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Cell phone blocks stray bullet, saves man's life
St. Tammany News ^ | 11/19/08 | Matthew Penix

Posted on 11/22/2008 5:11:25 AM PST by jalisco555

Driving his John Deere tractor Saturday, Richard was suddenly thumped with a pain “like a hard punch jumped up” and bit him in the heart.

He bent over and grasped his sweater. Then he took it off to get a closer look. A .45-caliber bullet casing tumbled out, clattered onto the tractor and fell on the ground.

He’d just been shot.

It was a stray bullet, and it tore through his sweater, leaving a 1/2-inch hole, where it entered into the top center pocket of his coveralls and hit his cell phone.

The bullet, coming in at a 45-degree angle, busted the phone in two, but the impact halted its trajectory just enough to save Richard’s life

“It’s a miracle,” he said Tuesday. “Normally I put the phone in my inside pocket, but for some reason that day was different. Now I know why.”

(Excerpt) Read more at thesttammanynews.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: Louisiana
KEYWORDS: banglist; bullet; cellphones; luck
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To: 70th Division

where can I buy one of those?


41 posted on 11/22/2008 7:22:47 AM PST by coon2000
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To: dis.kevin
I saw this on tv. The slug looked to me, like a slug used in a muzzle loader

I saw that too. The phone had a dent in it, it wasn't broken. The bullet was a .45 FMJ. Some idiot was probably shooting at cans a mile away and a ricochet flew away. Full jackets skip off of anything and just keep going.

42 posted on 11/22/2008 7:24:33 AM PST by Seven plus One
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To: coon2000
It is the high tech 21st Century version of the badge that saved the sheriff’s life.
43 posted on 11/22/2008 7:26:11 AM PST by 70th Division (I love my country but fear my government!)
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To: AnAmericanMother
Ah, very good. I had fixed on 1911’s type 45.

Still though a Long Colt would be a leaver action. Now we are kind of, maybe, in that someone was aiming at the guy. Still, unusual round found in old style rifles.

It's possible, but it would have to be an aimed shot.

We are still back to someone, not to far away, in a rural area, cracks a few off into the yonder and gets a guy in a tractor, in his cell phone.

Possible.

I still have my money, which is zero, on the set up square.

44 posted on 11/22/2008 7:45:44 AM PST by Leisler ("Give us the child for 8 years and it will be a Bolshevik forever. " Lenin)
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To: jalisco555

Quite right that you shouldn’t edit a story. If you like, you can put corrections or “sic” in square brackets, or add a comment.

Yes, almost anything could have happened, since this reporter is evidently clueless. Was it .45 caliber? Maybe, or maybe just a good-sized slug.

Someone mentioned a muzzle loader, and that’s possible. Some states have complicated hunting laws, with weeks set aside for bow and arrow hunting and weeks set aside for muzzle loaded hunting, as well as the regular season.

It must have been just about spent when it hit the cell phone, or I wouldn’t think something as thin as that would have stopped it. Most cell phones are plastic or very thin bits of metal.


45 posted on 11/22/2008 8:35:32 AM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: Leisler

I used to deer hunt with a .45-70. I have two, a trap door Springfield and an 1886 Winchester. The Winchester can use heavier loads, putting a 300 grain Hornady out at about 2,100 fps. The trap door is limited to lighter loads, about 1500 fps for the 300 grain load.

For comparison a .45 ACP pistol is commonly loaded with a 230 grain which comes out at about 850 fps.

I like the trap door — something about the long barrel and the “one shot, so make it count” appeals to me.


46 posted on 11/22/2008 9:33:22 AM PST by Wisconsin
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To: mlocher

Is it reasonable to assume that your daughter became a lot more safety conscious after that?


47 posted on 11/22/2008 10:27:40 AM PST by B4Ranch (("In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way." FDR)
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To: B4Ranch
Is it reasonable to assume that your daughter became a lot more safety conscious after that?

Oh yeah....

48 posted on 11/22/2008 10:55:20 AM PST by mlocher (USA is a sovereign nation)
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To: jalisco555

The casing doesn’t travel with the bullet.

Idiot reporter


49 posted on 11/22/2008 3:08:32 PM PST by wastedyears (Every FReeper is on Obama's Black List. He will try to have us all "taken care of." Mark my words)
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To: calex59

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhysoS2DC8M

Or you could fire a .50 at a steel plate, only to have it ricochet right back at you, knocking off and destroying your ear muffs.


50 posted on 11/22/2008 3:21:50 PM PST by wastedyears (Every FReeper is on Obama's Black List. He will try to have us all "taken care of." Mark my words)
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To: jalisco555

Speaking of editing the story - we saw the story on a local television station, and it was severely edited. I asked hubby after the news clip if he didn’t think something was missing from that story, such as the who, what, when, where, and how of the bullet.

This is the first I’m hearing of the area in which the victim lives, that hunters hunted in the woods near their home, and that gunshots were heard frequently there.

There was no mention of a possible source of the bullet in our local station’s story. It was as if it simply materialized out of thin air, fell from the sky, and struck the man’s cellphone.


51 posted on 11/22/2008 3:32:51 PM PST by LucyJo
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To: jalisco555
"a...

...tumbled out..."

52 posted on 11/22/2008 7:50:44 PM PST by TXnMA (To anger a conservative, lie about him. To anger a liberal -- tell the truth...)
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To: LucyJo
It was as if it simply materialized out of thin air, fell from the sky, and struck the man’s cellphone.

Don't you just hate when that happens?

53 posted on 11/23/2008 2:32:57 AM PST by jalisco555 ("My 80% friend is not my 20% enemy" - Ronald Reagan)
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To: TXnMA

One of the reasons I posted this story was to highlight MSM ignorance about firearms. Something to keep in mind when they write about the upcoming attempt to ban “assault rifles”.


54 posted on 11/23/2008 2:34:36 AM PST by jalisco555 ("My 80% friend is not my 20% enemy" - Ronald Reagan)
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To: LibLieSlayer

I never said it didn’t happen. I merely said it made no sense the way it was written...


55 posted on 11/24/2008 4:58:20 AM PST by bcsco (Liberals don't understand, it's impossible to pick up a turd-like Obama-by the clean end...)
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To: Leisler; AnAmericanMother

ok, so you have thought of .45acp and .45 colt. yup, both .45 caliber, but so is .454 casull, and .45-70. there’s also .45 cal muzzle loaders, .45 gap, .45-90, .45-100, .450 marlin, .458 win mag, .458 lott, the interesting winchester sabots that are a .45calibre bullet in a 20ga shell.. and a whole lot of others.

and liesler, first, 45 lever guns are not uncommon, i could find them at anytime. and it wouldn’t have to be an aimed shot. a .45 colt has more energy than a .44 magnum, and the .44 has been proven to be able to kill deer at an excess of 500 yards. a .45 colt could have been shot, even with a ricochet, and traveled a half mile or more to randomly hit this guy in the phone. could have gone much, much further if it had been a .45-70.


56 posted on 11/24/2008 7:04:44 AM PST by absolootezer0 ( Detroit: we're so bad, even our mayor is a criminal)
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To: absolootezer0
Does anybody MAKE bullets for .45/70 in FMJ? FReeper upthread said he saw the bullet on TV and it was a FMJ. We load for .45/70 and for .45 Long Colt (cast bullets in both cases), and I can tell the difference in the slugs by looking, but then I'm looking at them both at the same time.

As I said before, the real problem here is that we don't know ANY of the facts because the reporter is an idiot and completely ignorant about firearms.

57 posted on 11/24/2008 12:15:55 PM PST by AnAmericanMother (Ministrix of ye Chasse (TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary - recess appointment))
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To: AnAmericanMother
absolutely. nosler, barnes and speer all make a jacketed bullet for .45-70.

federal also manufactures them as a loaded round.



Not that i'd ever use them, but apparently enough people do to justify mass production.
58 posted on 11/24/2008 12:35:30 PM PST by absolootezer0 ( Detroit: we're so bad, even our mayor is a criminal)
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To: absolootezer0
That's not FMJ - that's a hollow point.

FMJ's are illegal for hunting - they're military rounds (the Geneva Convention and the state game laws have quite different ideas about what is proper).

59 posted on 11/24/2008 12:40:14 PM PST by AnAmericanMother (Ministrix of ye Chasse (TTGC Ladies' Auxiliary - recess appointment))
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To: AnAmericanMother

oh, FMJ. sorry. hornady has a couple from 300-500 gr.

not that it really matters, its all speculation. but, look hard enough, ou can find just about any kind of bullet you want :)


60 posted on 11/24/2008 12:53:06 PM PST by absolootezer0 ( Detroit: we're so bad, even our mayor is a criminal)
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