Ricochets from concrete

http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=826645

Okay, let's experiment. Remember what you saw in the training video. 1976 FBI
training video

Referring to my crude illustration below, with the shooter aiming at the wall at
an angle of 45, at what angle will the bullet ricochet (A through D)?


Now, if we change the shooter's aim to the right so that the impact angle is 30,
which ricochet angle (A through D) will result?

[Insert J eopardy music here]

Did you select the same answer for both 45 and 30?
If you selected "D" go to the head of the class.

Remember in the video they showed ricochets in two different axis. One was the
vertical wall and the other, bouncing off a horizontal street under a car. Also
remember the narrator said that the projectile is not a rubber ball.

Explanation
What's going on? Unlike a rubber ball, the projectile does not compress and
rebound. Instead it deforms on impact. If you think of a small car hitting the wall at an
angle at 45 mph it's not too dissimilar. The deformation takes some energy from the
bullet to both create a pit in the wall and deform the impacting side of the bullet nose.
This causes the bullet to turn slightly and move relatively parallel to the wall (a
shallow angle). The bullet travels anywhere from about 2" to 12" from the wall.

This explains why both the revolver bullet and shotgun slug, fired at different angles,
hit targets close to the edge of the respective surfaces. This is why military tactics
teaches troopers to stay 2-3 feet away from walls along which there is no (bullet-
stopping) cover. You're better off going down the center of an alleyway than along
the edge of bare walls.

This, of course, is a general rule of thumb. Different materials may change the
results to varying degrees. This applies to relatively flat, smooth surfaces like a
building's wall or the pavement on the ground.

Considerations
A. A bullet will not ricochet off adobe-type walls the same as concrete.
B. The angle hitting a solid marble pillar may be different than one with a thin
marble veneer that cracks or shatters.
C. Striking an uneven solid surface - like concrete molded using corrugated
sheet metal to form vertical ridges - could give widely varying results.
D. The use of harder metals in the projectile may result in penetrating the barrier
too deep to ricochet or to ricochet very far.
E. Bullet construction and velocity may change the results, such as a high
velocity 5.56mm bullet may literally disintegrate into small fragments against
mostly rigid materials (concrete, stone, steel, etc).

I'm far from an "expert" on the subject. This is what we learned during our training
during the mid-1970's. We even did a few experiments that demonstrated the above
principles.

Conducting Tests
If someone has a large, flat concrete surface in a safe area to conduct experiments,
you could get a good idea of the principles using about 8 shots per caliber (say 4
shots per bullet type: FMJ vs. J HP or FMJ vs. AP plus 4 different angles). You'd
need a ladder to vary your impact angle and a series of vertical targets spaced about
5-10 feet apart to record the bullet's trajectory as height above ground at specified
distances from impact. Targets would be just paper between posts from ground level
up to maybe 4 ft.

If someone has more information or expertise on this matter and wishes dispute
what I've written, I welcome it in the spirit of letting us all learn valuable information.
This is one of those topics I'd love to see researched with a very-high-speed camera
to capture a ricochet up close in slow motion.

Lastly, the topic of materials, like marble veneers, reminds me to open up another
thread on construction materials and techniques as it relates to cover vs.
concealment.