  This is the first time I've seen it hit hard enough to cause a piece to penetrate deep enough to embed in flesh.  I've heard stories of it happening with steel that's in poor condition (pocked/cratered or otherwise damaged).  I guess I was under the false impression that if you maintained the minimum safe distance (23 ft.) and were shooting at steel in good repair that you were pretty safe from injury.  Seems there is always some risk to shooting steel.

[9x45]

Yea, the popper was in good shape, not cratered or dished. Just one of those things. It was a Bear Creek 180 grain frag that weighed in at 2 grains and went in 6mm deep. I've been tagged plenty of times with jackets, but this was the first good hit. Nothing compared to my buddy who took a full bullet ricochet to the check. Fixed him up with target tape....