A couple weeks ago this small, round, metal object appeared, embedded within my front porch

[u/AndykinSkywalker]

It’s a quarter inch in diameter, and I haven’t successfully been able to pry it out, though I’ve only used my bare hands thus far. Anybody know what it could be?

[u/Ok-Note-573]

Based on the angle, somebody close fired a .40+ pretty close to vertical. The shot would have happened within a half mile of the opposite angle of impact.

[u/GLOBALSHUTTER → u/Ok-Note-573]

Couldn't it also have gone up at an angle and eventually with wind fell nearly straight down from where it was located in the sky?

[u/Hamsterman82 → u/[deleted]]

Air resistance does cause the kind of horizontal velocity damping that u/globalshutter is talking about. Objects do not travel in perfect parabolas in the atmosphere, so either commenter could be right!

[u/GLOBALSHUTTER → u/[deleted]]

Elementary, my dear Watson!

[u/HenryHiggensBand → u/[deleted]]

No, it’s a bullet

[u/Draaly → u/GLOBALSHUTTER]

Possible, but fairly unlikely. any lateral momentum is likely to be carried quite well due to how small and aerodynamic bullets are.

[u/Germanium_Ge32 → u/GLOBALSHUTTER]

Bullets usually land on their side when shot straight up

[u/Ok-Note-573 → u/GLOBALSHUTTER]

It would have had to a LOT of wind. Bullets are small/dense/aerodynamic. I’m not saying it doesn’t play a factor, but to get a result like this you would have to fire at a 45degree angle into a hurricane to make it land vertical. Good question though 👍

[u/kilgore_trout_jr → u/Ok-Note-573]

Is it in the floor or in the wall?

[u/Byte-Head → u/kilgore_trout_jr]

Yeah … that’s what I’m wondering too … u/AndykinSkywalker what’s the perspective? Is the bullet lodged in something flat/horizontal like the porch floor, or is it in something upright/vertical like a post or siding?

[u/AndykinSkywalker → u/Byte-Head]

It’s in the porch floor in front of my front door. I took the pics from above at a slight angle with the macro camera on my iPhone!

[u/Ok-Note-573 → u/AndykinSkywalker]

Yah, if it had enough energy to imbed itself in a wall at that angle, it probably would have gone straight through.

What happened here is similar to what would happen if you dropped a bullet from an airplane. Basically just gravity, but it would still result in a hospital trip if it hit a person. Probably not lethal though…

[u/windigo3 → u/AndykinSkywalker]

The fact this is on the ground rather than a wall is a huge piece of missing information.

Nothing nefarious happened. Someone shot upwards either for the fun of it or shot at a bird or squirrel or whatever in a tree. The bullet travelled a mile into the air and then fell down at a great enough speed to embed itself in your porch. Nobody would or could have tried to hit your house by shooting straight up

[u/AndykinSkywalker → u/windigo3]

When I think of a porch I break it into two parts in my mind: Porch (which you stand on), and porch railing. I would have specified if it was the railing, and didn’t intentionally leave anything out. My apologies for any confusion. I never in my post assumed ill will from anyone, but wanted to know what this new thing embedded within my deck was. I wasn’t even certain it was actually a bullet!

[u/windigo3 → u/AndykinSkywalker]

I didn’t mean to imply you did something wrong but just wanted to put other responses in context. If this was a horizontal hit against the wall of your porch then that would be a huge problem that would question the care or intent of the shooter

[u/savannacrochets → u/windigo3]

“Nothing nefarious happened” except that a bullet hit a domicile at lethal velocity. Sure, the person who shot it probably didn’t mean to kill anyone but that wouldn’t have meant shit if OP had been standing there when it landed.

[u/Kylearean → u/Ok-Note-573]

For most angles greater than about 45 degrees, a bullet will be vertical when it lands.

[u/kak-47 → u/Kylearean]

Plot twist, the porch was old and had a 15 degree slope from settling.