Safe Backstops & ricochets (.223 Ballistic Tipped ammo)

Will_mck

I am ultra careful when it comes to shooting, I've been scouring the Internet to try and research the risk of ricochets and what exactly constitutes a safe shot. It's easy to point out the obvious examples, everyone knows obviously that a backstop is essential. But for example if a person was shooting from an elevated position of 10ft off the ground shooting at a target say 100yards out on a flat field,is the angle from rifle to target steep enough for bullet to penatrate the soil behind the target and act as a backstop or will a ricochet occur? It is said anything less than a 45 degree angle a ricochet is possible

mick65cm

you have ricohet when the bullet hits a stone (or something else)....

with ballistic tips if the bullet hits a stone the bullet will blow out......

Will_mck

Can ballistic tipped bullets not ricochet of for example grass with dew on it? Or on soil when being shot at a shallow angle? I sometimes shoot small varmints and am a bit concerned that if the target doesn't cause the bullet to fracture it may ricochet off ground behind it, does this ever happen?

deeksofdoom

I would say that the chances of a ballistic tipped bullet ricocheting would be quite slim as it would break up on contact with anything. I don't think that I have ever had a ricochet with my .223 using hollow points or ballistic tipped ammo. But then again it is only used on foxes. Used to have plenty ricochets with .22 wmr ammo.

Brush, sticks, branches, maze and rape stubbles etc would cause .223 to deflect off its flight path. I see George Digweed using a .243 instead of .223 on shooting sports channel one night for just that reason.

Will_mck

That last day I was out on a field with a crop of winter barley in it and I shot a rabbit with a headshot, I went over to it to see if I could find fragments of the ballistic tipped bullet lying around or evidence where the bullet had buried in the ground but there was none. The soil was soft and the field was bare enough that I should have been able to see something if it had have stuck the ground. Obviously there's wasn't much left of the rabbits head, does anyone think the bullet expanded when it struck the rabbit? I expected to find bits of the bullet somewhere

mick65cm

why would you think it wouldnt it expand when you shot the rabbit....?

thats why you pay extra for ballistic tips because do a good job.... regular spitzer bullet would just pass through and leave a small hole both sides of the head were it went in and then out again..... ballistic tip blows the rabbits head up like a bomb went off.

cookimonster

I can't speak for the 223 but the .22 is notorious for ricochet but in my experience using LV hollow point hunting rounds once you made contact with a rabbit the bullet dumped a hell of a lot of its energy due to effective expansion.
Even the cheap HV ammo used on metal targets splatters leaving no trace nor the tell tail hum of the ricochet. Solid ammo both LV & HV on soft targets such as a phone book etc stayed intact with only deformation to the tip and IMO and personal practice would not deem them safe or suitable for game. Even SP 243 ammo while delivering a very effective wound will break up leaving nothing more than the jacket particles or a deformed base caught between the flesh and the hide.
Any how the point is that most ballistic tipped rounds will disintegrate on contact with the right target species. Chuckhawks recommends them on varmints and smaller predators, in fact there are probably more articles written about the improper pairing of ballistic tipped ammunition with larger quarry due to the need of effective penetration before the bullet 'blows up'.

cookimonster

mick65cm wrote: »

why would you think it wouldnt it expand..... ballistic tip blows the rabbits head up like a bomb went off.

Brilliant, laughing to myself, great analogy..... just remembering those rabbits with nought left between their ears..

Will_mck

Well I've only been using ballistic tips ya see so I had nothing to compair it to FMJ or hollow point damage to another rabbit say. I thought maybe smaller varmints mightn't have enough body mass to always make the ballistic tips fracture. I'm only concerned for safety sake really.Thanks for your advice