I wonder how far it came from?

Crazyraceguy

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We got a leak, in the roof, dripping onto the drop ceiling, of the break room. It started with the next rain, after the 4th of July, though no one put 2 and 2 together (as they say) at the time.
When the roofing guy came out to check it, he was fairly sure that he knew what it was. Turns out he was right.....a bullet.
People foolishly shoot into the air, during holiday celebrations. You know those things come back down....somewhere. It may only be at terminal velocity of gravity, but it is still dropping. This is exceedingly dangerous and stupid, but it still happens.
The crazy part is that this thing seems to be a rifle round? 30 caliber Hollow-point, but it didn't open up, when it hit the metal roof. This is in an industrial area, nothing residential for half a mile minimum.
 

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Had a 9 mm bullet in the garage roof a few years back. Somebody celebrating New Year’s or something.

Ron
 
From an interesting post:

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, falling bullets can hit the ground at speeds greater than 61 metres per second (m/s). Bullets travelling between 46 and 61 m/s penetrate skin. Faster than this, and they can penetrate the skull.

Celebratory gunfire can cause injuries that require emergency room treatment and death. In Puerto Rico, 19 people were injured by celebratory gunfire on New Year’s Eve 2003, and one died.

Source:https://www.newscientist.com/lastwo...rds-cause-injuries-when-they-return-to-earth/

I found spent bottle rockets in my backyard from the dork neighbors celebrating July 2 at 1:30am. It's why the week of July 4, I water my lawn heavily daily...
 
That is what appears to be a non-jacketed rifle round, and as such it needs a combination of the high muzzle velocity of a rifle along with striking a soft mass of something to initiate expansion.  In your case...thank God...the celebratory round was fired into the air, ran out of energy, reached its azimuth and then simply returned to earth thanks to gravity. At that point, it lacked both the velocity and the soft tissue to properly expand.

Although it does have some pretty prominent rifling marks which act like "finger prints" if someone wanted to pursue the matter.  [smile]
 
The previous owner of my house, ill-advisably put in a skylight in a roof that was nearing the end of its useful life.  It developed a leak.

I put in new step flashing.  It still leaked.

I added 5 feet of shingles on either side of the skylight.  I also included a 10’ flashing just above and the skylight.  It still leaked.

I added three more rows of shingles running a bead of roofing sealer under each row.

Still leaked.

I repeated the above three more times.  The leak stoped when the shingles crested the peak.

Water is relentless in its search for entry points. 
 
six-point socket II said:
Oh my. I hope the water damage isn’t too bad!

Kind regards,
Oliver

Thankfully, the bullet somewhat plugged the hole, it just seeped enough to make a stain on one ceiling tile. Luckily, it was up toward the front of the building, where those tiles exist. In the main part, it might have been a while before we even knew what was happening?

Cheese said:
That is what appears to be a non-jacketed rifle round, and as such it needs a combination of the high muzzle velocity of a rifle along with striking a soft mass of something to initiate expansion.  In your case...thank God...the celebratory round was fired into the air, ran out of energy, reached its azimuth and then simply returned to earth thanks to gravity. At that point, it lacked both the velocity and the soft tissue to properly expand.

Although it does have some pretty prominent rifling marks which act like "finger prints" if someone wanted to pursue the matter.  [smile]

I seem to remember an early episode of CSI (the original) using this as a "curious" method of someone dying, several blocks away? I just makes you wonder why people still do this? It has to come down...and you don't know where that place will be. However, it is 100% your responsibility.

A 9mm pistol, maybe .38 revolver, but a rifle? really?
 
Crazyraceguy said:
A 9mm pistol, maybe .38 revolver, but a rifle? really?

Well the easy tell is the length of the bullet that's captured in the brass casing. Rifle bullets have more material in the brass casing than handgun rounds because they have a larger powder load that generates more pressure and can therefore produce a faster muzzle velocity.

Handgun rounds have less powder and need to have a shorter bullet because they produce less pressure.

Here are a couple of photos from Sierra...one of the best bullet producers in the world. Notice the different lengths between the hand gun bullet lengths and the rifle bullet lengths.  Both photos are of .375/.380 cal bullets.

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]
 

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Crazyraceguy said:
I seem to remember an early episode of CSI (the original) using this as a "curious" method of someone dying, several blocks away? I just makes you wonder why people still do this? It has to come down...and you don't know where that place will be. However, it is 100% your responsibility.

A 9mm pistol, maybe .38 revolver, but a rifle? really?

When I was going to college many moons ago (1980's), a student walking across campus between classes was killed by a 45 cal. bullet falling from the sky into the top of his head.
 
Cheese said:
Crazyraceguy said:
A 9mm pistol, maybe .38 revolver, but a rifle? really?

Well the easy tell is the length of the bullet that's captured in the brass casing. Rifle bullets have more material in the brass casing than handgun rounds because they have a larger powder load that generates more pressure and can therefore produce a faster muzzle velocity.

Handgun rounds have less powder and need to have a shorter bullet because they produce less pressure.

Here are a couple of photos from Sierra...one of the best bullet producers in the world. Notice the different lengths between the hand gun bullet lengths and the rifle bullet lengths.  Both photos are of .375/.380 cal bullets.

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

Oh, I get all of that. My point was that all they would have been looking for was a loud bang. A .30 caliber rifle is a bit on the intense side for that, plus more costly (per round) and who knows how many were actually fired?
 
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