I got shot once...

skunkwerx

Remembered an incident earlier and thought I'd share. 

I was 17, out riding my bike at the time on a Friday evening, near the town centre of Romford. 

I rode through the outdoor car park of the brewery (a big sort of entertainment and shopping complex) and pulled up to stop along the far pavement, next to the dual carriageways. On my right was the dual carriageways and beyond them was several high rise flats which, I wouldnt have bothered going near without an armoured division. 

On my left was the car park and lots of big stylish cyclindrical support beams for utterly useless weird 'roof' things which must pass as art. 

I'm looking down and straightening my wheel because the bikes a bit loose, when 'tap' I feel a stone ping off my arm. 

Not exactly painful, at all. Figured a car flicked it up is all. 

Then 'whizz', something shot past my head, literally fucking centimetres away, no kidding my emo fringe was flicked by the draught of whatever flew past. 

So I shot off and circled around because I didnt like that! My guess now was that some dickhead had a bb gun..

Then 'ping' something ricocheted off one of the big metal supports that I was weaving through, this time further from my head, but close enough to let me know someones actively targeting me.
definitely a pellet gun, and a pissing powerhouse of one! 

I got 5 metres further before another whizz straight past my head again. By this point im gunning it and ducked out around back into the car park to the cover of the shops buildings. 

Woo adrenaline pumping and I flew home by a safer route. Once I knew I was well clear, out of sight, out of range I sat down on the saddle n just happened to glance down, where I saw blood streaming down my arm from the elbow, all the way to my gloves! 

I remember getting home and having my mum freak out and call an ambulance, then the police (lol). Luckily nothing had embedded itself in my arm, but i still have the scar 12 years later! Took a lil chunk of flesh out of me it did. 

Kind of always pissed me off that some arsehole could have blinded me. I mean, I was pissed for a long time, and confused at why someone would do it. 

Never did see the shooter, but my guess is the high rise flats. I don't know a great deal about pellet guns, but I was surprised at the range and accuracy and also the speed at which I was being shot at! I thought they were a one shot then reload deal! Course there could have been multiple chavs with em though... 

Grunfeld

I know exactly where you've described.
A couple of months ago my son was driving really near there* and a couple of guys shot out half the windows of his bus!  Fuck knows what they used to shoot with but there was still glass everywhere along the road when I went past.
There are some strange people around.


* Top end of Dagenham Rd by the cemetery as it joins Crow Lane and Oldchurch Rd.

Gassage

You were shot once? But who shot twice?

ICBM

Multi-shot pneumatic air rifle most likely. Google 'Theoben Rapid 7'.

viz

I was driving along the A303 once when suddenly the windscreen shattered and fell into our laps. When hoovering up the glass later we found an air rifle pellet. 

gubble

First time I went to Doncaster (to visit a guitar shop). Parked in a multi storey car park. Some guys drove past with their windows down and shot at me and my mate with air rifles. Completely random and unprovoked

It was all very odd and put me off Doncaster for life

Iamnobody

Never underestimate how much people hate Emos!

Sounds very scary - it's a good story later on in life for the grandkids! You can embellish it as you please!

Jalapeno

When I were a lad, a mate had a BB pistol - pointed it at me and said "run". I foolishly did and he shot me in the arse with a pellet, thankfully not one of those fluffy dart jobs. I can attest to the durability of Levis. No lasting damage, but it hurt like hell.

(I'm Godfather to some of his kids these days, we were very close before he died of a brain tumour last year - but he always had a warped sense of fun )

RandallFlagg

Goddang cyclists! "Get orf o' my land"

Hertz32

Air rifles are surprisingly accurate and powerful. Field target rifles are single shot but are capable of putting 10 pellets through a pellet sized hole at about 60m with a decent shot. They're lethal to a rabbit to about 50yrds too. 

CabbageCat

I was shot in the butt cheek by a little scrote with a BB gun in Crawley when I was younger. It hurt enough to make me feel sick but didn't penetrate my jeans.

CabbageCat

Hertz32 said:

Air rifles are surprisingly accurate and powerful. Field target rifles are single shot but are capable of putting 10 pellets through a pellet sized hole at about 60m with a decent shot. They're lethal to a rabbit to about 50yrds too. 

Did anyone else cringe at the juxtaposition of metric and imperial there? 

Bridgehouse

CabbageCat said:

I was shot in the butt cheek by a little scrote with a BB gun in Crawley when I was younger. It hurt enough to make me feel sick but didn't penetrate my jeans.

Grunfeld

CabbageCat said:

...60m with a decent shot. They're lethal to a rabbit to about 50yrds too. 

Did anyone else cringe at the juxtaposition of metric and imperial there? 

The rabbit wasn't too f*cking happy!

lasermonkey

I'm pretty sure I was shot with an air rifle whilst riding my 125 home from work. I felt an impact on the side of my crash helmet which sounded exactly how I imagined a pellet hit would sound. I looked around, but couldn't see anyone. When I got home I noticed a small, circular depression on the side of the helmet, so it likely was some scrote with an air rifle.
 I've also been hit by shotgun pellets as they descend. This was whilst going to work. A bunch of shooters were in one of the local farm fields and were blasting away, and I rode into what felt like heavy hail. I seem to remember that it stung a bit, even through jeans and a thick jacket. When I turned to look at what was going on, I noticed that the beaters were frantically trying to wave them off, with little success, it would seem.

skunkwerx

Grunfeld said:

I know exactly where you've described.
A couple of months ago my son was driving really near there* and a couple of guys shot out half the windows of his bus!  Fuck knows what they used to shoot with but there was still glass everywhere along the road when I went past.
There are some strange people around.


* Top end of Dagenham Rd by the cemetery as it joins Crow Lane and Oldchurch Rd.

Yeah thats it! 

We used to skate there, as its exceptionally smooth with a nice lil stair set. But after that incident, even driving past with my windows down gets me anxious lol! 

chillidoggy

A kid called Christopher shot me with his Gambler spud-gun when I was kid. That fucking stung, I can tell you. I let his tricycle tyres down the next day, that showed him.

Bygone_Tones

I got shot just driving along the motorway a couple of years ago. Going through Manchester, M602 I think. Smashed my rear passenger window.

Bygone_Tones

Iamnobody said:

Never underestimate how much people hate Emos!

Sounds very scary - it's a good story later on in life for the grandkids! You can embellish it as you please!

That's not a healthy way to think about it. Unlikely to be a personal attack. More likely it was just bad luck, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

ICBM

I had the back window of my car hit on the M8 near Airdrie once too. It didn't shatter the glass, but the impact mark was distinctive if you've seen one before. Probably either a low-powered gun or right at the end of its range.

This sort of thing - or more accurately the killing of a toddler, who was shot in the head with one - is why air weapons are now illegal without a licence in Scotland. As usual, fuckwits who can't use them responsibly making things a hassle for the others who can...

crunchman

I know there was a spate of District line train windows being shot out on the east end of the line (around Dagenham) a while back.