Shot something you shouldn’t???

[Caliber 22]

Just yesterday I was shooting at my 75 meter target plate. A bird then perched on the metal frame the plate is hanging from, as he regularly do. While waiting for the bird to move on I was looking over the scope to see when he flies off, I fiddled with the trigger and the shot went off. The pellet hit the plate and the bird flew away. I felt bad, hoping the spatter from the pellet did not hurt the bird. A hour or so latter I saw the bird again so I guess he is OK.

 

[Mike_OH]

Back when I was about 10 (1968) I had a hand me down Daisy which I think was a 1930's Red Rider. My Uncle Vince and Aunt Marty had a farm outside Lafayette, Indiana. I used to go pesting all over this farm. There was a large stock/horse tank that had about a dozen large (5-6 inch) gold fish in it. My uncle used to see me taking pot shots at the gold fish but never said anything. One day I am walking by and a big gold fish is swimming straight toward me gulping for food right on top of the water. I took careful aim and got him right between the eyes. I fished him out and showed him off to my uncle who was in the barn. My uncle who was a big burly American farmer man and WWII B-25, B-17, B29 pilot, he took one look at the gold fish and said "My god, go hide that and don't tell Marty or we will both be in trouble!"

 

[techna]

Shot something I shouldn’t have? Well kinda. Almost all of the rear of my house as it faces the lake is glass. Every window is a heavy double pane affair with some of them being over six feet tall. I was mowing one day and didn’t close the chute as I made a pass with it facing the house. I was all the way down by the lake shore which is over 60 yards away, and we have nothing solid to fling anyway. So I thought. Well the ZTR kicked up a steel ball bearing (the kind sold for slingshot ammo) and launched it cleanly through 2 panes of 1/4” thick glass, across the living room and into one of the large windows on the front of the house. My wife and mother were both in the kitchen and they said it sounded like two almost simultaneous gunshots it hit so hard. Like I mentioned, this was from more than 60 yards away, with the entry and exit wounds being 7’ off the floor. I would have thought someone from the other side of the lake had fired a gun at the house had the ball bearing not been laying on the tile floor of the entryway. Fortunately the window it hit in the back was one of the “smaller” 27”x72” windows above the big ones AND it didn’t break the front glass. Even more good fortune that it didn’t hit my wife or mother. Where the ball bearing came from was a mystery until my adult stepson was visiting a week or so later and we told him the story. He turned white as a ghost and immediately admitted that while he was house sitting for us a month prior, one of his friends visited with a nephew and they’d been letting the young lad shoot his wrist rocket out into the water. One of the balls must have fallen in the grass unnoticed until my mower blade found it.

 

[Redtick12]

Nope, I wouldn’t do something that dumb.

 

[greg1978]

While testing out in the garage I guess I put one to many in the same place in the old "silent " target. Heard a funny sound and on closer inspection it went right thru, then thru the garage door and thankfully was stopped by my tailgate on the truck! At least it wasn't the rear window, it's like 2K to replace that. And that was at 17 foot pounds. Oh,and yes that target is history and the replacement can take 40+ fp!!

 

[Caliber 22]

While testing out in the garage I guess I put one to many in the same place in the old "silent " target. Heard a funny sound and on closer inspection it went right thru, then thru the garage door and thankfully was stopped by my tailgate on the truck! At least it wasn't the rear window, it's like 2K to replace that. And that was at 17 foot pounds. Oh,and yes that target is history and the replacement can take 40+ fp!!

The power of repeated low energy shots is more than one would think it is. When I first put out 200mm square plates out to 100 meter I though 1.6mm thick plate would do it for a 35fpe pcp. Nope, after about a tin of 18gr pellets hitting it, it was so concave it could almost be used as a shallow bucket with lots of small dents in it. Turning it around only caused it to bend to the other side. All that at 100 meter. Now I have a 4mm thick plate on 75 and 100 meter and a 6mm at 50 meter, no more dents and bending, even with a few .22LR shots hitting it. At 144 meter the old 1.6mm I flattened with a hammer seems to survive OK with the pcp only shots.

 

[delooper]

I once was bored and thought I'd try making my own ballistic gelatin. Made a block of it, about 5"x5"x12". It was winter and I thought I'd try it out in my garage. I would use a sub 500fps Crosman 1322, so how dangerous could it be?

The pellet went through the ballistic gel and went through my garage door, after that. Luckily it didn't get much further.

I'm guessing this means I made my ballistic gel too soft -- too much water.

 

[Rawroots]

I was too embarrassed to post this winter, shooting out double pane window being careful to stick barrel beyond opening, next gun was a bullpup and the barrel didn't reach the glass, peered through scope, pulled trigger and the pellet hit about 4 inches low, now what?, sat back in my chair and the problem was obvious, double pane, sat their a couple minutes hoping this was only a dream, nope.

 

[JDR]

May have told this story before on another thread. Recently was shooting squirrels in the butt at my metal bird feeder. with my Daisy 99 and shot at one without aiming. Heard a ping, investigated, saw the dent on the bird feeder and the damaged windshield on my Neighbor's Yukon SUV. I finally understood why I got those whippings from my Dad for busted windows when I always shot the opposite way. Told my neighbor I would pay for it and he was thankful that I was honest. I told him that I appreciated his response and was thankful he did not whip my arse like my Dad did. He laughed but the subsequent $800 bill he gave my wife started a whole lot more of trouble for me.

What amazes me is a BB gun at a measured 250 fps can hit a piece of metal 25 yards away and then travel at an angle 25 yards with enough force to give a sizable chip in a winshield. Have a whole lot more respect for BB guns.

 

[Caliber 22]

May have told this story before on another thread. Recently was shooting squirrels in the butt at my metal bird feeder. with my Daisy 99 and shot at one without aiming. Heard a ping, investigated, saw the dent on the bird feeder and the damaged windshield on my Neighbor's Yukon SUV. I finally understood why I got those whippings from my Dad for busted windows when I always shot the opposite way. Told my neighbor I would pay for it and he was thankful that I was honest. I told him that I appreciated his response and was thankful he did not whip my arse like my Dad did. He laughed but the subsequent $800 bill he gave my wife started a whole lot more of trouble for me.

What amazes me is a BB gun at a measured 250 fps can hit a piece of metal 25 yards away and then travel at an angle 25 yards with enough force to give a sizable chip in a winshield. Have a whole lot more respect for BB guns.

He could have claimed from insurance and let you pay the excess, if any.

Remind me of about 10 - 12 years back. My then neighbour's house alarm went of after 9 pm and was not canceled. After me phoning him, his wife and daughter and nobody answered, I thought they had problems and I better go look. I took the 9mm, jumped in the Land Rover and drove to his place, about 500 meter away. When I approached their house I was met with some gunfire and one shot went through the windscreen missing my head with about 10 cm. I started to shoot back and the burglars ran away. After calling the police they took almost an hour to arrive and a bit later the ambulance. They had to remove a lot of glass shrapnel from my right shoulder and side of my face, luckily I am wearing prescription glasses otherwise I lost my eye. It turned out the neighbours where away for a few days. When they returned all I got was a "thank you". I asked the guy about my vehicle windscreen as I did not have insurance at the time. (In SA it is not law to have insurance.) All he said was "No, it was my choice to go there and that he had enough damages as it were." That after I prevented the burglars to get away with all his stuff. I should have allowed the burglars to take all his stuff.

 

[Caliber 22]

Just yesterday I was shooting at my 75 meter target plate. A bird then perched on the metal frame the plate is hanging from, as he regularly do. While waiting for the bird to move on I was looking over the scope to see when he flies off, I fiddled with the trigger and the shot went off. The pellet hit the plate and the bird flew away. I felt bad, hoping the spatter from the pellet did not hurt the bird. A hour or so latter I saw the bird again so I guess he is OK.

I saw the bird sitting on the same target frame this afternoon, so he is OK.

 

[delooper]

May have told this story before on another thread. Recently was shooting squirrels in the butt at my metal bird feeder. with my Daisy 99 and shot at one without aiming. Heard a ping, investigated, saw the dent on the bird feeder and the damaged windshield on my Neighbor's Yukon SUV. I finally understood why I got those whippings from my Dad for busted windows when I always shot the opposite way. Told my neighbor I would pay for it and he was thankful that I was honest. I told him that I appreciated his response and was thankful he did not whip my arse like my Dad did. He laughed but the subsequent $800 bill he gave my wife started a whole lot more of trouble for me.

What amazes me is a BB gun at a measured 250 fps can hit a piece of metal 25 yards away and then travel at an angle 25 yards with enough force to give a sizable chip in a winshield. Have a whole lot more respect for BB guns.

Steel BBs are highly elastic. Try bouncing one off something hard, i.e. just drop one on some kitchen tile, for example, and see how close it gets back to your hand after the bounce.

 

[DaMitch]

Statute of Limitations is out but I won't confess. Nooooo, you can't make me! B.

Yes my neighbors cat. Short story there was a woodchuck visiting my wife’s flower garden and needed to be dispatched for his crime. Saw said woodchuck among the flowers. Well I thought it was the criminal. .177 to the head at 25 yards. It was Boots the cat. Boots got planted in the garden and boosted flower growth. Felt bad but took the fifth. Woodchuck died shortly there after.

 

[bubbapearson]

I’m thinking we all have but most are probably not as big of a DA as me. I don’t think I’m alone in sometimes wanting to shoot from inside the house to outside when the weather stinks right ?? Ok but I may be alone in being stupid enough to accidentally shoot the window instead of the target ?? Anyone else ever have any complete District Attorney (DA) moments when shooting ?

It didn't make it to the local DA, but my buddy that married my little sister probably would have preferred that to the justice meted out by my mother & father! ;-) We, by which I mean several members of my family and I, were having fun plinking off the back porch with my old BB gun and awe-inspiring first pellet rifle, and somehow, despite the strict gun safety rules drilled into us by my Dad, the pellet rifle ended up lying cocked and loaded on its side on a small table just outside the back door. My not-all-that-popular-with-the-'rents, soon to be brother-in-law comes boppin' along to join us, bumps the table or something, the pellet rifle goes off (yipes!) ... and naturally, it instantly takes out the passenger side front window of the family ride. Totally disintegrated, with small glass fragments everywhere (inside the car and out)! Ah yes... the good old days!

 

[PasadenaMike]

No never

 

[Florida_Man]

One of these old crank open type single pane windows in my house has a pellet dent in the metal. With a quiet gun it gets really loud in a hurry when that happens.

 

[Goldwing]

 

[Scott.t]

I was aiming at a pest bird in a tree by the house while standing on the porch. Pulled the trigger and heard a thwack and the bird just sat there. Wondered what had happened and then saw the hole in the gutter…

 

[PasadenaMike]

The best is when I shoot at the palm tree and it bounces back with low power guns

 

[ba49]

When I was a teen back in the late 60s I used to reload my own ammo with an original Lee loader. The manual kind that you had to use a small plastic or rubber hammer to tap in the prime with a small punch like tool. I was loading .44 specials. Well I couldn't find my small plastic hammer so I used a claw hammer. Well as soon as I wacked the primer punch that darn primer went off and blew the punch out of my figers and it stuck in the ceiling! My Mom had been in the next room folding clothes came flying in the room and saw the punch sticking in the plaster in the ceil. She told me to leave it there until my Dad came home and saw it. Well I thought I was a dead man for sure but when he got home and my Mom ratted me out he just looked up at the puch and started laughing and said "nice shot son, make sure you fix it tomorrow". Mom never let me reload in the house again. Lesson learned. LOL