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Guys:
I have had parts of M-118 Special Ball hit me after hitting steel targets at 200 to 300 yards distance. One was almost the entire bullet and it smacked me on the leg.
I have also had .45 ACP literally bounce off of bowling pins at ten yards and come right back and hit me. The .45 I saw coming back but it was a bit faster than me moving. I have seen issued 9mm bounce off of auto poppers at thirty yards and fly well behind the firing line. I have tried angling steel to no effect.
I use the Oakley set that is a RFI item for units deploying. Three lenses that are easy to interchange. Problem with these and other eye pro is they will fog up when it is cold and damp out and you are sweating. These Oaklies seem to fit better than the Wiley X but both fog up no matter what you smear on the lenses.
Everything I get back from Iraq is that the eye pro are true eye savers and the brigde I am associated with swears by the Oakley type. $300.00 a set is what they apparently cost.
I am not an advocate of balloons when I can use steel but my steel is always a good distance away from the shooter and he is wearing eye pro, body armor, and the coveted kevlar hemmett. I would prefer frangiable but the Army isn't about to buy it for the conventional side so I have to use ball and thus have to deal with additional risk when using steel.
I tried balloons a couple of times but my training involves distance and I needed two Joes to blow up balloons while two others were busy following us through our course of fire with garbage bags full of balloons, trying to attach them to the cardboard targets I also use. Try that when it is 40 degrees, heavy rain, and a 10 MPH wind sometime. I stopped using balloons and rely on cardboard targets where we can quickly get to them to see results, and steel targets at ranges of 100 yards plus.
Gene
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