1911 Ejection: issue or freak accident?

Had to be a richochet. I got hit square in the neck with a 230gr lead bullet at a range in the USA (Florida, near Orlando) and let me tell you, it knocked me on my arse. Left a BIG bruise/welt, broke the skin, and made me look like a little sissy. I was shooting a Tommy-gun at the time also, so I thought the gun malfunctioned, and maybe something flew off the gun and nailed me......................nope, my brother in law found the big ol' lump of lead in my shirt collar. Mangled and unrecognizable. I was lucky.
This range had big "I-beam" baffles off the ceiling, and guess what, once that tommy-gun started to uncontrollably "rise up" after about the 5th or 6th round, I shot the baffle and inadvertantly myself. Sucks to be me.
 
My 5 year old Norinco government model did the same thing. It was the double stack mag, every 30 to 50 rounds, the last one would come straight back, casing hit me either in the eyebrow or to the right of my lip, hurt like hell, and couldnt predict when it would happen. That particular casing would also have the mouth folded in on both sides. Interweb said it sounded like the extractor was clocking, can't see how, its quite tight in there. Never did figure it out and sold it last summer. Didnt matter if i used reloads or factory ammo. Only ever did it on the last round tho, and you could shoot 3 or 4 mags before it would happen, sometimes on the first mag. Got bad enough i started counting every shot, then almost wince when ripping the last round. Me thinks it was a mag issue, happened with both mags at different times.
 
Well good to know there are other possibilities than there is something wrong with my gun. Most seem to agree with that it's probably a ricochet from a bullet or fragments of a bullet.

Either way I think I'll do a full inspection anyways call it maintenance and feel less worried the next time I take it to the range.

Thanks for the input.
 
I have to agree it's a ricochet. I had the same thing happen at an outdoor range when shooting .45 acp hardball at bowling pins with a 1911

a bullet came back and hit me in the face and caused a big bruise and broken skin. it was like having a rock thrown at my face. luckily it missed my left eye by an inch. I didn't want to play after that. lol

I actually saw the bullet coming back at me too but it was so fast I didn't have time to react

I've had brass come back and hit me in the face and it's not even close to being hit with a ricochet, being hit with brass is just a nuisance. being hit with a ricochet is dangerous
 
Now that I know it's target sports, it was absolutely a ricochet. I've been hit numerous times, some that I could feel hit me through my shoe. Another time I did some rapid fire and a bullet came back (45 cal) and when I picked it up it was hot because by bullet deformed it.
 
Spawn's comment suggests that their backstop is deficient. At CRPC the only problem we have had is with the steel cored tokarev ammo, that stuff bounces around crazily. We ruled it off the line after finding a number of cores behind the firing line.
 
Waynetheman said:
As others have said. Ricochet. Especially when you consider the mass and speed involved.

An example. Can we all agree that .223/556 ejects harder and faster than a 45 ever could?(this is just an assumption on my part, since rifles use gas ports and pistols are blowback)
9kTluTI.gif

Again unless your dad was made of jello.
Click to expand...

He looks so ridiculously unenthused.
 
If you ever get the opportunity to go downrange and look at a steel backstop it'll make you shake your head at the condition. You'll see lots of little divots and craters. Especially along any edges of the "venetian blind" style stops that angle out and direct the bullet spray down into a sand or shredded rubber bullet trap.

Any one of the serious "moon craters" can be the source of a U-turn style ricochet. Hell, if there were other shooters on the line the bullet shard that hit your dad may not have been his own either. It's simply and sadly the nature of the beast that once the backstop has been damaged in that manner that there is a risk of a U-turn style of action if the crater is hit along the edge of the lip at some point.
 
BCRider said:
If you ever get the opportunity to go downrange and look at a steel backstop it'll make you shake your head at the condition. You'll see lots of little divots and craters. Especially along any edges of the "venetian blind" style stops that angle out and direct the bullet spray down into a sand or shredded rubber bullet trap.

Any one of the serious "moon craters" can be the source of a U-turn style ricochet. Hell, if there were other shooters on the line the bullet shard that hit your dad may not have been his own either. It's simply and sadly the nature of the beast that once the backstop has been damaged in that manner that there is a risk of a U-turn style of action if the crater is hit along the edge of the lip at some point.
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Yup, target claims they are going to replace the back stop so it's rated for 308, but they also claim to have state of the art filtration.
 
It's one of the reasons that the state of the art in indoor bullet traps doesn't rely purely on a steel plate - take a look at some of the facilities built by Action Target in the US, they're good for up to 50 BMG - indoors.
 
Waynetheman said:
As others have said. Ricochet. Especially when you consider the mass and speed involved.

An example. Can we all agree that .223/556 ejects harder and faster than a 45 ever could?(this is just an assumption on my part, since rifles use gas ports and pistols are blowback)
9kTluTI.gif
Click to expand...

This GIF is fake. Notice the cases hitting him dead centre in the lips and then falling to the right. No chance in hell that would happen. If a case came flying from the right and hit the guy mid lips it would bounce away to the left.

Having been hit by flying rifle brass I can assure you it is considerably more painful than this GIF suggests.
 
Suputin said:
This GIF is fake. Notice the cases hitting him dead centre in the lips and then falling to the right. No chance in hell that would happen. If a case came flying from the right and hit the guy mid lips it would bounce away to the left.

Having been hit by flying rifle brass I can assure you it is considerably more painful than this GIF suggests.
Click to expand...

http://youtu.be/cNKvlV1oxfw

Fast forward to 6:50, fake or not I can't guarantee but it doesn't look that way to me.

The direction of the bounce looks weird due to the direction we are looking at him. It's still continuing on the path that it should. That's not proof enough to call it fake.
 
There's no way a case will come back with enough force to bruise or cut anything. They can burn when they go down a shirt though. I suspect it did that after hitting something else as opposed to coming straight back. Empties stay hot for a few minutes.
If it was anything but a freak bounce it'd happen regularly.
A bullet with a broken jacket can scratch after flying a fair distance. Got hit with a .45 on my knee and ankle long ago. While standing up and behind the main range at Second Chance. I was roughly 50 feet or more from the tables.
 
milshooter said:
My 5 year old Norinco government model did the same thing. It was the double stack mag, every 30 to 50 rounds, the last one would come straight back, casing hit me either in the eyebrow or to the right of my lip, hurt like hell, and couldn't predict when it would happen. That particular casing would also have the mouth folded in on both sides. Interweb said it sounded like the extractor was clocking, can't see how, its quite tight in there. Never did figure it out and sold it last summer. Didn't matter if i used reloads or factory ammo. Only ever did it on the last round tho, and you could shoot 3 or 4 mags before it would happen, sometimes on the first mag. Got bad enough i started counting every shot, then almost wince when ripping the last round. Me thinks it was a mag issue, happened with both mags at different times.
Click to expand...

You could have tried loading nine live rounds with a SnapCap at the bottom.
 
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