Do .177 Pellets Ricochet Off Metal Targets

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NAProf

NAProf

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Oct 10, 2021
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Lewes, Delaware, United States
I have a backyard range that I use to practice Field Target. I have a bunch of steel targets, some of the resetting kind as well as a couple of knock down/sting reset and a half-dozen spinners on the sides of trees. My next-door neighbors are great and probably the nicest I have ever had. Today Mark came over and told my wife that two or three times he has heard my ricochets hit his window that faces my range. That window is 10 feet higher than my targets and 20 yards away (almost perpendicular to my sightline) from the nearest metal resetting target (which is 35 yards from my shooting point).

My understanding (and experience) is that my 13.4 gr JSB pellets are of such soft lead that they effectively splatter when hitting steel. So I find it to be a near physical impossibility that my ricochets are hitting his house. That being said, I want to keep the great relationship we have with them and want to keep shooting. So I talked to him and told him I would move target s further away from his house and he seemed to be happy with that.

But is it physically possible?

Cheers,
Greg
 
you didn't mention what fps.. although you said jsb 13.4
I shoot mostly crossman premier hollow point 14 grain pellets and some jsb 18 grain round nose. my spinners are homemade and I also shoot 22lr and 38/357 at them..of course they spin with 22&38 but with the pellets they are a little bit too heavy and they just wiggle and you hear the tink.. occasionally I do hear a ricochet but I honestly don't know if I hit the spinner square or maybe I pulled the shot and hit the rod..
I think it mostly depends on what angle it hits and of course the speed..
Mark
 
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I shoot a HW77 at 20 meters. Pretty much all the pellets are within a foot of the target.

Your neighbor may be confusing a bird or large bugs with your pellets.

That said, you could build some target houses. All you need a 55 gallon plastic drum or some big plastic totes from Walmart.

Cut them up so they resemble a theater stage covering all the angles leaving the target. No ricochet is going through one with sufficient energy for damage.
 
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If that window is only 20 yards away from one of your targets and at right angles to your site line, likely some of your pellets are splattering and one of the splat pieces may have just enough energy to tap the window.

Now if the window is behind and beyond one of your targets where a pellet can be deflected by a twisted portion of the neck of a spinner, the pellet may travel 45 or 50° off of your site line and toward the rear behind the target. I have seen this happen with inexpensive Crosman spinner targets that are made from flat steel with a half twist. If your pellet hits the twisted section it will definitely be deflected sideways but it will not turn 90°.

Regards,

Feinwerk
 
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Septicdeath said:
In my experience they usually will splatter or flatten out and drop, but I have had ricochets happen, have even heard them on occasion.
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Same here. I primarily shoot reactive targets. Spinners I've bought but mainly spinners I've made. My son is a welder/ fabricator and he brings me mild steel punch-outs from 1/2" up to 3" in various thicknesses. I shoot at 20 yards to 60 yds. Like @Septicdeath said I have heard ricocheting .177 pellets when I just clip a spinner. I've had a few go up but usually at a horizontal vector from my spinner.
 
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One other thing I forgot to mention.... when I shoot my AR steel spinners that are up close (13-15 yards), I hear lead gently rain down on the barn roof about 1 to 1.5 seconds after impact. It's a big barn with a tall roof steep roof, so hard to tell exactly, but I'd guess the spalling is going 50+ feet up in the air. And that's just with .22 cal CPHP out of a notos - about 18fpe.

I've also witnessed lead misting or vaporizing through the scope, shooting steel, when the sun is shinning just right. Very cool to see.

When shooting heaver, thicker AR steel plates at longer distances, I've noticed that the pellet tends to stick to the metal. The gongs end up looking like they have warts or something lol. The lead is somewhat fused to the steel, so you gotta get out a PB and shoot the steel to shake off the lead.

Here's a good slow mo video of a 45 cal bullet hitting steel and fragmenting.

 
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Thank you everyone for your input. It seems that I can conclude that it is not physically impossible for a ricochet to have hit his house - or at least part of a pellet spinning off from a weird hit on the twisted part of a spinner (or something like that). With that I am having no problem moving my targets further to the left, though I won't have as many trees to hang things on and the Bayberry bushes are too high and thick to put anything on the ground.

I appreciate all the ideas about "target houses" and I will have to see if I can come up with something like that (maybe a "target wall" to shield one side?).

Cheers,
Greg
 
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Even though lead is a “low ricochet” projectile, there are instances where projectiles, even solid lead ones, can ricochet directly back at the shooter. We can call that 180 degrees. So anyone making the argument that it can’t ricochet 90 degrees is mistaken. Especially when shooting dynamic targets. If you’re shooting targets that are 20yds from an occupied structure in any direction then you are shooting very unsafely, IMO.

I would suspect your neighbor is getting some occasional lead splatter thrown at their window, and this is what they are hearing. And if that is the case, you are wrong, you are shooting unsafely, and you are being a terrible neighbor. 20 yds from a window….wow.
 
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NAProf said:
I have a backyard range that I use to practice Field Target. I have a bunch of steel targets, some of the resetting kind as well as a couple of knock down/sting reset and a half-dozen spinners on the sides of trees. My next-door neighbors are great and probably the nicest I have ever had. Today Mark came over and told my wife that two or three times he has heard my ricochets hit his window that faces my range. That window is 10 feet higher than my targets and 20 yards away (almost perpendicular to my sightline) from the nearest metal resetting target (which is 35 yards from my shooting point).

My understanding (and experience) is that my 13.4 gr JSB pellets are of such soft lead that they effectively splatter when hitting steel. So I find it to be a near physical impossibility that my ricochets are hitting his house. That being said, I want to keep the great relationship we have with them and want to keep shooting. So I talked to him and told him I would move target s further away from his house and he seemed to be happy with that.

But is it physically possible?

Cheers,
Greg
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Yes they don’t always splatter into the target. I shoot JSB made pellets almost exclusively.

I’ve had bounce backs hit me from a metal target. They might have been shreds of lead but they were still flying. Contain the ricochets.

David
 
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Get a real backstop and maintain a good relationship with your neighbors.

My .177 Vet still splatters 10.5 gr at 50y . I had a wood side trailer around 15 ft or so, to the side of the targets . And when shooting rimfires I had a lot lead splatter stuck in the wood . Even if it splatters small pieces are spreading out . And you could still have a ricochet by just catching the side or edge of metal targets.

Wanted to add:

If any part of my pellets hits on other homeowners property , I m doing something wrong . And never damage trees if they are not yours by hanging targets on them . Thanks
 
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