my ammo order was delivered yesterday, so I'm off to my favorite indoor range to sample some of the .357 magnum hollow points.
I load up my model 28-2 and fire away. The muzzle flash from that S&W .357 magnum was spectacular!!

I put the model 28-2 aside and was getting my S&W .38 special revolvers out for some exercise when…………..
WAMMO!!! I get hit in the face with someone's ricochet shot. Caught me on the right cheek and upper lip.
it sure gets your attention, heart racing and your senses up!! Not much pain, but a fair amount of blood.

range session was cut short, but I did live to fight another day.

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There's nowt so queer as folk

Bummer, bummer, bummer!!!!

I am so glad that it wasn't in your eye. No damage to your teeth?

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Luke 22:36

thats one thing i never liked about an indoor range... the end wall is to keep them in...

Damn. glad you are alright!

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Still Running Against the Wind

WOW! Glad you're ok. Could have been allot worse. If it starts hurting, remember if you're feeling it....that's a good thing!

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RIP Shipmate

Glad to hear you're ok. I've been shot twice while shooting at indoor ranges once in the throat and once in the knuckles of my off hand. I mostly shoot outdoors now.

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Living a dream - S&WCA #2364

Hope you notified the range. Something may need to be repaired.

Very lucky you didn't catch it in the eye.

I was hit dead center in the chest by a ricochet on an indoor range two years ago. Got a bruise but no blood. Round was a FMJ 9MM from the guy three lanes over. I haven't been back to that range since!

Glad you're OK. That's a little too close for comfort.

If the range says they can't fix it find another place to shoot.

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Dum vivo cano

Nearly same thing happened to me. I got hit in the collar bone and it hurt!

Dang, glad you are alright...

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Jorge

Man that sucks, glad you were able to walk away. You need to have a talk with the range owner.

Interesting...a Nine MM actually hurts! Glad you're OK.

Glad you're okay. It's something that stays on my mind every time I go to the indoor range. All lanes are always full at mine.

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Hold on. SWAT's at my door.

We want pics!!!

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WWSSD?
What would Skeeter do?

I've managed to catch a little shrapnel at a couple of the Steel Challenge events... outdoors.

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A closed mouth gathers no foot

Well, since your OK...
Chicks dig scars!

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Hold my beer and watch this!

Been there, done that. Shooting a .45 and whap! An expended slug smacks me in the face. It seems the angled back plates at the range were a little rough and tended to toss the lead back if hit just so. They replaced a few plates and solved the problem.

Man are you lucky it didn't get an eye. Can't replace one of them.
I really worry about indoor ranges for just that reason.
Glad you are ok.

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James

Used to get pelted in the shins fairly regularly. Got loads of lead chunks from policing my brass. Wife took a .308 bounceback in the shin once hard enough to draw blood.

The range refurbished their backstop and all is well. Haven't even found any chunks on the deck.

The range can fix the problem. If they say they can't they're full of it.

The indoor range/bullseye club I used to belong to was lead bullet only and no Mag rounds regardless of the bullet.

But of course some people just had to shoot jacketed and fmj stuff.
The range was available and still is 24hr/day by key-card access.

The steel backer plates weren't up to it and would dimple from the jacketed/fmj loads. Since that bullseye target always hangs in the exact same spot, those marks are right where everyone else hits too.

I got hit in the right cheek bone just below my glasses & in the forehead right between the eyes. I can remember even seeing the returning 38WC on the first hit, just a blur of course,,but nothing you can do about getting out of the way.

Backer plates since upgraded and now you can shoot anything there.
This was back in the early 80's.

Always wear them glasses..
Glad you're OK

Never been to an indoor range. I had no idea they'd be so dangerous. I suppose they have rules against shooting back.

Put me down as a victim, too.

Hit by someone's ricochet in the upper left lip. Kind of knocked the snot out of me for a bit. Couldn't figure out why my mouth was running blood.

Then I was mad, but nobody to be mad at or shoot.

Bob

Dude, glad to hear you're ok.

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-John

Voytland, glad that no serious damage was done. It's amazing how a ricochet can happen any time. I caught one along the right side of my mouth, and believe me it stung. The worst part was it was a rebound of MY shot. I fired my first round and felt it hit me in a nanosecond, or it seemed like it. No blood loss but it sure did leave a mark.

Always a good reminder to use proper safety equipment.

Stay well..

I took a .45 roundball to the leg once, lucky there was not enough steam on it that it only gave me a welt. I used to get some shrapnel every year at our qualifications when someone would tank a .45 hardball off the wires hanging that held the target or the steel plates we would use to try out speed shooting "informally". Took some .22 shrapnel to the face once and that did the worst, some blood.

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Vaya con Dios

glad everyone is ok. i`ve had shrapnel to the chest a few times at the 15yd. steel plates, 6" x4". this is using a 22 hollow point. i wondered if it was the hollowpoints? the ball ammo that i have used doesn`t seem to fragment. but heard a few guys get "BIT" using their reloads.

Never happened to me and hope it never does.

Your all right and that is what counts the most.

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Doesn't hasta call me Johnson

Oh, How I'm holding my tongue...

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Memory of Randy Freas-Rimfired

Bummer and glad your OK. Thank God I'm in Alaska and don't have to deal with indoor ranges. Zero out and we still shoot outside.

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Go big or stay home

Glad to hear you're okay! Got hit by one of my own a few years back. Shooting in my back yard at a gravel bank, .44 mag SWC. Hit a rock in the bank, came straight back and caught me in the throat. Drew blood and bruised, but nothing serious.

Glad you are ok!

At one OUTDOOR bowling pin match years ago I got the distinction of shooting myself with a bullet my own .45ACP revolver . . . and shooting TWO OTHER PEOPLE with other bullets from the same load of six rounds during the match! HOW???? Well . . .

The first to be hit, and it took him to his knees, was the R.O. of the match (this happens when a guy gets hit in that "certain spot" below the belt)!

Of course, I was focused on the front sight in the rear blade as the barrel fell upon the next pin at the same moment the double action pull was ready to launch that next bullet!

I was hit 3-4 rounds later in the gun, and thus immediately realized what was happening. It stung, but like the other guy, the bullets had no oomph. I'd hit the pin squarely in the center of the sweet spot and thus they came STRAIGHT BACK.

WHY DID THE BULLETS BOUNCE OFF THE PINS INSTEAD OF GOING IN?

Well . . . that particular club had a simple "knock the pin over" run, rather than requiring that the pin be driven fully off the table . . . and I'd gone REAL LIGHT on the powder on the 200gn lead semi-wadcutters I'd loaded to get a competitive edge.

I'll never make THAT error again!!!

After the match I learned the concession stand operator over 100 yards away had walked outside and he got hit with a 200gn LSWC bullet too.

Bottom line, everywhere and always . . . ALWAYS WEAR EYE PROTECTION, for bullets can do strange things sometimes!!!

Very good advice. Larry

Glad your Ok my friend. Coulda been a lot worse.
This is the reason i "Will Not" visit any indoor ranges.
I shoot my guns exclusively at my buddies 110 acre
farm. He also has a nice big pole barn we can shoot
out of if there is rain or other inclimate weather.
Too many idiots out there with firearms. And i'll not
be standing beside any of them while doing something
that i enjoy. I know some folks don't have the same
availability to a farm/ranch to do your shooting at, but
i believe if i had to go to an indoor range to shoot which
for me is a way to relax and relieve stress,
i would give it up altogether.

Chuck

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They hold no Quarter

I got hit in the legs 4 times by the guy next to me. He was shooting 9 MM in a 40 Cal pistol. it did chamber and it did go down range, and bounced back. He had both guns and ammo laying in front of him, I think they were XD's. They left marks. I left; I like to pick the fools I shoot with.

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Carpriver.

It happened fairly often back in my IPSC days, when shooting steel targets. And that was at an outside range. Usually it was a piece of the bullet, not the whole thing, but I've seen full sized slugs, especially jacketed ones. Use of lead was encouraged for that reason.

Most indoor ranges I go to now won't allow you to use lead bullets, and they check to make sure you're not.

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John 3:16 .

I have been hit int he chest by both BB guns as a kid and .22 twice from ricochets at gun ranges that I was not shooting.

It seems like I get pinged in the shins every time I got to the indoor range for qualification, it stings a little but no blood has ever been drawn.

Two other events stand out in memory. The first was shooting in an open-top bowling pin range, with the afternoon sun shining in. My son and I were shooting pins, I finished first and turned to watch him shoot. He drilled a pin with his fifth shot, and as it spun I saw a gold streak headed right for my chin. I had just enough time to jerk sideways, the plated .38 bullet thudded into my shoulder and fell to the floor, after leaving a smudge on my t-shirt. I picked it up, and as my son looked over at me, I yelled "Hey you little snot, you shot me!"

He looked confused as I tossed it to him, caught it, then started juggling it, the slug was still pretty hot. We laugh about it now, he tells me what a mean and abusive dad I am, then I remind him that I may be a jerk, but at least I never shot either of MY parents. I still have the bullet.

The other one was outdoors in the boonies, one of those 10-degree days with a howling wind. I was testing some 41 Magnum loads out of a 657 three-inch, and blasted at a downed tree. I don't know what I hit, but a piece of bullet jacket came back and hit me in the cheek. As cold as my face was, I barely felt it, and paid it no mind.

A few minutes later a security guard from the adjoining property drove by to see what was going on. I didn't hear him pull up behind me, but as I turned to reload I saw his truck, and hollered a greeting. He turned white as a sheet when he saw me, and came barreling out of the truck to where I was. What I didn't know was that the ricochet had hit a blood vessel, and I was bleeding like a stuck hog. Worse, the blood had dripped off my jaw and pooled on my white coat, and it looked like I had a gaping chest wound right over my heart. I finally got him to slow down and explain what he was babbling about, and looked down at my coat. As he watched, I peeled the frozen fist-sized blob of blood off the coat like a decal, as his eyes bugged out. Once he realized I was okay we went over to his truck and I looked in his side mirror, and found a hunk of bullet jacket sticking out of my face. I popped it out, and the bleeding started all over again. It didn't even leave a scar, but it scared the bejeebus out of that guard!

Very scary!!

I got caught in the knee by a 22 ricochet. I only knew it was 22 because it was stuck in my pant leg. I can't imagine one in the face. I would definitely complain to the range.

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NRA Certified Instructor

Many years ago I was shooting on an indoor range in Brunswick Hills, Ohio when I felt a sting, then a burning sensation in the back of my shooting hand. I looked at my hand and there was a big chunk of bullet jacket sticking out of the back of my hand. It wasn't in that deep, but it was literally sticking out of my hand. The backstop wasn't being properly maintained and was starting to produce ricochets.

We don't have those kinds of issues at the North Olmsted Sportsman's Association range because we have a captive rubber backstop system.

Did you 911 ? A lawdog from La. would be best.

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HIS Trains 'a LEAVIN