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Man survives shotgun attack after his iPhone takes brunt of blast
ITV Reports ^ | May 22, 2015

Posted on 05/22/2015 4:13:05 PM PDT by Swordmaker

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To: Malsua
A heavy winter coat can stop bird shot.

OK, let's do a test. You stand 15 feet (home defense range) from me in your winter coat and I'll shoot you with a 12 gauge using #6 shot.

In fact, you're more likely to get bouncers with bird shot and take out your own eyes.

I'll also be happy to help with the "bounce test" in a dry walled room. I'll shoot at the dry wall in your house with my 12 gauge. If I lose an eye I'll pay for the dry wall damage.

41 posted on 05/23/2015 4:37:52 AM PDT by Senator_Blutarski
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To: Senator_Blutarski
OK, let's do a test. You stand 15 feet (home defense range) from me in your winter coat and I'll shoot you with a 12 gauge using #6 shot.

Make light of it all you want, it has happened. Use bird shot for birds.

I'll shoot at the dry wall in your house with my 12 gauge.

Have any radiators? How about window cranks? Nail or screw heads? How about nail plates(to protect pipes or wiring) in your dry wall? Small, light shot can and will bounce. Spend any time at a range, indoor or out, with someone shooting birdshot and you will get hit by bouncing shot eventually.

42 posted on 05/23/2015 5:20:39 AM PDT by Malsua
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To: Swordmaker
My Droid RAZR is actually made of Kevlar, it could probably survive that.

When the Atlanta Olympic bombing happened, there was a GBI agent who took a piece of shrapnel. He had his credentials in his back pocket, usually a leather wallet with badge and ID, and that prevented him from being wounded in the buttocks.

43 posted on 05/23/2015 5:36:53 AM PDT by real saxophonist (Youtube + Twitter + Facebook = YouTwitFace.com)
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To: Malsua
Spend any time at a range, indoor or out, with someone shooting birdshot and you will get hit by bouncing shot eventually.

I have spent an enormous amount of time shooting birdshot. I hunt, shoot trap and reload as a hobby. I have never been hit by a birdshot ricochet. I have been "rained upon" by birdshot while duck hunting, but that's not a ricochet.

I'm not saying a birdshot ricochet is impossible, but it is not as likely as you imply. There are plenty of knowledgeable people who advocate birdshot for self defense because it is less likely to cause serious collateral damage.

All things considered, I think it is appropriate to make light of your assertions.

44 posted on 05/23/2015 7:41:31 AM PDT by Senator_Blutarski
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To: Senator_Blutarski

I shot skeet for a number of years, before moving on to sporting clays. Since a number of skeet targets are close incomers, ricochets do occur, although they are rare. I’ve been hit several times, once hard enough to break the skin.

That, though, was out of several 10’s of thousands of targets shot. You’re more likely to be clobbered by a piece of the bird.

I don’t see it happening in trap, as you’re never closer to the bird than 16 yards, and it’s outgoing.


45 posted on 05/23/2015 7:50:05 AM PDT by Tijeras_Slim
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To: Swordmaker

This wanker ruined a nice Beretta.


46 posted on 05/23/2015 7:51:02 AM PDT by Tijeras_Slim
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To: Tijeras_Slim

Glad someone finally mentioned that. Who would do that to a perfectly good high-end over and under? I cringe.


47 posted on 05/23/2015 8:06:43 AM PDT by Liberty Valance (Keep a simple manner for a happy life :o)
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To: Liberty Valance

I don’t think he’s the “original” owner.


48 posted on 05/23/2015 8:10:06 AM PDT by Tijeras_Slim
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To: Malsua
Birdshot won't even take out an Iphone, don't suggest it is an "excellent home protection load". It is not. A heavy winter coat can stop bird shot. In fact, you're more likely to get bouncers with bird shot and take out your own eyes. #4 is the smallest shot to even consider. That's a Turkey load and while a Turkey is a bird, #4 is not considered bird shot. The best home load is #1 buck.

Look, buddy, you hit someone with a 1-1.25 oz. load of lead shot in a column still possibly contained in the wad at a distance of 6 to 15 feet, the distance most home defense takes place, traveling at 1100 feet per second, it will penetrate and stop the target, delivering every foot pound of energy that column of shot is carrying. At that distance, the shot acts as a unitary mass.

#1 buck shot carries too much energy per pellet and can penetrate through the target and a couple walls and injure children in the other room. This has been studied in ballistic studies. . . And the load of birdshot at close range is extremely effective. At longer ranges, the buck shot is better.

49 posted on 05/23/2015 8:29:58 AM PDT by Swordmaker ( This tag line is a Microsoft insult free zone... but if the insults to Mac users contnue...)
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To: Malsua; Senator_Blutarski
Have any radiators? How about window cranks? Nail or screw heads? How about nail plates(to protect pipes or wiring) in your dry wall? Small, light shot can and will bounce. Spend any time at a range, indoor or out, with someone shooting birdshot and you will get hit by bouncing shot eventually.

Buck shot will bounce from radiators and metal window mullions too. It has also happened. I'd gladly trade an eye for my life or the life of a loved one. Your scenario is far less frequent than the wounding or killing of innocents on the other side of the intended target by bullets that have already passed through the intended bad guy. The idea is to deliver all the energy carried by the projectile, regardless of what it is to your intended target, delivering a stopping blow, and then not have it continue on through to an unintended one.

50 posted on 05/23/2015 8:40:17 AM PDT by Swordmaker ( This tag line is a Microsoft insult free zone... but if the insults to Mac users contnue...)
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To: Tijeras_Slim
This wanker ruined a nice Beretta.

Have hacksaw, will wreck. . . Thinks he's a gunsmith. I cringed when I saw it.

51 posted on 05/23/2015 8:42:44 AM PDT by Swordmaker ( This tag line is a Microsoft insult free zone... but if the insults to Mac users contnue...)
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To: Smokin' Joe
It isn’t that fast an expansion, apparently, and I’d bet the muzzle was close. Short barrels will at some point actually have a lower muzzle velocity because the projectile doesn’t have enough run in the barrel to take advantage of the expanding gasses from the burning propellant. Some of the powder charge is wasted as muzzle flash.

I've seen a photo of a guy's back who was shot by a sawed-off shotgun using something less than 0 Buck. This survivor had a huge spread, and the pellets had raised about 22 big welts across his entire back.

52 posted on 05/24/2015 4:15:25 AM PDT by Does so (SCOTUS Newbies Will Imperil America...)
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To: FunkyZero

You’re absolutely right, that is a very tight pattern....squib maybe?


53 posted on 05/24/2015 4:26:53 AM PDT by jughandle (Big words anger me, keep talking.)
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To: Does so
It becomes a question of range. That looked like the muzzle was only a few inches away. Most birdshot (my guess from the dings in the phone is that was no.6 or no.7 shot) is in a plastic cup that peels away from the shot a few feet from the muzzle, allowing the shot to disperse. Here's a cross section of a typical hunting load. If you look closely, you will see the wad (plastic) encases the shot along the sides.

Tactical loads, depending on whether they are buffered, will spread quickly or not.

54 posted on 05/24/2015 6:15:15 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: Senator_Blutarski
I have been "rained upon" by birdshot while duck hunting, but that's not a ricochet.

When I was a kid, a quick thinking hunting partner saved me a face full when someone shooting a crippled duck skipped a load off the water and into our blind. He pulled me down just before the shot pattered off the back wall of the blind.

You can skip it off water, dirt, or pavement, but I have never had it bounce back at me.

55 posted on 05/24/2015 6:19:16 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: jughandle
"You’re absolutely right, that is a very tight pattern....squib maybe?"

I don't know, that's what I am thinking. either way, that load was still mostly in the wad when it struck... that means real close range. I don't care what kind of magic polycarbonate layered voodoo material it was, it wouldn't survive that blast unless something else was going on. That load was traveling very slow when it hit. Maybe it was someones custom "cut" shell or some other baloney and only a partial ignition due to moisture. Too bad we can't find out all the details, I'm pretty interested in knowing how this happened. I'm not doubting it really happened, but I do know this wasn't a normal shotgun shell.

I've got a lot of years experience with shot loads. I could see the material possibly surviving like this past 30-40ft or something, but there is no way to keep a pattern that tight at 30ft or beyond... even 30ft is a stretch of sci-fi thinking. Add to that the choke is gone off this shotgun, it's a lead vaporizer at this point.

56 posted on 05/24/2015 7:46:01 AM PDT by FunkyZero (... I've got a Grand Piano to prop up my mortal remains)
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To: Pearls Before Swine
Today’s version of the bullet stopping bible of the Old West is the iPhone.

And then there was Clark Kent's "lucky silver dollar":

Source: Adventures of Superman: Season 2 - Episode 5: "Shot in the Dark"
- Original Broadcast Date: October 12, 1953

Excerpt:

Inside a locked safe, there was the picture of Superman changing into to Clark Kent. Now, thanks to heat vision, it is nothing but ashes. The Man of Steel has also refused to give into Burnside's threats. He has flown away before Jimmy Olsen arrives with Inspector Henderson and his men. Shortly afterwards, Clark Kent joins the group. Desperate, Burnside intends to prove that Clark and Superman are the same person before he is sent to prison for fraud and murder. Kent steps back while Burnside grabs a gun he had hidden. The weapon fires, but the bullet doesn't hurt Clark. The mild mannered reporter explains that a lucky silver dollar inside his jacket pocket had stopped the projectile. As Burt "The Tulip" Burnside is arrested, Henderson, Jimmy and the police officers all laugh at the notion that Kent is Superman. Clark doesn't find it amusing.

"Aw, don't worry, Mister Kent," Jimmy says. "We think you're all right just like you are."

"Thanks, Jimmy," Clark replies with a smile to the audience.


57 posted on 05/24/2015 7:58:36 AM PDT by COBOL2Java (I'll vote for Jeb when Terri Schiavo endorses him.)
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To: FunkyZero
Maybe it was someones custom "cut" shell or some other baloney and only a partial ignition due to moisture.


The photo shows a standard, unmodified iPhone 5C case. Shot shells are designed to handle moist and even wet conditions in a duck blind. Modern smokeless powders, unlike black powder, actually burn rapidly and impart the vast majority of their impetus in the first 12-18 inches of barrel length.

58 posted on 05/24/2015 10:55:38 AM PDT by Swordmaker ( This tag line is a Microsoft insult free zone... but if the insults to Mac users contnue...)
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To: Swordmaker

i’m somewhat familiar with shotshells. Although i never counted, I’ve probably reloaded in excess of 10,000 of them and shot at least as many in the past 40 years


59 posted on 05/24/2015 11:27:50 AM PDT by FunkyZero (... I've got a Grand Piano to prop up my mortal remains)
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To: FunkyZero
A thug in Great Britain is not going to be hand loading his shotgun loads for sticking up the local pub. I think he stole the shotgun and the ammo. Hand loading in Great Britain is extremely restricted as well, if I recall correctly, as powder is treated as an explosive and regulated out the kazoo like handguns. The report says this was a "confrontation" which implies it occurred at close, face to face distance, not at any distance to allow the shot to spread. The shot column will be contained within the plastic wad for up to two feet or more from the muzzle.


60 posted on 05/24/2015 11:50:44 AM PDT by Swordmaker ( This tag line is a Microsoft insult free zone... but if the insults to Mac users contnue...)
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