Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help Zing!

It's a ricochet that you are hearing. Now, the question of "how close is it?" could be hard to answer.

When I was in Texas, I was at a hunting lease to try and remove some hogs. I shot at a hog with my .243 using Barnes all copper bullets. At 311 yds the hog was hit, but continued to run. I took another shot as it was running, maybe another 100 yds further away. I missed, and I heard the bullet "zing" as it ricochet off of the ground as it travelled further away.

The hog was running from 4:00 to 11:00, wind was blowing about 10 mph from 9:00 to 3:00.

When I missed the coyote with my 2nd shot from the long range gun, using copper jacketed lead core bullets, the bullet fragmented when it hit the ground, and there was no ricochet. But, if the bullet was going slower, I'd be willing to bet that the bullet would ricochet like the all copper bullet did.

In any case, the bullets that they are shooting are not being contained by the backstop that they have. Their backstop needs to be more vertical so the bullets penetrate and are contained by the ground, not bounce off.

I would call the sheriffs office and pose the question:

"If you were standing in your back yard and had a neighbor shooting, would you be comfortable if you heard bullets ricocheting?" If they say no, then ask them what can be done.

I've talked to law enforcement about different issues, and got different answers, depending on who I talked to.

Also, like Tony said, ricochets don't have to keep going in a straight line. On a hunt I was on, one of the members in the group shot an animal. The guide said shoot it again because it's still moving, but it looked like a good hit. The shooter said why, the animal that I shot is dead on the ground. It turns out that the bullet entered the first animal, hit something, exited at 90° and hit the 2nd animal. THAT took some explaining............. The guide and the shooter were looking at different animals when he shot.