Posted on 04/24/2009 7:15:08 PM PDT by John W
PLEASANT LAKE, Ind. (WANE) - George Fath moved to his mobile home in rural Steuben County two months ago. The previous owners left a lot of trash in the yard, so Fath was cleaning up Thursday afternoon. That's when he found a 22 caliber bullet in the yard. He didn't want his three young boys to get hurt from the bullet, so Fath decided to dispose of it.
"My hammer was outside so I took the bullet and put it on a rock and smacked it with the hammer," Fath said.
Fath wasn't expecting the bullet to fire.
"It went off and went into my belly and knocked me on my butt," Fath said.
Fath said he thought he was shot in the stomach. His wife called 911. According to the police report the bullet didn't actually hit Fath.
"Fath was not bleeding, and it did not appear that Fath was struck with the bullet. Fath suffered a minor abrasion to the area of his stomach," police records read.
But, Fath told NewsChannel 15 the bullet did go in his stomach and doctors removed it at the hospital.
"I smacked the bullet and fell down and blood came pouring out," Fath said. "I was hitting it to smash it. I didn't expect it to go bang."
Fath said he'll never hit a bullet with a hammer again.
"I wasn't thinking about it. It was the dumbest thing I ever did in my life. I suggest nobody do it," Fath said.
Police agree. Steuben County Sheriff Rick Lewis said no one should ever hit a bullet with anything.
"The round can go anywhere. It could hit the person striking it with a hammer, a neighbor, a child in the yard. There's just no controlling where the bullet will go," Lewis said.
A bullet doesn't have to be in a gun to fire.
"Anytime you get pressure [to the end of the bullet] to cause it to explode, it will fire," Lewis said.
If someone finds a bullet, don't throw it in the trash either.
"Call local law enforcement and we can take car of it," Lewis said.
You forgot ... and so I don’t hit the rounds with a hammer instead and end up in the hospital. Yep, that’s why I need a gun.
I think the claw end of the hammer snapped back and that’s what hit him.
Exactly what I was thinking.
Agreed.
The slug from a .22 bullet discharging without being in a gun is not going to develop any velocity. As soon as the slug separates from the casing all gas pressure is lost. It probably wouldn’t travel 20 feet. So this guys story about it knocking him over, etc. is pure hooey.
No, Darwin Award winners have to actually die. That's one of the rules.
I don’t have a problem with anyone hitting a bullet with a hammer since it can’t hurt anyone.
I would have thought some Freeper would have posted this information already.
From the article.
Fath told NewsChannel 15 the bullet did go in his stomach and doctors removed it at the hospital.
When we were little...back in Stone Age...we had these long strips of red paper with dots of powder embedded in them, and when you hit them with a hammer, they made a real nice bang.
They were in strips because you fed them into toy guns...
Obama voter.
***”Call local law enforcement and we can take car of it,” Lewis said.***
Oh for heaven’s sakes! Anyone with an ounce of brains knows you should not hit a rimfire with a hammer. you can kill the bullet by soaking it in water or spraying it with WD-40 or equivalent. Rimfires are not water or oil tight.
When young we often found unfired cartriges in rental houses. My dad got rid of them by dropping them between the sheetrock in walls just like we disposed of razor blades.
We once found a stick of dynamite in a rental house and my dad showed us how to dispose of it by cutting it leingthwise and crumbling up the remains. He had been a combat engineer in WWWII.
See, if he had a sign they wouldn’t have sold him that hammer
A gun has a part that is refered to as the hammer.....
Idiot. Everyone knows you are supposed to take it into the house and put it in a vice before you hit it with a hammer. Make sure you bring the kids to watch since it is so cool.
Or put it on a burner on the stove and have your wife watch.
However I would strongly advise everybody not to strike a loaded cartridge with a hammer as this is highly dangerous.
This thought crossed my mind as well, but I have no experience with what level of greatly reduced force (with no barrel to allow pressure to build) a .22lr would generate, and I was wondering about larger cartridges. Guess it would depend on the seating depth and type of powder used.
This idiot is almost as stupid as that blob from New Mexico. The round would have just bounced off her fat @ss
Since the maker doesn't know how you are going to put it in the gun, they put a thin wafer all the way around. That's so, when you hit that edge, anywhere, with a hammer, on a rock, it will fire.
That’s Joe Biden.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.