Strange thing happened, semi rant!

About Christmas day had some semi family at dads house. One of them had his AR in 300acc he had to show off. He decided to put on show by shooting at wood pile at about 20 yards. After his little show and they left we found a 30 cal bullet laying behind where they were shooting. Bullet had rifling marks, point of bullet was perfect, and had flat spot running along the length of bullet! Meaning the thing keyholed at that range and slapped the log and bounced back behind them! And they didn't notice!? At that range wouldn't most people that shoot much notice different sound or something coming back towards them? Sad part is the person shooting is LEO trained and ex military and is employed at a reputable gun store! My father found the slug afterwards and it did nothing towards giving him a favorable opinion on the person or his "new and improved" caliber! He is short on positive opinion of the AR's anyway. My dad is not narrow minded or ignorant on guns, he has some very fine Mod. 21's and custom rifles and has shot his entire life but this won't make him open to someone dragging AR's out agin. Is this something that has been heard of or 1 in a million fluke with 300 ACC? Sorry for rant.

I'd be unimpressed, too. Sounds like your Dad has his head screwed on straight.

The guy with AR... Not so much.

I am your Dad in different skin. The "guns as toys" mentality so widespread today is foreign to me.

My SIL had a 300aac that was key-holing, he noticed it on his first target. I am not sure what he did to fix it.
I have one for subs and it has shot many critters (hogs, coons, etc.). It is good for what I use it for.
But if I want a full power 30 caliber, I pull out the .308.

I'm not sure what the caliber or type of rifle has to do with it. I'm not familiar with that round.

Sounds like poor choices made by the shooter, such as the type of bullet, type of target, and the distance.

Shooting at a pile of wood 20 yards away just seems silly to me...as a "show-and-tell" activity it smacks of a kind of mentality I just can't relate to either. I don't believe guys who think like that notice much more than how much noise they're making.

Someone almost earned a Darwin Award.

That's what I'm thinking too. As far as not noticing a bullet coming back, if it was a round in the middle of a burst, it might be hard to notice.

We were out shooting my 6.8 on day one noticed something fly by my ear. Didnt really pay that much attention to it. Thought it may have been a bug or something. On the next shot i felt something hit me in the chest and leg. I looked down at my shirt and part of the jacket from the round was sticking to my chest and my pant leg. Called it a day after that.

The bullet was so awesome it went through the wood pile, circled the globe, and landed behind the shooter. The flat spot on the side was from it landinging and skidding to a stop.

Key-holing at 20 yards would be pretty bad.

Got dem magic boolits

I did not grow up with guns and purchased all mine as an adult myself. So many things are self taught, including gun safety. Point being, one thing I learned early on was to stop using the word "toy" to describe a gun except within I'm around my small circle of, let's say, real gun enthusiasts. Otherwise it's always weapon or firearm or rifle etc.

The sad part this story is the shooter should definitely have been more aware.

Was he shooting subs?

I'm certainly not defending any choices the fella made, but the bullet couldn't have been going very fast at all if it was laying on top of the ground merely feet away.

I guess I'm going to go against the grain and say that wood piles have been used as backstops since the invention of gunpowder. I simply don't see what the guy did wrong. My guess is that it is a pretty rare thing for a high velocity rifle round to ricochet back at the shooter after striking a piece of wood. If it was a subsonic round then I could see an issue but a standard velocity round should have either been destroyed, buried in wood or deflected down range. BUT..you NEVER know what a bullet is going to do or where it is going to go when you pull the trigger. There is always in inherent risk in the activity an no matter what the odds, unforeseen "crap" happens.


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True Misfire! Most of us have shot a stump or two in our time. Just the shooter being unaware of what was happening and possibilities in what was happening was what got my attention. This isn't out in pasture and if bullet was tumbling where could it have went if he was shooting at much more distance?