The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: Big Frank on April 15, 2012, 10:08:10 PM
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Weightlifter shot, says dumbbell dropped on bullet
MODESTO, Calif. — A California weightlifter says he accidentally shot himself by dropping a dumbbell on a bullet.
The man was wounded in the shoulder.
He told Modesto police officers he was lifting dumbbells in his home Wednesday night when he dropped one on a .22 caliber bullet. The man's name hasn't been released.
Modesto police investigators say the man's story is suspicious, but not impossible.
Officer Chris Adams tells the Modesto Bee ( http://bit.ly/HOfb79) that impact on the rim of the bullet could have caused it to fire.
Officers did not find a gun but did find the shell casing.
Neighbors did not see anyone leaving the man's home.
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Information from: The Modesto Bee, http://www.modbee.com/
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"Modesto police investigators say the man's story is suspicious, but not impossible."
Really? I heard all the good LEOs were leaving CA in droves... ;)
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Modesto police investigators say the man's story is suspicious, but not impossible.
The bullet either has rifling scars or it doesn't.... As long as the bullet was still in his shoulder, this shouldn't be all that difficult to verify. Just my .02 cents.
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The guy with the extra hole in his body isn't complaining about it. He is not accusing anyone of wrong doing. What difference does it make how he "accidentally" shot himself?
Accidents happen, and they are embarrassing. How much time and effort are they going to waste on this?
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The guy with the extra hole in his body isn't complaining about it. He is not accusing anyone of wrong doing. What difference does it make how he "accidentally" shot himself?
Accidents happen, and they are embarrassing. How much time and effort are they going to waste on this?
You are assuming he shot himself. Could have been a domestic dispute or collection agent that wanted to make a point.
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So if the injured party who is alive, conscience and alert does not file a complaint, how deep do they dig? Would they be digging like this if he turned up with a broken bone or bruises and abrasions?
What I am expecting is that they will charge him with reckless discharge of a firearm, or something similar. Wait and see, but how deep do they need to dig in a situation like this?
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I've spent a very significant portion of my adult life in gyms, and a lot of that time has either been in my training partner's private garage gym or my own private garage gym where there aren't any stupid rules like "no guns" that those commercial gyms have. At no time in the thousands of hours I've spent training have I ever had to worry about live rounds lying around the gym.
And correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it nearly impossible to "fire" a bullet without having it start in the chamber and then get propelled out of a barrel? I'm no rocket surgeon, but if there is no chamber or barrel, won't the energy just dissipate and the bullet kind of fall out of the casing without any real force? I've seen guys throw old ammo into the campfire and all it does is sound like angry popcorn.
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Ihprop1,
You can set off a rimfire really easy outside of a chamber, and the bullet will fly pretty well. Don't ask me how I know, because I hate confessing. I will admit to growing up with a father that smoked, lead paint, a sandbox right next to the driveway (remember those commercials showing a skull and crossbones coming out of a tailpipe next to a play area), playing with mercury on the lab counter, no carseats, no seatbelts - except for mom or dad's arm flying across the front seat to catch me, solid steel dashboards, roller skates that clamped to our shoes, and no bike helmets. We also could buy ammo over the counter without ID and order guns through the mail.
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M58... if it had anything to do with squeezing one on a vise, I'm not talking either ;D
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How 'bout sticking one through a fence knothole of the appropriate diameter and whacking it with a hammer?
Not saying when or where though.....no one died, that I'm sure of!
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How bout duct taping a 12 ga shotgun shell to the top rail of a fence and taking aim with your new bejamen pellet gun...Then watching the air condition repair men the next day at the conveniant store behind the house. Note the halo over my head...Dad would have killed me if he had ever known.
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Was it the "dumbbell" getting lifted ?
Or the one doing the lifting ?
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Or the .22 cartridge on the rail road tracks. Try to explain the casing imbedded in the calf at the emergency room.
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Comes down to physics and whilst one is not a professor Newtons third law still applys. "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction". If there was nothing behind the case or the bullet even if it discharged the force wouldnt be that great, and I doubt very much enough to embed in someones shoulder. Who has thrown a 22 in a fire ;D when the bullet lets go the case goes a little way and the projectile not so much. I call BS on this dudes story.
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Sledge, you forget that the dumbbell - heavy metal weight - is most likely still on the case.
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Or, how about finding a live .22 long cartridge and repeatedly throwing it against the patio slab until something--I don't know what--goes zinging past your ear?
Nope... I don't know about that, either.
I do know a little about gyms and weights, though... and cartridges.
A .22 cartridge would tend to lie flat on the floor--those little guys don't really like to stand on the pointy end which would more fully expose their cute little primer rims. And any weight (dumbbell, barbell, or plate) falling on it or set down on it would almost have to cover a significant portion of said cartridge in order to provide enough force to fire the primer in the rim.
The physics involved would then suggest that the discharged cartridge would force the bullet along a path roughly parallel to the floor.
So, my question would be: What sort of exercise were you doing while lying on the floor that allowed you to drop a weight with enough force to discharge the .22 cartridge that would have to be within inches of your shoulder?
None of it computes.
On the other hand, if the dude involved doesn't care, why is ANY attention being paid to this by the polizia? Don't they have jay-walkers to write up or something?
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I had a friend that was using a .22 lr Hilti years ago. He failed to insert the cartridge fully, the gun still fired shooting a sizable chunk of brass out of the side and into his pectoral muscle.
He came home that day and showed us his chest and said he thought he got shot. We were in our early twenties and Pat was a big guy in very good shape! A few hours later he was noticeably bruised so we took him to the hospital and they cut it out of him.
I wonder if something similar happened to this maroon...