A Kingsland woman is recovering from what authorities call a freak accident when a spent shell casing lodged in her face at a firing range near the Okefenokee Swamp in south Georgia.
The woman was flown by helicopter from Waycross to a hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, after the Wednesday mishap.
Ware County Sheriff Randy Royal says Joseph Borkowski of Kingsland was firing at targets at the Dixon Memorial State Forest firing range when he heard screaming, then saw his wife, Rhiannon, bleeding heavily from her face.
Royal says the semi-automatic .308-caliber rifle he was firing had ejected an empty shell casing, striking his wife in the cheek.
Royal tells The Florida Times-Union that Rhiannon Borkowski underwent surgery but no other information on her condition was available.
WAs having trouble trying to figure out how ejected brass would penetrate skin, but looks like it was part of the jacket of the bullet. Sounds like there's likely some junk on the range that needs policing up that caused the ricochet.
ReplyDeleteHappens unfortunately, people take great delight in shooting something to see the effect and the slobs don't clean up after themselves.
UPDATE: A Kingsland woman reportedly hit by a ricochet in a freak accident at a south Georgia gun range is recovering, she told First Coast News.
In a Facebook post, Rhiannon Borkowski said she and her husband learned at the hospital it was actually the jacket that struck her and lodged in her face.
Yeah--that makes a hell of a lot more sense.
DeleteDon't make fun of me for this question but is the jacket different from the spent cartridge?
DeleteThe spent cartridge, the military refer to it as brass is the part that comes out the ejection port in a semi-auto firearm.
DeleteThe jacket is the metal covering the lead portion of the bullet and comes out of the muzzle at high speed. Hence the term full metal jacket. (great movie by the way) Sometimes the jacket isn't a full jacket. This is referred to as soft point and some are called descriptively as hollow point.
Don't make fun of me for this question but is the jacket different from the spent cartridge?
DeleteNo, the jacket is the metal (generally steel) wrapped around the bullet, with the idea of holding the bullet together even on impact, thus ensuring greater penetration. In other words, it's part of the projectile.
The cartridge case (generally brass) is what contains the propellant powder, and doesn't go down range. It's generally ejected out the side of the gun, but without nearly the velocity to seriously injure someone. It will be quite hot, due to the powder just burnt with in it, so it can cause painful (but rarely if ever dangerous) burns.
So it appears that the bullet hit something hard downrange, the jacket separated from the core, and then ricocheted back to the firing line.
It was a dumb question. Thanks for not ridiculing me for it. After writing it I remembered what full metal jacket means and that gave me a hint. What I didn't know is that the jacket can separate from the rest of the projectile.
DeleteStill, doesn't it seem nearly impossible for such a ricochet to happen, for part of the jacket or whatever to arrive all the way back at the firing line?
Still, doesn't it seem nearly impossible for such a ricochet to happen, for part of the jacket or whatever to arrive all the way back at the firing line?
DeleteI'd say that's a pretty fair assessment. That's the purpose of the word "nearly," though--"nearly impossible" is still possible. If a billion shots are fired at gun ranges every year, the one-in-a-billion mishap can be expected to occur about once a year, on average (I'm not saying the "billions" I'm using here have any relation to either the number of shots fired in a year, or the odds of such a mishap occurring--just pointing out that weird stuff happens, and that the more chances there are for the weird stuff to happen, the more likely it eventually will).
"Still, doesn't it seem nearly impossible for such a ricochet to happen, for part of the jacket or whatever to arrive all the way back at the firing line?"
DeleteThat is a function of a properly designed range, as was mentioned by one of the Anons. However, range and objects on the range can affect that.
If you hit something hard at close range, it can splatter and some even come back at the firing line. Most backstops are made from wood or dirt that will absorb the round.
If someone brings junk on the range to shoot, it might cause that. Especially if you put it too close to the firing line.
Exactly, ss, if it's too close to the firing line. That wasn't the explanation here.
DeletePerhaps "nearly impossible" was too generous. Maybe physically impossible is more like it. What other explanation could there be? If it wasn't the jacket part of the round coming all the way back to the firing line, and if the spent cartridge didn't do it, what could it have been? Is there another possible explanation?
"Perhaps "nearly impossible" was too generous. Maybe physically impossible is more like it. What other explanation could there be? If it wasn't the jacket part of the round coming all the way back to the firing line, and if the spent cartridge didn't do it, what could it have been?"
DeleteI'm not sure what you're asking Mike. The only other thing would be the core of the bullet. That has much more mass and would have caused much more damage.
The jacket ricochet explanation is plausible to me. More so than anything else I can come up with, given the available information.
DeleteThat makes a lot more sense.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know ricochets were considered freak occurrences.
ReplyDeleteWhen you engineer a range to absorb fire and redirect any ricochets into other parts of the backstop structure, yes, a ricochet that makes its way all the way back to the firing line and injures someone is a freak occurrence.
DeleteIt still doesn't make sense to me.
DeleteMe neither. Ricochets are common, which is why shooters have to take care and why many innocent bystanders get shot.
Delete"Ricochets are common, which is why shooters have to take care and why many innocent bystanders get shot. "
DeleteThat ABSOLUTLY makes no sense!
What makes no sense?
DeleteAre ricochets rare?
"Are ricochets rare?"
DeleteRanges are designed to minimize them and to direct those that do occur away from the firing line. Much different than say the bullet hitting pavement.
Any design to minimize ricochets out in public?
DeleteGuess not
Delete