Kinda OT. Take a good look at yourself in the mirror

[Howdy Doody]

Strange stuff. Here is the story. I had noticed a sort of mark about a 1/2 inch above my eyebrow. I noticed it about 3 weeks ago. I figured it might be from the sun, since I have been out in it a lot and an old dog like me gets sort of liver spots and stuff that come and go and sometimes just stay.
Well, yesterday  my wife noticed the small spot looked to be festering. Sort of like a pimple or blackhead or something. I went to check it out and took a better look. She was right. It gave it a good squeeze and I was surprized to find that it was a long sliver of metal. Not real long, but maybe as long as 1/4 inch. It must have been near straight in. I figure it must have been from getting hit at a shoot. I don't think it was lead, but maybe steel, brass or nickle. Never hurt or anything. I can't believe leaving it in would have killed me, but it did sort of fester after quite a while.
I have been hit a lot of times, and sometimes it drew blood, but this went un noticed for some time.
I know it is probably silly to even mention it, but if it helps just one pard along, then coming off as an idjit will be worth while.

[Silver Creek Slim]

That's kinda strange. Was it as big in diameter as a steel brush bristle?
Something similar happened to my knuckle, but it was a wood sliver I didn't know was there.

Slim

[Arcey]

Howdy, dooood....  How come ya wan me ta bust a perfectly good mirror?

Naw, git yer point 'n I'll back yer play.

Was at the unloadin' table - SMACK - left cheek.  DAMN!  That hurt!  Started unloadin' a pistol 'n blood was drippin' on it.  The lady workin' the unloadin' table looked 'n told me she'd unload the stuff 'n watch 'em, I'd better have someone look at my cheek.

One-eyed Rooster to the rescue.  That man is a Saint.  Takes me to his truck.  Cleans it off 'n tells me I need a stitch or two.  I refuse.  He got the bleedin' stopped so he tapes it up.  Get home.  It don't look good.  Wife says 'Urgent Care'.  I say no.  Daytona Firecreacker 400 in a couple hours 'n I ain't missin' the start sittin' in a Doc's office.

Didn't have to shave so I stayed away from that.  'Bout by Wednesday the beard was botherin' me.  Hotter 'n hell in July.  The cut ain't healin' neither.  Decided ta shave 'n take a closer look at it.  The razor caught on sumthin' that didn't feel right - a hunk of lead.

Used my strong glasses and a pair if tweezers to pull it out.  Small, triangular shard of lead.  The cut bled like the dickens again.  Left a small scar.

[Four-Eyed Buck]

I've had slivers of copper wire in my fingers before, couldn't figure out why that spot kinda hurt if you put pressure on it. After awhile it would fester out to where I could get some tweezers on it. Really thin, didn't even know when I got 'em.
Handled the motors for the units my line was assembling and was getting them from the lead wires or off the motor cases themselves.....Buck

[Howdy Doody]

Arcey, thanks. The word I was searching for was shard. Slim it was a shard about 1/4" long and maybe 1/16 wide and only maybe .010 thick. Scary looking when I got it out. It must have gone in a fleshy place and didn't cause any bleeding or anything. It was a weird thing, but something that can happen.
I rememeber a story long ago about a guy with a knife in his back that he didn't know was there. Must have missed all nerves and everything. Medical oddities, yes sir. 

[Delmonico]

I get stuff like that all the time, rose thorns, slivers from fire wood, brass from trimming cases and when I had a dog, labrador hairs right into the soles of my feet.  I take anything like that festering very serious, remove the problem if I can and dose it with old fashioned Tincure of Iodine, I swap in right in thick and heavy.  The problem is I know have 5 anti-biodic classes that try to kill me.  I a running out of ones that can be used, so my doctor takes giving ones to me very seriously.  

Remember septic poisioning was a common cause of death in this time period.  I can tell you, it would not be a pleasnat way to go, I've had a mild case of it.  I have a sister-in-law that let it go to long, she now has to go to dialisis 3 times a week after being in a coma from it for over a week.

Good post Howdy, most folks don't worry about such stuff till it's to late and a worse infection starts in.

[Big John Denny]

I've been hit by blowbacks 3 times this year already and I wasn't even shooting at the time. One cut my chin while I was working the unloading bench. Sometimes targets can be too close for safety.

[Delmonico]

The mouse phart patrol will argue till they are blue in the face against this post, but any serious ballistition will tell you bullets cast to hard and velocities that are to low are the main problem with bullet splash back. 

If folks keep track you will most likely find it is the same people that have the spalash back.  These are folks that use the real hard store bought bullets and insist on loading below 750 fps.  Bad targets with rough faces and targets to close increase the problem.  But a bullet traveling at least 750 fps and no harder than a wheel weight will flatten and expend it's energy doing that.  hared ones tend to break up, the faster the bullet, the smaller the pieces and the less energy when the come back. 

It's basic physics, a subject I suspect more than one shooter has failed.

[Forty Rod]

I looked in the mirrror two weeks ago.

Signed up at the gym the same day.

[jiminy criquet]

I would venture a guess that mouse pharts or no, if the targets were set back another 5 or 10 feet or so, the splashback wouldn't be near as much of a problem.  But I don't imagine that is a popular position (target-wise and literally) to take.

[The Arapaho Kid]

I don't look in the mirror all that often simply because I gotta sneak up on 'em!

[Griff]

 :(Mouse pharts & wharthogs alike take note:  Ya gotta take the welding iron and grinding wheel to the targets every once in a while or craters will develop on the target face.  Whereupon the targets tend to break up the projectiles being hurled at 'em.  Another solution (best when used in combination with resurfacing targets) is to ensure the target angle is set to deflect any bullet splash into the ground CLOSE to the target.  Most clubs I've been to tend to set both pistol and shotgun targets too close.  The worst instance of being hit with a splash back occurred from a rifle target, the projectile returned to hit me in the right inner thigh; hit hard enough to leave clear indentation of the weave from the cotton pants I was wearing right through the 16oz leather chaps I had on.  Didn't knock me down, but I went down on one knee.  Extremely glad it hit me in the leg, not in the head or someplace in-between.  Bullet was from a fellow BP shooter shootin' .44-40s (no mouse phart load either).  This ocurred after the previous timer getting a sliver (cork-screw shaped) in his ear lobe from the same target.  We changed out the target right after I was hit.  (Oh yea, the rifle targets were approx 35 yds away).

[Cuts Crooked]

A couple of years ago I came home from a match and stripped off my shirt prior to washin' up fer supper. Renegade Angel yells at me, "What the *&^% happened!?!?!" Had a lot of dried blood on my shoulder and I looked at my shirt, a red striped one, and it was pretty bloody too! Got ta looking and found a small hole in the shoulder of the shirt...and a corrosponding one in my shoulder.

Long story short: I been hit by a hunk of lead and didn't notice it! It hit near the top/outter radius of my shoulder and traveled under the skin about an inch and a half. We could actually see it under the skin. Angel used a new razor blade to open my hide and lifted out a piece of lead about the size of a pea in diameter and flattened out into nearly disc shape. Cleaned up good with peroxide, bandaged it and fergot about it! I still got the piece of lead in my odds & ends box though.

HEY! Does that count as a gunshot wound!?!?!

[El Peludo]

Likely, no telling where you picked it up; stuff like that can stay in you for a long time, even if you're really good and healthy.  In my early twenties, I burned (slid down) a power pole, and had splinters of all sizes in places I didn't know could get splinters; the last one came out, at least I think it might have been the last one, some twenty years later.  Had lots of wire slivers do the same thing.

[Delmonico]

I was assuming a club would in the interst of safety and liability maintain their targets.   From the aditude I've heard with folks saying they don't like this or that club cause they set targets to far back, I can guess that would be as popular as a good disease.

All in all bullets travling with out enough energy to flatten or totally break up are going to cause almost all of your problems when every thing is is not exactly perfect. 

[Big John Denny]

Never had a splash back from my 45 Colt loads, but I've seen some pards shoot and could actually see the bullett in flight they were travelling so slow. This mouse phart stuff has gotten so bad it seems some are loading flakes of powder not grains of powder. I also agree that most folks want their targets as close as they can get them, but that's just an accident waiting to happen. Someday someone is going to get hurt real bad and attitudes will change. I just hope it's not any of us.

[Big John Denny]

I can't believe Forty Rod has any unbroken mirrors in his house.

[Delmonico]

They have curtains on them and they open when he ain't lookin' at them.

The sad thing is when someone really gets hurt it will hurt the sport as a whole.  the amount of folks who get spash back should be a warning sign, but it doesn't seem to be.

[Tricky Trina]

I was shooting at a plate rack at one of our local shoots with my feminine 32 cals and got a little low.  Hit the lowest edge of the frame and actually saw part of my own bullet come BACK TOWARD ME!  It was like it was in slow motion!!  I couldn't do anything and it hit me in the side of my jaw.  I think I was paralysed with fascination and awe when I saw it.  Of couse, a few colorful words spewed forth afterwards and it bled for a little while, but it was really weird actually seeing the fragment coming back.  I would have felt really bad if it had hit anyone else but me, but dang!, it hurt!
Trina

[Big John Denny]

Del, with all the splash backs that occur at SASS matches, you'd think they would have already looked at that and come up with a solution to decrease, if not stop, them. Guess they won't worry until someone gets hurt bad and sues everybody wearing a cowboy hat.