The whirring noise you hear IS the bullet tumbling, so yes they will tumble. It does not mean they have to tumble.

quote:

Originally posted by Moorepower:
The whirring noise you hear IS the bullet tumbling, so yes they will tumble. It does not mean they have to tumble.

It means bullets flying out there unpredictably!

Stop it, Dumbass!

Many years ago when in upper grade school, jr high, they showed one of those educational travel type films in geography. In it was a short section showing a rifle match somewhere in Germany, where they had to skip the bullets off the surface of a small lake and then hit the target.

story in reader digest yrs ago, a guy killed several miles offshore in a boat, traced to 3006 skipping for 2 miles or so just rite angle.
i was shooting a 6.5 carcano out of the boat, they alwas keyholed, so in 2 or 300 yds they circled around to rite 90 degrees skipping about 10 - 15 times before they run out of steam.
now shooting a full auto mac 10. 45 on water is a real kik

bullets can bounce or skip off about anything but maybe snow . ive been hit by stuff coming back on indoor and outdoor ranges with good backstops,a guy was hit in the mellon at knocked on his ass rite off the bench once

shooting over water is far safer for the shooter than at any range, bullets always go away from you.the only thing they wont skip off of is probably snow . ive been hit by return pieces on indoor and outdoor ranges, on the best outdoor range ive been on a guy was hit in the head an knocked on his ass, right off shootin bench.
the national guard was putting on a firepower demo at the muskeg range at ketchikan yrs ago, some 50 gal drums and just stumps logs ect downrange , the 50cal tracers were going strait up and appeared to be arcing back over the hiway
i was walkin a road around a cove when some jackass started shooting in water in my direction from about half mile away . bullets came whizzing close overhead.he was on the beach shooting a pistol at something close and we were several hunderd feet above the water on a road where we could see him.
doesnt matter what a bullet hits it can ricochet

quote:

Originally posted by DaMan:

quote:

Originally posted by Moorepower:
The whirring noise you hear IS the bullet tumbling, so yes they will tumble. It does not mean they have to tumble.

It means bullets flying out there unpredictably!

Stop it, Dumbass!

Woeman,
Skipping bullets off of water is pretty harmless if you own the property and all the land around it.

quote:

Originally posted by JohnHunt:
I was just reading a story on the local news about a camper shooting into a lake and the bullets allegedly skipping off the water and on across the lake.

Besides "common knowledge" has anyone actually tested whether bullets do ricochet off water and at what angles?

just curious.

John

Sheriff locally arrested a couple shooters for skipping bullets off the surface of the lake. Fundamental rule in shooting is to know where the bullet is headed. That's not possible if the bullet is ricocheting off the water. And in most places it's unlawful.

Growing up, our family farm was just shy of 250 acres with a 33 acre lake on it surrounded by huge hardwoods. We had an old cabin down there that was built in the early 60's so that folks could purchase shares or leases on a yearly basis to fish. We often stayed in that old shack on weekends and had a ball shooting at various target set out on the lake. In the evenings it would get mirror still and many times we shot .22's out across betting on who could get the most skips. What was really cool was shooting a load of buck shot with a improved cylinder choke on it and watch how many would skip out across there. Even if anything made it to the other bank, or further, we were miles form the nearest anything, and there was plenty of woods to soak up anything that made it off the water.

quote:

Originally posted by Rooster Coleburn:


Sheriff locally arrested a couple shooters for skipping bullets off the surface of the lake. Fundamental rule in shooting is to know where the bullet is headed. That's not possible if the bullet is ricocheting off the water. And in most places it's unlawful.

On public land yes. Not on private property were the discharge of a firearm meets all other applicable laws. You could get in trouble if you were too close to a public road, in the boundaries of a municipality or otherwise endangering the nearby public. Point being, there are plenty of circumstances where you shouldn't but sometimes you can, legally and safely.

Only time I can recall a bullet skipping on water was a subsonic 44 Magnum 240 gr XTP that had already done a complete pass-through on the ribcage of a feral goat , and then went splash , splash , splash , splash out in the water of the lake that the said billy goat was standing beside.

Intrigueing scenario.

One of the most awesome 'bullet' skipping I've ever watched was the 105MM Sabots used for practice,
out of the M60 tank, with a tracer in it. This was in the 80's, at Hunter Liget in California.
The round would go out straight and flat, go through the
target tank, hit the hillside, skip up in the air, and go for miles...
Just incredible at twilight.

IIRC, the rounds weighed 30 pounds, at 3000 ft per sec. Tank weighed 55 tons.
Recoil was stout:
Recoil Energy of 8,647 foot pounds, and Recoil Velocity of 2 fps.

Seems like the tank DID move that 2 feet...

Muzzle blast and flash was equally incredible...

Seems to me that most of you who shoot bullets into the water surface need your brain examined. Where is the safety factor that most of you profess. Gone, most need a MRI to discover that your brain is non existant. What about the safety factor of hurting others? You dumb bas---ds. I sure as hell don't want to hunt with these mental retards.

Not a good idea.

quote:

Originally posted by ztreh:
Seems to me that most of you who shoot bullets into the water surface need your brain examined. Where is the safety factor that most of you profess. Gone, most need a MRI to discover that your brain is non existant. What about the safety factor of hurting others? You dumb bas---ds. I sure as hell don't want to hunt with these mental retards.

Skipping bullets off the surface of water into a target was at one time a common event during Schutzenfests in Germany (and probably, Austria and Switzerland).

(and with remarkable accuracy , I might add)

Skipping bullets and particularly, buckshot off streets and decks (and around bulkheads in corridors)were once (and may yet be) commonly taught tactics in military, naval and police venues.

(as I recall it was called Skip-Fire Training)


Skipping cannon-fire from the water to the hull or mast of an opposing ship was a common tactic during sail powered conflicts.

Skipping dam-busting bombs of the water (by historical accounts) had its origin from the history and use of Naval cannon skip-fire.



Situation and location, two criteria that must always be considered----

Pretty dumb b-------s ,

I think not,

and yes Virginia, my MRI Brain images (with and without contrast) are quite normal.

there have been some recent videos of bullets bouncing off of ice (frozen lake maybe) and instead of going off into the distance, sometimes they end up very close by spinning like a top!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1btKoF_HZk
I can't say this is a very safe thing to do... but multiple people have uploaded videos of it being done

Somone mentioned bullets on snow. We didn't skip them but if we went on the frozen lake and got down nice and low then shot through the snowdrifts with our trusty 22's ....we could walk along the path and track where teh bullets went until we found them. I seem to remember they only went about 100 yards or less before we found them.

for what it's worth!

The chef

I was in the Navy back in the 80's and the guns it was most noticable with was the browning .50 cal and the M-60 machine gun. Both these guns fire full auto with tracers so it was easy to watch the tracers suddenly fly skyward. As far as the angle of the richochet, if the water was perfectly flat and you fired down at a 10 degree angle it would bounce back up at nearly a 10 degree angle. It's not a perfectly flat ocean and depending on exactly where in a wave or swell the bullet it hits determines the exact angle so it's really a fairly random thing which becomes more predicable as the seas calm.

My family had a cottage when I was young, situated on a narrow section of lake with a sheer rock face across from us, distance perhaps 125 yards. We shot our .22's regularly at targets on the face, and our rules called for skipping our bullets off the water...no direct shooting. We absolutely LIVED for those rare, dead-calm days when the water was like glass, because accuracy was greatly enhanced and the skipping was very consistent. The target was a painted circle about 12 inches across, and on a good day it was quite possible to hit it with great regularity. You aimed at the reflection, and once you had the hold calculated you would be connecting. When the water surface was not calm, accuracy became impossible, and hits could be seen on the rock face many feet from the target with only a mild ripple on the water.

Please, no Safety-Nazi recriminations here...we were careful with guns and we were kids and that's that. I'm just responding to the original post.

John

quote:

Originally posted by jwm:Please, no Safety-Nazi recriminations here...we were careful with guns and we were kids and that's that. I'm just responding to the original post.

John

John, that's odd because it just so happens that my friend was hit by a "skipped bullet" in Ontario!

No arrest made!

Ya know, I'm stuck at home with a couple of broken bones, nothing to do but surf the net...and I STILL won't bother with this.

John

Hey, Einstein! I can give you details if you doubt my story!

You know .....they might have been yankee vacationers on the lake....but they were certainly DUMBASSES!

Contact me! I'll give youd details!

quote:

Originally posted by DaMan:
I can give you details....

Yes please.