Today was a training day.
At a gun club, built in a rock quarry, I spent the afternoon killing paper targets. I didn’t mind the mud balls blasting back from the berm behind the silhouettes. I didn’t mind the hot brass ejected from the barrel bouncing off my hat, but the sound of ricochets from the next shooting bay to my left caused concern.
As the range instructor dressed the line for our next round of shooting, I saw a knee high barrage of bursting mud to my left, ten feet away.
I raised my hand and stepped back from the line.
I explained my concern to the range instructor.
He replied, “Don’t worry, it’s only empty lead.”
I don't understand what's going on. Are bullets ricocheting off already-shot-bullets buried in the berm? What the hell is "empty lead" supposed to mean?
Whatever is going on, it sounds kinda dangerous....
Posted by: Peter | May 30, 2008 at 10:13 AM
@P,
Yes. The round has hit the target, and the spent lead is flying wildly about after hitting something in the target or backstop causing it to leaping the 10 foot berm separating the two shooting bays from each other.
Posted by: RD | June 02, 2008 at 06:43 PM
There was a time when officers were trained to catch their shell casing after firing their weapon. (This was before semi-automatic handguns.) This practice ended in the 70's after the Newhall Incident in California. Four officers were shot to death by two men. One of the officers was reported to have had spent brass casings in his pockets. The theory being that he had caught the casings as they were ejected as he had in training. The Newhall Incident changed many facets of police training, including felony car stops, moving target practice, scenarios, and general range procedures. Now casings are ignored during training, just as they would be in a real gun fight.
More information: http://www.officer.com/web/online/On-the-Street/April-6--1970/21$36902 or http://www.the-signal.com/news/article/1246/
Posted by: h. | June 02, 2008 at 07:01 PM
@RD
Wow, how completely less-than-ideal! hehe I guess you can count it as an "interesting" range experience when the range shoots back at you. =/
Posted by: Peter | June 02, 2008 at 11:28 PM
@P,
A few years back at a different range, I had "empty lead" hit the hard back stop bounce back and stick in my face and jacket. The one sliver was over an inch long.
Posted by: RD | June 03, 2008 at 02:32 AM