I always see people shooting horizontally to water, as a “backstop”, or bullet trap. You see it in a lot of 3rd world countries with videos online, as well as a lot of back country shooting videos.
My questions are:
Are the bullets really trapped/stopped in the water? Or are they hydroplaning off the surface and going God knows where? If they are trapped in the water, is there a potential for lead contamination in the short term, or would this only be a long term concern with high volume?
When you say “horizontally” do you have a particular angle?
I’ve shot at water and have seen richochets off into the backstop behind it. That there was a second backstop was the only reason I would do it.
In terms of lead contamination, the potential would depend on the velocity of the bullet.
The higher velocity will cause fragmentation in water which will increase that potential. Lower velocity projectiles FMJ projectiles should remain mostly intact.
Essentially anything where you are at or close to the level of the water. Not downward as if elevated from a treestand, hill, etc.
When I was shooting I was probably at no more than a 20 degree downward angle into the water and there was still pretty noticeable ricochet.
Shoot at a water bottle, shit comes back at you :sarcastic:
In my experience the chance of ricochet depends alot on the speed of the bullet/bullet construction.
Growing up we used to do alot of .22 lr shooting off of bridges around home. .22 lr is very bad about “skipping” on water. Unless you were on a pretty steep angle you would often see a skip. My brother and I used to compete to see how many we could skip into the rail embankment across the swamp.:eek:
I currently have a large pond (about 3 acres) behind the house and have been at war with muskrats all year (I am up to 9:dirol:)and I have been using a mixture of .22 mag 40gr HP and .223 50gr hp and I have not had a ricochet firing at between 15 and 30 degrees downward angle depending on the range to the target. (Between 75 and 150 yards)
I just got the Art of the Tactical Shotgun and I remembered your post. I thought for a second that you were commenting about them.
I honestly haven’t seen anything from that vid except the trailer and the outtakes. I can assure you that they weren’t even in my mind when I posted this, and do not recall them shooting at, or near water.
Even if they did, I would presume there was most likely an adequate backstop behind the water source knowing how thorough Chris and Travis are at shooting.
ETA: See it now…they most likely had a backstop beyond the tree line after the pond. I’m more talking about people shooting DIRECTLY in to water, on purpose.
I was always raised with this being a no-no based off of one of my father’s group (could have been him) having a ricochet with a large caliber. Never really thought to test it, just figured it seemed logical considering that you can skip rocks across water ext.
There is a small pond behind the targets. Gives a nice way to see patterns. Use birdshot at the right angle and you’ve made a couple of hundred square feet an uncomfortable place to be. Might be hard to find a range in Louisiana that doens’t have some water on it.
Yes,
imo,
I have deployed on a D0D Maritime contract and bullet hydroplanning/skipping are definite concerns and problems regarding collaterial damage etc.
imo, lead contamination from bullets in the ocean is an extremely low level concerns comapratively speaking to Oil Spills, CONTRAILS, illegal Toxic dumping, testing et alia etc.
Agreed there! But I think maybe Shivan was thinking more along the lines of if someone has a personal pond on their property or something. I still think that even with a small pond that the environmental impact would be nominal.
I do think though that over time dumping loads and loads of lead shot into the same pond that you, your father, and his father have been duck hunting on for three generations probably does increase the lead contamination in a single water source.
During an interview, a News Anchorwoman asked each of three brothers if they wore Jockeys or Boxers and why.
Brother #1: Jockeys. They maintain “control”.
Brother #2: Boxers. They are not as restrictive.
Brother #3: Depends… <uncomfortable pause>… No. I mean it depends on the weather. Jockeys when its cold and Boxers when it’s hot!! :sarcastic:
It depends on the type of bullet, it’s velocity, the angle in which it strikes the water surface, and how even the water surface is.
It’s not too far removed from skipping rocks on water. Sometimes the rocks skip. Sometimes it sinks.
I can tell you from extensive personal experience that anything fired at less than a 45 degree angle downward is likely to ricochet off the water and continue on.
As for lead poisoning, lead is generally not water soluble, but can be under certain conditions, e.g. high acidity. If it was a smaller water body such as a pond I’d lean against not doing it. Who knows who might fish out of it or what hunted/eaten animals are using it. I also would not like to see a pregnant woman around it, I don’t know how to simply, cheaply, quickly quantify it’s levels so it’d be easier to play it safe and avoid it. I’m not a tree hugger but lead is nasty shit and isn’t something you just piss out a day or week later. I wouldn’t worry about the individual that owns a pond and plunks a round at a frog or fish or something here and there but I wouldn’t use one associated or used around a range in any way.