No one could be happier that more women are getting into guns and shooting than we are. But we’d like to see  their experience – especially their first few – be a positive one. That means not committing asshattery like this with a new shooter just for yuks and YouTube hits. You know another way to keep a new shooter coming back? Keep them from burning their feet. Or calves, in the case of the UGGs and tights wearer. We’ve talked about the danger of exposed cleavage. This shot was taken by reader JeffD. So even if you’re not concerned about turning off a new shooter, you should probably worry about where they’ll be pointing that muzzle as s/he’s hopping around the range line amid the smell of burning flesh. And yes, anyone can get singed, even if they’re dressed correctly. When was the last time you saw someone do the hot brass bunny hop?

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57 COMMENTS

  1. When I did it myself after a piece of brass bounced off the stall wall and got caught behind my glasses. At least I had the good sense to drop my XD on the bench as I ripped my glasses off 🙂

  2. Watching it go down someone’s shirt even after they’ve done every precaution to prevent it is hilarious.

  4. The one time in my life when I didn’t wear a billed cap at the range, I took a .50 casing to the forehead. It was unpleasant. As far as ladies catching one in their cleeves, I’ve seen it happen. For reasons unknown, my offers to assist in the removal of said brass were spurned.

  5. I’ve seen it a couple times, even though people dress appropriately at the range I go to. I myself had a piece of hot brass bounce off the wall of the booth and land right where my neck meets my shoulder and sit there for a moment. That caused quite a twitch but I stayed pointed down range. Now I just stand to the left side of the lane to make it less likely any brass bouncing off the booth wall can reach me.

  6. At a class that I taught in Los Angeles 3 weeks ago, one person caught a hot round on his neck, ran off the line, then turned towards to line pointing his loaded gun at everyone on the line. The dressing down that I gave him was not for polite company.

    You MUST at all time retain full control of your muzzle, hot brass and anything and everything else included

  7. I routinely wear flip-flops to the range. I know some of you will frown at me for that. But, I live 95% of my life in flip-flops, so to do otherwise would be unnatural for me. Yeah, I’ve caught hot brass between the toes a few times. It’s an accepted risk, and I just shake it out. I can do it without taking the sights off the target.

    From another angle, I’ve seen people scoffed at for “standing and shooting” because you “need to practice moving while shooting.” Ostensibly, this is so you can can effectively return fire while people are SHOOTING AT YOU. Hot brass between the toes is just a (much) lower level of “distraction while firing.”

  8. I did just the other day. Brass bounced off and came to rest on my bare ankle just above my sock.

    I knew instantly what it was and did my best G. Gordon Liddy. The lovely and gracious Gemey shoots a revolver. I’ll have to remind her of the advantage.

  9. Worst brass I ever took was a .40 S&W case stuck between the rim of my glasses and my head. Being someone who has worked with torches though, you learn to stay calm react fast but calm. If you panic you are going to make a bad situation much worse.

    My wife the first time we went shooting decided to wear a shirt that shows off her natural giant cleave, I told her not to do it, she didn’t listen…now she wears long sleeved shirts that go all the way up to the neck.

  10. Had my then 8 year-old daughter at the range with a Walther P22. First mag went well, she wanted to shoot another. Loaded up another 10, mag in the pistol, slide forward. She sent the first one downrange and then paused. The empty had gone almost straight up and back, and landed in the tiny gap between her safety glasses and her prescription glasses, coming to rest on (and mildly burning) her right cheek.

    She said, “Ow…Ow…OW…OWOWOWOW!” but never lost control of the muzzle or the pistol. I took the pistol out of her hands and swiped off the glasses, letting the empty case drop to the ground. We mopped up the tears, got her glasses back on and fired the rest of the mag, and several more afterward.

    The burn lasted a couple of weeks, and disappeared. The pride in my daughter’s ability to maintain safe muzzle direction with a couple hundred degrees of hot brass just below her eye will last a lifetime. I continually praise her about that incident even though it’s been a couple of years, hoping to reinforce range safety. I hope she never ends up with hot brass in Cleveland, but if she does she should remember what to do with the muzzle of the firearm.

  11. a piece of brass that came out the G17 gen 4 i used to have flew up and landed on my hair, which was tied up as usual, i did not notice until i felt a really hot sensation on top of my head. that was fun.

  12. As a left-handed shooter, I’m used to brass bouncing off my noggin. The other day I was shooting at the range and the guy next to me was leaning way forward in his lane when shooting. This caused his brass to miss the clear right partition and bounce off my head! I laid my gun down and stepped back; now the brass was hitting my right partition and I was still being hit. No harm done, but I waiting until he was done shooting and began reloading before I pointed out what was happening. He couldn’t hear me well, (this is an indoor range) so I tried hand gestures; pointing at his gun, then bouncing a spent cartridge off my head. He didn’t get it. He continued to lean forward while shooting, his cartridges flying! After that I just waited for him to finish shooting before I stepped up myself.

  13. I was on a range in California when a woman wearing a V-neck T-shirt and flip-flops got a piece of .22LR brass from a Ruger Mk-II in her toes. She started hopping, came out off the line, turned and put one into the abdomen of a Vietnam Vet (who had been awarded a PH, no less, for being shot in the gut with an AK-47) to her right. He was found in the men’s room, mopping up the blood from the entry wound with paper towels, dragged out, put on a chopper to the ER, where he was opened up for several hours to patch him up.

    Flip flops should be unconditionally banned from shooting ranges. Real, full covering shoes should be considered safety attire the same as hearing and eye protection.

  14. last fall at an outdoor range here in UT, an army NG guy had a piece of brass from a G17 drop inside his t-shirt and started dancing like travolta in saturday night fever. I’ve had hot brass land on my feet while wearing flip-flops and you just deal with it.

  15. “No one could be happier that more women are getting into guns and shooting than we are”.

    I have mixed thoughts and feelings on this issue. While I think (hope) most women buying guns will be an overall asset to the gun community, I have some concerns. Women know they are not held to the same legal standards in our so-called Criminal Court System. Police, Prosecutors, Defense, Judges, and Juries have a bias in wanting to often almost give women defendants the ‘benefit of the doubt’ that men are seldom given. There is also the modern social illness of the entitlement attitude probably worse with women than men, and the tendency to chase the latest fashion trend (almost like an accessory piece). Whether they knowingly plan to break the law or not, males generally know all too well that they can expect consequences for their actions. Modern womyn want power though they don’t often want to be held accountable.

        • I don’t think he doesn, but okay, why not?

          The only clear point I could make out was about the legal system and that’s easily explained. Women, on average are physically smaller and weaker than men, and are therefore the law gives them presumes disparity of force, just like it does with the elderly. With men, disparity of force usually requires disparity of numbers or a clear disparity in size and strength. This is just biology.

          I’ll rebut the rest if he gets specific.

          • “Women, on average are physically smaller and weaker than men, and are therefore the law gives them presumes disparity of force….”

            So you’re ok with the philosophy of restitution?

            • I’m okay with the law acknowledging reality.

              And please excuse the bizarro usages in my comment above. I was of two minds about how to word a couple things, and they came out as a weird hybrid of both, and I wasn’t able to edit them.

          • “the law gives them presumes disparity of force”

            What the law is giving them is special class privileges and that is pure bs. The law should not presume anything about anyone. That would be equality and equal accountability under the law. By sex, age, race, religion, etc. It seems to me that you guys are more the sexist than I am.

            It is interesting for sex based violence comparisons among heterosexual couples 15-20% have some degree of DV, among gay men it is 25%, and among lesbians the DV rate is 33% or 1 in 3 couples — of course this rate might have been changed lately by re-defining what is DV.

            Speaking of not being held accountable, women or girls are almost never held accountable or prosecuted after they get busted for filing a FRA false rape claim though the accused man would have gone to prison for many long years.

            Being kind to the cruel is being cruel to the kind. Rewarding criminal behavior with no punishment creates a culture of aggression and further unaccountability.

            I hope you two guys are never discriminated against in a Courtroom simply because you are male and the opposing party is female.

            You can attack me all you want. The bias in the Courts, the lack of accountability in society, and the entitlement attitude is clear and evident.

            • The law presumes disparity of forces because in the large majority of cases, it’s there, just lije it is for children and the elderly. This is the law acknowledging reality, and I’m okay with that.

        • Anthony, I’m glad you acknowledge it and have the decency in PC society to say it. It really is sad that many males are so conditioned to accepting and buying into the governing paradigm. For the past 40+ years all the major cultural institutions along with feminism has pushed the message female good/male bad to rationalize misandry and discrimination against males (men and boys).

      • I guess I grind share of my axes, too, but you’re right, every single post that mentions women gets something like this from Aharon. Women are evil, manipulative, and sneaky, etc etc.

        • Actually I focus far more on feminists and/or the modern westernized womyn in my criticisms as a general rule and not all women as you seem to insinuate. BTW, feminists do what you just did: criticize their feminist values and they label you an attacker on all women.

          Bottom line: you are ignorant. 50% or more of one way (when the attacked does not strike back) domestic violence attacks are started by the woman against the man.

          • Okay, so you don’t like uppity “modern, westernized” women (and you especially dislike womyn – I went to college with some of them). What kind of women do you like? Women who “know their place?”

            I’ll buy into your unsourced stat about 50% or more of DV attacks started by women. Lord knows I throw out some unsourced stats. But you and I both know that a lot more women get severly beaten and/or killed by men than vice-versa. Perhaps they deserved it, since they “started it.”

            Of course, if a woman is raped, it was because of how she was dressed, and she should be stoned to death. I think we need an Honor Killing law here in the States.

            Okay, sorry, I know that last bit is extreme and unfair, but I’m really not getting your position. You say I’m ignorant – educate me. Otherwise, I’m putting you in the same category as the Taliban.

            • True that more women get severely beaten and killed by men than the other way around. I no longer recall the numbers of who started those severe/fatal fights. No, I don’t care for mindless submissive women, do you?

              I don’t have the time here to educate you. This forum is not set up for it and other places/people can do a far better job than I.

              Check out the site ‘Man Woman Myth’ which has a series of excellent documentary videos. ‘Angry Harry’ is another great site run by an Englishman and a therapist, and it is rather amusing. Lastly, take a look at ‘The False Rape Society’ run by a defense attorney the site has documented more than 2,000 cases of FRA (just the tip of the ice-berg) and it provides links to far more documentation.

              You can categorize me any way you want. Just please stop categorizing and limiting yourself. Take a look at the sites I wrote about. Maybe the information there will resonate with you and maybe not. Either way, agree or not, you’ll probably have a few good laughs and get some food for thought.

              • I will check out your links, with much skeptism. I’m sure you’ll do me the same solid with my lefty links in the future.

              • Yes, I will. BTW, I am neither left or right, and not liberal or conservative. I do not want to go back to a “1950s” culture. Getting trapped into a marriage (with the probability of facing the Family/Divorce Courts and being a provider, protector, and chivalrous knight to a woman is a high-risk limited-payback gamble and I’m not getting into it (though a son and daughter would be nice).

          • Okay second try.

            You don’t like “modern, Westernized women.” Womyn are especially bad (they have no sense of humor?) 50% of DV attacks are started by women. Ok. You and I both know that far more women are severely injured or killed by men than vice versa.

            What kind of women are ok with you? You say I’m ignorant, educate me.

  16. Yeah, hot brass is not much fun. As I have gotten older, I tend to dress more conservatively at the range and wear more safety equipment. I also try not to shower other people with brass.

  17. I got a 5.56 case down my neck which was held in place against my back by my undershirt and body armor. This was after some good M16 rapid fire. Left a 2nd degree burn, and I can still remeber the sound of the sizzle.

    • Had the same thing except it was during a convoy live fire exercise. I finished firing and finally reached up to remove the brass after we’d passed the firing point. It was an exquisite experience.

  18. I must be doing something wrong. I’ve been shooting most of my life & have never done the hot-brass-boogie.
    But then, again, I do most (not all) of my shooting on my own land. I have found one good thing about having a 8′-deep wash on your land – it’s a ready-made firing range! Plus you don’t have to worry about the guy in the next lane opening up with a cannon in your ear.
    I’ve had brass bounce off of my hat a time or two when it hit a limb or something. But no skin contact that I can recall.
    I guess I need to do some more shooting. (Any excuse is better than none, right?)

  19. Last time I fired a handgun (I live in Canada, I only shoot pistols when I can rent or borrow them) it was in a narrow indoor stall. A few .45 casings landed on top of my head but it was nothing more than a slight annoyance. What I did find funny was that when I engaged the target return motor a handful of casing rained down from above, having been nestled in the antiquated open pulley drive. I’m surprised that motor hadn’t burned itself out from years of casings getting stuck in it.

  20. Funny story from yesterday. A buddy and I went to a members-only outdoor range for their monthly public day. For those of you unfamiliar with AR’s, they are very consistent with where they fling the brass, as in, put a coffee can about 6 feet to your right and you’ll drop 80% of your brass into it. My buddy set up on a shooting bench next to an older gentleman in a checked shirt who was sighting in his new Remington Model Seven. My friend popped off three rounds; all three hit the older gentleman in the upper left shoulder, one of them trickled down and ended up in his shirt pocket. He laughed and shook his head, while I walked up and leaned on the right side of the bench with my back to my friend to play human lane shield. He and I had a nice conversation in between his shot strings while my friend scratched my back with his brass. A good time was had by all. My friend is buying a brass catcher for next time.

  21. 25 years ago, DCM (old “Director of Civilian Marksmanship”) high-power match, most folks using a Garand (me too). Guy on my left had a Garand, shooting the prone rapid fire match: had a nice hot .30-06 case go down the back of my shirt, and end up somewhere in the middle of my back, while I was shooting.

    Kinda pulled that one shot a bit. Interesting burn mark, but no dancing.

  22. I still have a small mark on my face from a piece of .380 brass that bounced off my head, and got stuck between my safety glasses and my cheek.

  23. A couple years ago my dad had his G17 eject straight back into his face, got caught behind his glasses, and burned his eyelid.

  24. The scenario in the two previous comments happened to me just two days ago. Ejected 9mm brass somehow dropped behind my safety glasses and started cooking my upper cheek. I calmly put the gun down, pointing downrange, and removed the offending brass.

    When I read this post months ago, I didn’t know how I would react to that kind of unexpected pain, but it all turned out OK.

    I guess I need better safety glasses.

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