How to stop ricochets?

[dukewellington]

What is the safest thing to fire a into when doing target practice? I sometimes hear the odd ricochet.

Cheers,

Duke

 

[bingo1952]

A berm/surface as close to perpendicular to your line of fire as possible.

 

[Bryanbrown]

I found this approach interesting
http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=4146.0


Bryan K. Brown www.gunsmithy.com www.jaegerkorps.org
[email protected]
[email protected]

Alle künst ist umsunst wenn ein Engle auf dem Zundlocke brünst.

 

[paulvallandigham]

The best backstop material is dirt free of rocks. My club sets up a series of bangplate targets along a U-shaped ravine around our camping area. The shooters stand above, or level with the metal targets, which are placed so that the side of the ravine provides a tall backstop, and because the ravine is fairly narrow, both sides of the ravine prevent any ricochettes from leaving the ravine. Shot are taken either at a downward angle, or at level. NEVER shoot upward, unless there is a huge hill behind the target to stop misses.

We also mount the plates so that they tip forward, towards the shooter about 15-20 degrees, suspending the plates from about 1/5 below the top edge. This allows the full weight of the target to act as a stop if a shot goes high and hits above the pivot point, so that the balls still go down into the ground in front of the plate.

A controlled ricochette can be the best way to deal with ALL ricochettes. They do happen, even in the best of circumstance.

 

[ResearchPress]

Where are you shooting now? Are you not shooting on an approved rifle range in the UK?

David

 

[dukewellington]

I'm shooting at a range.

 

[tg]

A bullet trap into soft dirt or sand with the lid at an angle and fairly high.Kind of like a lean to with the target inside.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Tack your target to a stump. ;-)

 

[J.D.]

Someone on another forum made a plywood box about 16" square and 2' long, filled with rubber playground mulch. He says it will stop RB, conicals, and pistol bullets after penetrating roughly 12-16 inches of the rubber mulch. The plus side is, he can reclaim about 90% of his lead.

The box is mounted on a coupla bicycle wheels so's he can move it about.

The only downside is that ya gotta hit the box to prevent ricochets. :blah: :haha:

 

[Poor Private]

I have been seriously thinking about buying 9 of those plastic drums with lids. filling them with dirt and laying them on thier sides with the front pointing toward the shooter, and holding up the sides with steel fence posts. That way I can dump them out whenever and recover lead from them.

 

[shmrck1]

Duke
Mother Earth dirt in my part of the world works
great. Cheap also unless you have to truck it in.
snake-eyes:hmm:

 

[musketman]

Duke
Mother Earth dirt in my part of the world works
great. Cheap also unless you have to truck it in.
snake-eyes:hmm:

Snake-eyes, it will not be cheap at all to truck in dirt from Reynoldsburg, Ohio to the United Kingdom, for one thing there is no road. It would be easier and cheaper for Duke to use English soil for his backstop. :grin:
(just having some fun John)

Bales of wet newspaper works good too. :thumbsup:

 

[F.G. Ford]

The very best back stop, and inexpensive as well, are the use of old tires (tyres) filled with sand.
They last forever, easy to obtain.
As to the use of center fire rifles, the tires peel the jacket right off.
It is very easy to sift through the inside of the tires to recover the spent projectiles.
Round balls and lead bullets are no match for these sand filled tires as well.
You can even put rocks in the lower tires, and put sand in the upper tires.
I hope this helps.
Old Ford

 

[J.D.]

Another good option is the large round bales of hay. They will stop about anything, short of high powered FMJ.

 

[kragluver]

At our range (Parker County, TX), the biggest problem we have is people shootin such that their rounds impact the flat hardpan well in front of the berm. Sometimes ricochets clear the rear or side berms. I've noticed this is primarily a problem with FMJ bullets. I suspect lead balls wouldn't travel too far.

We have signs up all over the place and are constantly reminding folks to make sure their rounds impact the berm.