Shooting into the dirt + in the woods

Coinneas

Coinneas

Member
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Location
Trudeaupia
I'm not new to shooting itself, but still pretty new to shooting on crown land with my own rifle, and I have two n00b questions.

1. I've been out a few times, and both times I shot from a somewhat elevated position towards targets lower down, with the earth as my 'backstop'. The most recent time I noticed long furrows in the ground behind the targets, where my bullets had travelled. I'm wondering if this is 'kosher', or if it indicates that my angle isn't steep enough. I'm afraid of ricochets, basically. Ideally I'd like to find a steep berm, but in the heavily wooded area (Parry Sound), a berm with an open space in front of it is like finding a unicorn.

2. How far away from trees should my line of fire be? I remember being told at some point in my PAL course that tree trunks are a ricochet hazard. Maybe this is a dumb question, but the military never considered this an issue (or at least, never told me anything of the sort), and had us firing notional rounds into thick forest all the time.
 
Last edited:
Its good practice to have your backstop as the side of a hill, berm or bank of earth. That way the bullets will pass through your target and then immediately hit the earth and stop. They have no other place to go. Even if you miss the target completely your rounds should hit the bank behind the targets. Gravel pits work great as well.
A bit more elevation of your shooting location wouldn't hurt if you can manage it. The steeper angle into the ground will help.
Tough to find a good spot as you say but you certainly don't want your shots to have any chance of traveling very far. Better safe than sorry.
 
Last edited:
From what I imagine when you explain it… Unless those bullets are finding flat rocks to glance off of, I wouldn’t be overly worried about the bullets travelling too far. If you can be sure of your target and beyond, and check into your ballistics calculator to find what to expect for drop…. Double check a let em fly. If you are worried about it, maybe take a roll of Saran Wrap with you to the shooting spot. Make a wall of wrap in your immediate bullet path. It will help to be verify what angle the bullet is flying off.
 
Gravel pit or a quarry are good spots to go, or into a steep forward slope. But firing into trees gives me bad scoobies. If the bullets are digging furrows then that's just a pit stop to where they're actually going.

I don't know the area you're talking about, but it might be best to find a safer spot to shoot, especially if that area is also used by dirt bikers or hikers. Call me paranoid, but where I grew up we had a dude on a dirt bike take a round, luckily it was a .22.

Also, the Military probably wasn't to worried about firing into trees because they're generally trying to hit people in them. And as far as 'notional' rounds go, the safety template is easy because there isn't one.
 
The seran wrap is a good idea. I have used large pieces of cardboard to understand richochet dynamics. A ricochet loses most of it's energy and isn't going more than a few hundred meters in any case. I witnessed a 5.56 ricochet off asphalt hit a man just beside the shin (soft tissue only). The round penetrated half the length of the bullet. Distance from shooter to inadvertent backstop was about 50m. The bullet pancaked and looked like a bullet crushed flat in a press. Obviously caliber, ricochet surface, and distance all play into considerations. But this is a good baseline to understand how the physics of these interactions occur.
 
Since the bullets are traving along the ground behund your target , you could place large
logs across their path. Even 2-3 logs every 2 feet would be better. On a Section 29 ( CFO Approved)
range these logs are called ,,,, "Ground Baffles" & used just for this purpose.
 
Gravel pit or a quarry are good spots to go
Click to expand...
If there was a gravel pit on non-leased crown land anywhere near me, I'd be there already. I wish.

Anyway, I found another spot that looks like it has great changes in elevation, so hopefully there will be a better hill to shoot into. Still heavily forested though.
 
Coinneas said:
If there was a gravel pit on non-leased crown land anywhere near me, I'd be there already. I wish.

Anyway, I found another spot that looks like it has great changes in elevation, so hopefully there will be a better hill to shoot into. Still heavily forested though.
Click to expand...

As long as you aren't shooting into a forested hillside, it will be fine. My bigger concern with trees or tall brush on a backstop is the potential for a person or animal to be there unseen.
 
If by ricochet you mean change it's direction a bit, yes, that can happen. I've had 22's come back off a wood backstop with hundreds of previous rounds in it, but never a centre fire. I suppose under similar circumstances it could happen, or if the wood was some foreign super hard species.

I'd be more concerned with what might be downrange beyond the trees, or rocks.
 
John Y Cannuck said:
If by ricochet you mean change it's direction a bit, yes, that can happen. I've had 22's come back off a wood backstop with hundreds of previous rounds in it, but never a centre fire. I suppose under similar circumstances it could happen, or if the wood was some foreign super hard species.

I'd be more concerned with what might be downrange beyond the trees, or rocks.
Click to expand...

Interesting. Very insightful information for a new firearms owner to know also.

Also, John Y Cannuck your profile picture is epic!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom