Shooting in gravel pits?

[johnrex62]

Originally Posted by namder1

If someone is shooting in a gravel pit and a round goes over the bank and hits someone??? You gotta be kidding me! Number one if that happens you SHOULD be sued, then have your weapons taken from you forever......
There are soooo many remote pits around and most have really high banks....no excuse....

you would be amazed at what a live bullet can do when it impacts a rock. Even if the rock is embedded in the pit wall, the round can ricochet in very strange directions with significant velocity.

There was an accident a few years back where a round penetrated a heavy backstop and travelled out of a range, finding it's way between two layers of railroad ties. Seemed impossible, but the trajectory of the round proved it's origin.

Never say impossible to a bullet.

[Kracer]

Originally Posted by johnrex62

you would be amazed at what a live bullet can do when it impacts a rock. Even if the rock is embedded in the pit wall, the round can ricochet in very strange directions with significant velocity.

There was an accident a few years back where a round penetrated a heavy backstop and travelled out of a range, finding it's way between two layers of railroad ties. Seemed impossible, but the trajectory of the round proved it's origin.

Never say impossible to a bullet.

Bullet construction can't be ignored.

22 rimfir and shotgun slugs retain their energy and can travel along bone, etc. to unimaginable places.

222 sx not so much

then you leave the gravel pit and tromp thru the woods and shoot without a back stop. Hmmm


sounds like personal responsibilty looms very large in the equation.

[Maineac]

Ask about shooting on someone else's land and if they say no, don't take it personal. I didn't hunt my 50 acres last year (hunted elsewhere), but I don't post it. Those that ask I just say don't shoot anywhere near the house, be sure of your background.

[johnrex62]

Originally Posted by Kracer

Bullet construction can't be ignored.

22 rimfir and shotgun slugs retain their energy and can travel along bone, etc. to unimaginable places.

222 sx not so much

While not ignoring it, bullet construction cannot eliminate all risk even if it can reduce it.

Originally Posted by Kracer

then you leave the gravel pit and tromp thru the woods and shoot without a back stop. Hmmm


sounds like personal responsibilty looms very large in the equation.

Personal responsibility is part of every aspect of your life, not just shooting. I have no idea how tromping through woods or shooting without a backstop enters this conversation. My scenarios were the subject of the thread, gravel pits, and an example of how a bullet left a closed, professionally operated shooting range.

[Tenebrae]

Some good advice in this thread.
A couple questions / points:
1) Is there anything in Maine or the general US against making your own bullets, out of curiosity? I knew a guy in California who paid me by the pound for lead wheel weights I collected from the road while I was walking around / waiting for the bus. He used to melt them down and make his own bullets.
2) I grew up on a 100 acre farm in rural Missouri and used to play in the woods by myself a lot. My folks forbade hunting in our woods for that reason. Even so, we'd sometimes discover unauthorized hunters in our woods when a stray bullet would hit the side of the house or ricochet off the side of our barn. We always counted ourselves very lucky that it was the building that it hit rather than us or the livestock or pets. Please be responsible and consider that, no matter how good a shot you fancy yourself, it's always a very good idea to ask the owner of the property for permission and consider who or what may be nearby when shooting.

-T.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by Tenebrae

Some good advice in this thread.
A couple questions / points:
1) Is there anything in Maine or the general US against making your own bullets, out of curiosity? I knew a guy in California who paid me by the pound for lead wheel weights I collected from the road while I was walking around / waiting for the bus. He used to melt them down and make his own bullets.

Only store-front business in my town is a gunsmith. Folks gather there once/week for free coffee, and to discuss hunting, fishing, trapping.

Re-loading is very popular around here, which may include casting bullets. I used to cast bullets from wheel-weights a lot, a long time ago, but I have not done that for many years now.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Tenebrae asks:
"Some good advice in this thread.
A couple questions / points:
1) Is there anything in Maine or the general US against making your own bullets, out of curiosity? "

None whatsoever. We have been making our own bullets here for 400 years. Millions of people reload their own used cases and get fine accuracy with hand loads. My melting pot is an old steel cap from an oxygen bottle. A Coleman stove is just fine for melting your alloy. How do you know when you have the right temperature? Take a wooden kitchen match and stick it into the molten metal for one second. If it comes out burned dark brown it is too hot. When it is golden brown it is just right.

Talk with somebody who knows. Know what powder you are using. Get a good handloading manual and a good powder measuring scale. Follow the recipe, just like making bread and you'll have the desired result. Every deer I have ever shot was taken with handloaded ammo. Both moose too and uncounted woodchucks at ranges up to 400 yards. Back when we had dairy farms, farmers were very happy to have you hunt woodchucks on their land. A dairy cow with a broken leg is very costly to a farmer.

I remember when farmers could buy cyanide bombs to put down woodchuck holes. That was back when everybody was responsible and had common sense. We bought dynamite for blowing stumps at the same hardware store.