Shooting Steel Warning (or perhaps Bad Karma comes to visit?)

[Blackfeet]

Hi all,
I have been shooting at steel targets from safe distances (beyond the recommended minimums) for almost 50 years and have on occasion experienced small amounts of spatter.
But the last two times that I have been shooting, I have been hit with substantial chunks of lead from targets that were in good condition and properly located.
The first was a 41 Magnum cast lead bullet that hit a ½" thick swinger at 25 yards. I actually saw the chunk of lead glint in the sun just before it hit me in the belly. Luckily I am fully padded in that location so there was plenty of give. Still hit hard enough to break the skin. Upon inspection, once we confirmed that there was no medical emergency, it was found that the bullet had hit the swinger post right at the junction where it was welded to the plate. There have been thousands of rounds fired at the plate and it remains in good smooth condition. It was a fluke ..........or so I thought.
Yesterday, one week later, my wife and I were out shooting at my little steel rectangles that I made 15 years ago. We have shot at these regularly throughout the years, again at 20-25 yards. The suggested minimum distance for pistols ranges from 10-15 yards. At any rate, we were using 22 revolvers and CCI Stingers. We had been shooting for some time when I smacked one target solidly and I received what must have been almost the whole bullet back to my forearm with enough force to imbed the material of a thick sweatshirt into the skin. Again the target showed no signs of anything out of the ordinary and it must have absorbed a good portion of the bullets force
In retrospect, the Stinger has a lot more speed than the regular .22 ammo but............?
Now for the muzzleloader content.
These are the same targets that I use for the 32 Squirrel rifle.
While I realize that both incidents were probably flukes, the fact that it did happen tells me that it can happen again (it did). There are too many grandkids around wanting to shoot to chance it again so I am retiring the steel for pistols and get some of the self-healing units and maybe cut off some 2 by 4 blocks.
Just a 'Heads up'

[crazell]

Thank you for letting us know. Do much damage to the forearm? Glad none of the young'ns were there.

[beowulf]

these things do occur , I`ve had it happen twice , only it was`nt steel plates or a .22 . first time it was a .45 perccusion rifle ,  bullet bounced back from a locust post hitting my hunting bag hard enough that I heard it , distance , about 30 yards .  the one that scared the heck out of me was shooting at a squirrel and missing , probably a good 40 yards , .50 caliber smoothbore , missed the critters noggin , hit the rock outcropping behind him , and was slapped hard enough to make me take a step back and almost drop the gun .  ball caught me in the sternum hard enough that it raised a knot as big as a hens egg ! that was 30 years ago . been real careful since !

[hotfxr]

The gun club I belong to has target stands made from 1 1/4" angle iron. I have a scar on my shin where a .40 cal from a Glock (shot by someone else two stations down) came back and darned near knocked my foot out from under me.( I did impress the apologetic shooter when I pulled the mangled copper and lead piece out of my leg though.) Those hanging metal cylinder targets were finally taken out after several of us were hit by flying metal when the guys with the conical bullets would shoot. Never been hit by a round ball though and I would like to keep it that way.

[pilgrim]

     the gun club range I shot at,  has 1" heavy rubber mats where the targets are stapled to.  They apparently work fine for centerfire rifles,  BUT  I have had round balls bounce back to my feet and legs from a distance of 50 yards.  the mats are too thick for the rb to penetrate.  No injuries though.  So now I place the targets low on the mats, any rebound hits the ground before getting near me  plus I  shoot 70+ powder loads.   Has not happened for a while.