I know just enough about ballistics to know this is a disturbing find....

[Darkflight]

Right on top of the ground about 10 yards from a basketball court at a middleschool.

The bullet tells a story about how dangerous it is to fire a bullet into the air. Lord only knows who fired it & where or why...But it is certainly a "fallen" bullet. And it fell with more than enough force to produce a fatal wound.

The tip has 3 impact marks & I'd guess about 12-15 ft lbs of force were dissipated by each impact.If anyone had been in its way -in a schoolyard no less it would have been front page news.

Luckilly it landed without known incident but I had my 2 girls with me & it really struck me how stupid the idiot who fired it was.

I also scored a junk ring & 10 nickles-with an otherwise low coin count. I'm guessin the earlier detectorists disc'd out the tabs-wich I just adore-thanks for giving me a chance at least!...

 

[Jason in Enid]

How can you assuming it landed there after being fired? Kids carry all kinds of wierd stuff to playground areas. That side impact looks a lot more like it stuck something laterally with force. That looks nothing like the impact from a terminal velocity fall, which is far, far slower than being fired.

 

[TerraDigger]

I agree with Jason. However Dark, you are absolutely right on about shooting bullets into the air.

 

[BeyWolf]

Many many years ago on New Years Eve, a bullet came through my neighbors roof and buried itself in the pool table.
That's going through tin, wood, insulation, plaster board and then it went below the felt on the pool table.
A falling bullet may not go as fast as a fired bullet but I'm sure glad we weren't playing pool at the time.
This bullet was a large caliber but even a small one would do serious damage with a direct hit.

 

[Sailorman]

Found several like that in the last year nose down. There are still fools who think it's great to celebrate by firing into the air. We hear them especially New Years Eve. Been a life long shooter myself and never done that and would jump all over anyone who did. Falling bullets killed and/or wounded quite a few people in the New Orleans area when we lived just north of there where it was an old and entrenched habit. They had annual campaigns to stop it and it still happened every year.

A bullet fired perfectly vertical will fall back at a comparatively low velocity that is unlikely to hurt someone very badly but even a slight angle and it still will retain a lot more velocity. No matter what it's a damn stupid thing to do.

 

[Dude]

I find bullets all the time in tot lots with wood chips.
I would imagine they got there because they where fired into trees that later got shredded into wood chips destined for play grounds.

And it is very stupid for someone to fire a bullet into the air, people who do that have the maturity of a 2 year old.

 

[triplehooked]

I was detecting at a well used kids park last year and found a complete 30'06 cartridge with deep cut marks on the side of the casing, next to the primer. I assumed it was from a lawnmower hit. You just never know what you will find. There is a lot of dumb people out there....

 

[matthias]

Just a sample of what I have found in my tiny backyard and local schoolyards and playgrounds. The bullet to the right looks like it hit its target and still has bone mass on it...most likely from a deer.