Wow..... I know what that feels like.
I got hit in the wrist area by a 230 gr FMJ, intact. The target was
a piece of ballistic glass. At first it felt like a bee stung me in the
hand, and I fired a few more shots... then the pain increased a bit... and I
was like WTF?!?!? I looked on my wrist and saw a little bit of blood. I
cleared my gun, and pulled my sleeve up and out fell the bullet, it was
an FMJ that decided to turn itself into a mushroomed JHP, basically, was
the strangest bullet I'd ever seen.
A word to the wise- flat, hard steel is relatively tame in comparison to ballistic lexan, in terms of a ricochet
hazard! At least a plate of steel encourages "energy dump" and splattering or complete self-destruction of the
bullet. I think the lexan or whatever it was in this case, actually stored up some of the energy imparted to
it by the bullet, and transferred it -back- to the bullet, all in an instant. All .45 ACP ball did to this stuff
was put a pockmark in it. Interestingly enough, .40 S+W JHPS would get stuck right in the glass, and
expand... im guessing due to higher velocity. Rifle rounds ripped right through it, of course. If I ever
get any of this stuff again, I definitely will be shooting at it from further away, or behind a barrier. It's a
damned good thing bullets lose most of their energy quickly when they hit something hard. I've seen
someone else shooting at this stuff with a .45, and a bullet visibly flew back at an angle, and bounced
off a guy's pants belt. (he said he felt something hit him, but said it didn't hurt... but im
sure the leather belt absorbed the sting). Needless to say, we didnt fire that many shots at the
stuff with typical weak handguns, as none of us felt that lucky!
The injury itself in my case wasnt that bad. There wasnt much bleeding, it
was mostly a bruise. I kept on shooting for awhile and then went home...
was sore for next day or so, but then the bruise healed in about a week
or so. Not a huge deal, but definitely a wake up call to use more
caution.
-Mike
