The Behavior of Projectile Ricochet Off Various Wooden Targets

This paper details the assessment of bullet ricochet as a function of incident angle and the impact plate material. A series of experimental testing have been carried out on three different woods chosen to give range of hardness, ranked from the hardest to the softest. Each wood was fired upon at varying angles of incidence until ricochet was observed. The tests were conducted in an indoor short range using a standard 0.22 calibre bolt-action rifle. In general, the ricochet angle was found to increase with an increase in angle of incidence but decrease with an increase in target hardness.