Your map is VERY helpful. Kudos for producing what appears to be an iron-clad case.
So, looking at the map, we see the ‘shooter’ fired in the general direction golfers 2 miles away, surrounded by trees. So, now we have some very basic sets of questions.
1. What direction do the shoters at range fire?
2. What enclosures prevent the bullets from going into the golf course?
3. Aside from it’s acknowledged existence; how does anyone know that any of the bullets originated at the range?
2 miles is a long ways for *most* rifles to fire. I’ve some coworkers who are ballistics experts - you are talking a Win 300 mag or a 338 Swift to even cross a line 2 miles out - let alone hit a barn. Even a .50 cal will be difficult to hit something with any accuracy at that range.
But, most shells won’t cross a line in the sand that is 2 miles out.
Tumbling range is much further than firing range for rifled rounds.
Most firing ranges today require lead traps installed behind the butts, precluding standard target practice rounds leaving the range, except in the cases of wildly inaccurate ricochets. Those traps are driven by environmental regs on lead.
It appears the range uses the lake as an additional safety buffer, but it might actually allow some far ranging rounds to ricochet off the water.
IMHO, the range should insure QC inspections of all ammo fired as a method to document they are safely operating their range. Besides, it also would help defend nuisance lawsuits by those who would make fraudulent claims against the firing range.
The bullet was .223 caliber:
Whether what whizzed by the two employees golfing at the 15th hole on Monday was definitely a bullet is one thing but there’s no doubt a stray .223-caliber round had to be removed from Flores’ sternum.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2868186/posts
1. What direction do the shoters at range fire?
(etc.)
With all of the best intentions and all the safety rules in the world, some people at the range are just a**holes.
I mow at our range and regularly see grooves in the sod where (against range policy) some drooling idiot has put a target on the ground and “skipped” a slug who knows where. When I see grooves, there are always a lot of them
Electric co. linemen have had to pause operations on the high tension lines behind our rifle range for the same reason. They are less than 2 miles away, but where DID the slug go after it whizzed past them?
Sorry, but every range has its jerks and some of them will endanger themselves and others - even folks not on the property.
3,600 meters is 2.23 miles!
M16/A2 shoots a 5.56mm/.223 cartridge:
28
Describe the ranges for the M16/A2 Rifle.
* Maximum Range - 3,600 meters
* Max Effective Range for a Point Target - 550 meters
* Max Effective Range for an Area Target - 800 meters
http://www.armystudyguide.com/content/army_board_study_guide_topics/m16a2/m16a2-study-guide.shtml
When I was a kid, on the first day of orientation at the rifle range I shot at, they always told new shooters the story of how a .22 bullet fired from the range cracked the window of the grandstand of crowded horse-racing course about 1 1/2 mile away.
Now, to be clear, the bullet was fired when the idiot who owned the rifle had it elevated at about a 45 deg angle while he checked for a mis-fire. However that kind of range IS possible for a .22 LR much less a .223