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I was helping a friend of my daughter shoot a .22 handgun at steel plates. She was a first time shooter. My plates are angled down to ricochet into the ground. I was standing right next to the shooter, probably closer to the plates than we should have been. She fired a shot and it felt like somebody threw a rock and hit me in the nose - a fast, heavy rock.

I immediately assumed the gun had failed and I got hit by a piece of metal from the gun. but the gun was fine. I now assume I was hit by a ricochet because I can't think of anything else that it could have been. Maybe the steel plate was swinging and not angled down at the moment of impact. I'm not sure how it maintained enough energy to even ricochet since .22's usually just come apart and leave a grey smudge on the steel. For a little piece of lead only 1/4" across, it hit much harder than I would have imagined. I've tried to think of other possibilities but I can't come up with anything so I'm going with ricochet.

No damage other than a scraped nose.

I stand further back now.