Ricochets off people

[Ron3]

We know this happens, seemingly more with pistol bullets, and Jim Cirillo wrote about it.

The theory is the slower, fatter, and rounder the bullet the more likely it is to ricochet off the clothing or bone/skull of a bad guy. With years of jhp's smacking people has this theory been upheld? Or has empirical data proven not shown a correlation?

I found one study that showed no difference. But the bullets were fmj vs sjhp and the lead front of the sjhp simply caved in upon striking the hard barrier used in the test and became rounded during the strike.

I'm especially talking about smaller, slower bullets like .380, .38 special from snubs, .32 and .25. Are the jhp's/sjhp/Lhp's in these calibers really less likely to bounce off bone or is it still just a theory?

[Ready.Fire.Aim]

FWIW, I saw a .25 auto bounce off a butcher hog's skull, years ago. Guy was shooting at close range at an angle.

[SeriousStudent]

Treated a bartender that had been shot at a distance of about 2 feet right at the center of his forehead. Round was a .32 FMJ, and scooted around the side of his noggin.

We see the guy laying on the floor in a large-ish pool of his own blood, and motionless. I see the entrance wound on his forehead, and decided to check out the other victim, standing with a decent bleeder.

I get my partner started on him, then go check on the bartender again. Just touched him to check for pulse when he sits bolt upright and yells "MF'er shot me!"

We transport, and I heard Radiology confirmed that the round never penetrated his Cro-Magnon skull. Mongo waddles out of the hospital the same day with a couple of stitches and a hell of a story.

[diving dave]

Responded to a shots fired call, and upon arrival find a small pool of blood and 2 380 casings...Start following the blood trail and find some teeth...
Aways down the sidewalk we find our victim, sitting on a bus bench, spitting blood and cursing like a drunk sailor. Some gangster shot him in the mouth, blew out his front teeth and the bullet lodged in the back of his throat....

[artoter]

Responded to a shots fired call, and upon arrival find a small pool of blood and 2 380 casings...Start following the blood trail and find some teeth...
Aways down the sidewalk we find our victim, sitting on a bus bench, spitting blood and cursing like a drunk sailor. Some gangster shot him in the mouth, blew out his front teeth and the bullet lodged in the back of his throat....

Damn. Bullet in the back of his throat? Damn.

[Randall]

Treated a bartender that had been shot at a distance of about 2 feet right at the center of his forehead. Round was a .32 FMJ, and scooted around the side of his noggin.
Mongo waddles out of the hospital the same day with a couple of stitches and a hell of a story.

Some gangster shot him in the mouth, blew out his front teeth and the bullet lodged in the back of his throat....

Fore both of these my immediate thought was "Baaaaaad Day..." then corrected myself to "GOOD Day!" after thinking about it a little more. Being alive after those two scenarios... Sheesh. Lucky lucky

[C-grunt]

Ive seen it happen with small calibers like .22 and big calibers like 45 ACP. With FMJ and HP alike. I think its a mix of angle and luck that produces a ricochet instead of entry into the skull.

Had a drug deal trnn gunfight inside of a car one night. After the first volley of shots both driver and passenger get out. Passenger took a 45 ACP Golden Saber to the strong arm elbow and dropped his gun. Outside the car the driver continues shooting at him over the car. The passenger is in a crouched position shuffling back and forth trying to dodge the bullets. Passenger takes one right in the forehead, just right of center and just below the hairline. Round hit the skull ricochets downward and exits his right cheek, re-enters just behind his right collar bone, penetrates the top of the right lung, exits the lung about half way down, hits a rib, deflects towards the left side of his body, clips the liver and ends up in his spleen. Dude lived.

Had a dude one night get shot in the face at bad breath range with a small caliber handgun, probably a .22 or .25. Square dead center between the eyes. Bullet deflects and travels behind the left eye and exits his left ear, then cuts a perfect groove out of the top of his shoulder.

[fedupflyer]

I get my partner started on him, then go check on the bartender again. Just touched him to check for pulse when he sits bolt upright and yells "MF'er shot me!"

How much did that surprise you?! on a scale of 1-10.

[SeriousStudent]

How much did that surprise you?! on a scale of 1-10.

That the dude snapped upright like something out of a budget horror flick? Surprise factor 8.5, I was pretty sure he was DRT.

That he yelled "MF'er shot me"? About 0.7 on the surprise scale. I lost count of how many times I heard that.

[Kain]

I've had bird shot bounce off of my ass. Some still penetrated, but a lot bounced from the blast of about 20 yards or so. Does that count?

I think, generally, it is going to have to do with angle, power of the round, angle, luck, and whether God decides if it is there, or your time. On another note, a friend of mine was told that he wasn't allowed to shoot his Barret on a rifle range down in GA a number of years back, because the range officers were afraid he could skip shot the rounds to a highway that was off in the distance. Never been to the range myself, but found it amusing, my friend didn't, but, I did.

Moral of the story, bullets do strange things somethings.