Posted on 06/02/2013 6:16:57 PM PDT by Sawdring
Today while I was planting the garden, a neighbor started shooting his guns. He is known to do this during the summer and for his bachelor party he and his crew shot constantly for four hours. I do not mind the noise and before today my only concern was how he could afford all the rounds he fires.
Today was different because he would shoot and then I would hear a bullet "whiz" through the air above the swamp and then thwack into the woods on the other side. This was right behind my property and I knew the bullets were ricocheting so I didn't know which way they would go next.
I live on the edge of a subdivision and his property is rural farm land. Another neighbor lady asked if it was dangerous to be in the back yard because she heard bullets in the air as well. I assumed it would be so she went in and I crossed a swamp and started whistling to get his attention. I introduced myself and told him what was happening and he wouldn't believe me. I explained to him that I didn't mind his shooting and actually appreciated that he was a gun owner but he needed to know where his bullets were landing.
I looked at his setup and all he was shooting was a Glock .40 caliber pistol, he had a berm in back that goes up to the railroad tracks and then our houses are at about a 30 degree angle from where he was standing and the barrel he was shooting at.
When I saw what he was doing I didn't think he was doing anything wrong but he would not accept that he bullets could even come close to our houses. When I got home I looked up our properties on Google Earth and found he was shooting at barrels about twenty yards from him and the barrels were about 480 yards from where the bullets hit woods.
Unless he takes some sort of corrective action, I'm going to play indoors when he starts shooting and if he hits my house I will have to call the authorities, have them extract the bullet and then we can match it up. I don't really know what else I should do.
Please do not underestimate the ability to increase resolution or restore “lost” information. It’s not as hard as you think.
The shooter in this case is obviously causing the problem, but sometimes with less obvious things determining fault can be problematic. An example from my life: my dad was a HAM operator. Dad took every precaution to avoid interfering with the neighbors, but one fellow insisted that dad's transmissions were coming through his TV. Nobody else, including plenty of folks the lived much closer ever had an issue. Dad spent a lot of time and effort trying to determine what the issue actually was, but since the angry neighbor wouldn't let him come into his house he was never quite sure. This went on for years. Then dad died. A while after he died, the neighbor was on the phone demanding to speak with him because he was coming through the TV again. The guy changed his tune when he found out that dad was gone and the contents of his radio shack had been sold. I never heard what the real source of the interference was. We'll probabaly never know.
For some reason a lot of people think that pistol bullets can’t travel very far. No idea where this comes from but it just isn’t the case.
I think a friendly visit from a local coop might be in order.
There are actually some things he could do, one of them being to get rid of the steel barrel and replace it with a wooden container filled with sand or ground tire mulch, both cheap fixes. A back up of firewood or sandbags would also be of interest.
I don’t understand how bullets can be flying around, if he has a proper backstop? He should have a dirt or sand berm that is high enough to make sure nothing can exit the area. then he should have some wooden railroad ties in from of the berm for the bullets to enter. this is what we had growing up, and not once did a bullet exit the area.
If he is shooting at metal targets and the bullets are deflecting, then he needs to stop and change his target type.
When I was a kid, most .22 LR ammo was marked that the bullet could travel up to 1 mile.
480 yards is not far.
In this case it sounds like the berm is probably too low and of a shallow angle. Its deflecting the rounds up into the air rather than absorbing them.
Just my guess.
I should have checked to see what was in the barrel, if anything.
point well taken about glock owners. Many haven’t thought - they just bought into the hype about the “plastic” gun. Not that there is anything wrong with plastic grips, or whatever.
How is it that someone would think that a handgun would be safe without a safety? And the Glock owners are the most adamant about the “i have a safety between my ears”.
That comment could be made for airbags, seatbelts, helmets, etc. Not that I want government to tell us we have to use them, but who would buy a car without aribags saying “I am smart enough to not get in a wreck”?
Not a pistol but a child killed 1/2 mile away
I am glad to have a safety myself. I can’t have enough checks and balances to keep me from hurting myself.
I was one of those accident prone kids, and while I do much better as an adult, I occasionally do things that make me pause and say “Okay. Not a good idea.”
My son found a .223 Tulammo bullet on the deck this last week. I don’t think he got the message.
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