Be aware of your target and what’s beyond it

[camper4lyfe]

My neighbor across the street currently has a high police presence at his house due to a stray bullet that found its way into his oldest daughter’s room today.

It could have been way worse.

Don’t be an idiot.

 

[dsdmmat]

Wow that sucks. A couple of nights ago around 11pm a string of about 4 or 5 shots rang out behind the house in the wood line. Sounded like a 22 semi-auto rifle.

 

[camper4lyfe]

Information is minimal but it’s entirely possible this shot went over my house.

To say I’m pissed would be an understatement.

 

[96coal449]

Stupid is, stupid does.
Stupid can't be fixed.

 

[spat]

That's why I like the backstop at my house.

It's about 1,800 feet high. If you shoot over that you shouldn't be trusted with a sharp stick, let alone a gun.

 

[1075tech]

A guy I used to work with went to uncover his pool for the summer. Found a small hole in the side well below the normal water level. Found a bullet on the bottom of the pool. Filed a claim with his insurance company. They paid for a new panel, liner, and truckload of water. He went to the pool store and bought an underwater light. Put it where the bullet hole was

 

[camper4lyfe]

I work with a guy that was mowing his lawn and got hit. A group of guys were using cardboard or something as a backstop. Amazingly he survived after a long time in the hospital.

 

[Saltwater60]

I am very careful and aware of this. I stopped hunting at 16 until I was 39 because my dad and I were walking in the woods for an afternoon hunt. We spooked a deer and I only had a buck tag. The deer was running in the pines and I couldn’t ID it. The asshole at the top of the ridge was eating lunch and saw the deer. Boom, boom, boom seven times. It was the first time I heard my father say the F-word. He said get the fuck down and get the fuck behind a tree. He was 3-4 steps beside me and heard bullet wizzing but his head. I didn’t. I was huddled behind a tree not knowing what to do so I asked hey do you want me to fire a few back? He said no just stay down. Turns out it was a perfect 10 pointer.
I hunt in a unmanned valley so I can shoot nearly anywhere and be safe. I’m hunting a new property this weekend and I looked at aerial views to see what’s behind since it’s in a town area. There’s 600 feet of trees between where I’m hunting and the houses behind. Also I’ll be shooting off the raised pond to the ground.

People are assholes and glad they are safe. I do t blame you for being pissed. I would be too.

 

[camper4lyfe]

Looking at aerial maps, while it’s legal to hunt with a rifle in Livingston county, the number of houses around the woods that were being hunted, they never should have been using a rifle. There’s just too many houses too close.

 

[Saltwater60]

Looking at aerial maps, while it’s legal to hunt with a rifle in Livingston county, the number of houses around the woods that were being hunted, they never should have been using a rifle. There’s just too many houses too close.

Sounds reasonable given what happened.
Im hunting this weekend and I will use a rifflenin one location and not in other. No risk of houses, but one I can take a longer shot and has a 10-25ft hill as a backdrop and in the other areas 100 years shots won’t even happen because of the thickness of the vegetation. My shot gun is lighter so why carry the riffle?
I was hunting at my uncles place and it’s niwghborhoody there and I could hear people riding 4 wheelers and I was tracking them saying ok don’t shoot that area, ok can’t shoot in that direction anymore. That’s life. I was pissed, but I don’t one all the property so I don’t have that right.

 

[camper4lyfe]

An update, though probably the last of them; So this happened last Tuesday some time. On Tuesday night, we drove by the location that the shot came from (before we knew about the shot) and as it was dark, could see inside the houses that had lights on inside. I made a comment about how one of the houses was full of hunters (lots of camo and blaze orange). We didn't think much of it since it's pretty common to see, and carried on our way. Later that night we heard about the incident. In the next day or two we put two and two together and realized the house we commented on was in almost the exact same spot that shot most likely came from. Our neighbor gave my wife the non-emergency number for the county, and she called a few days later after verifying the address of the house.

As it turns out, county sheriffs had stopped by Wednesday morning to talk with the owner of the house and property, and 1) the whole group was hungover, and 2) without being given any details the guy said they had been hunting across the road. I'm pretty sure that one of the guys in that house took the shot. BUT, it's almost impossible to prove it, and the sheriffs even said it's highly unlikely they'd be able to find who did it.

I'm still just really grateful that no one was hurt, and the only damage is a couple holes in the neighbor's walls.

 

[fresch]

My brother shot his work truck one year.
The slug still had bark in it, from the ricochet.

 

[urjustamemory]

One day many years ago, a relative of mine, and myself were target practicing, I put a target up at 150 yards, and stuck the sharpie marker to the target post. I decided to be a smart ass, and shot the marker off the post, and announced that I needed a new one as I shot it.
To this day. I still remember my relative saying " How'd you see that thing, I cant even see the target closest to us, I just shoot"

I told them, welp, I am done.

I have always been aware of "Know your surroundings" If you don't see or know what is behind or beside and even in front of what you're shooting at, well, it's not worth it.

 

[camper4lyfe]

One plus side, this allowed me to illustrated to my 8 year old why it's important to pay attention to what behind his target when he sets up his target and shoots his BB gun. It's only a little Red Ryder right now, but it's important to get the fundamentals down now when his mistakes will only hurt, rather than be deadly.

 

[spat]

One of the reasons I am very happy with my new arrangement.

an 1800' backstop gives you a nice reassuring feeling.

I also have a couple canyons that have a 360 backstop if I want to setup something interesting.

 

[fresch]

My brother was hunting and shot at a deer but missed. When he got to his truck and saw the hole he was pissed. Then he remembered the only shot that day was his. Reviewed his shot walked it back from the truck and found a tree missing bark. Had to tell the boss back at the shop and eat crow from the guys when they found out, he bagged A ford van.

 

[repete]

One of the reasons I am very happy with my new arrangement.

an 1800' backstop gives you a nice reassuring feeling.

I also have a couple canyons that have a 360 backstop if I want to setup something interesting.

Until you shoot 1801 feet high!

 

[Paperpunch]

Back in my youth I lived in Ohio, and was driving through some backwoods along the Ohio river, when something I thought was a rock hit my windshield. The next day I took the car to a glazer, and after the inspection the technician came up to me and said he found a slug sitting on the cowl grill.

 

[Criticalt]

A couple years ago our house got hit with a couple rounds during regular season.
Like the boss I am I immediately went in pursuit. Unfortunately there was no snow and my tracking abilities were not up to the task.
I do believe the perps knew what they did because I was armed and out the door in 2 minutes or less and they were nowhere to be found. ALL the property around our house was ours so they were tresspassing.
Now that we live in a cabin, our property is much smaller and I would see them from the window.

 

[dwa12479]

 

[spat]

Until you shoot 1801 feet high!

If you're dumb enough to pull that off you probably need to be reminded to hold your breath when you dive into the pool too.

Even then, the other side of the mountain is basically desert for a very long way. There are a couple houses on the mountain itself, but I'm not sure if you could hit them if you tried. You'd need a very high trajectory to get something to clear the peak and then land that close to the mountain. I'd have to do the math, but I'm guessing something like a 60 degree angle.

Hell, you'd need near 30 degrees just to clear the mountain.