Help Identifying A Projectile

[SupaRice]

Doesn't look like any bullet I've ever seen, but was "shot" through the window of my neighbor's little girl's room. Must've had some punch behind it as it made quite the hole in the wall opposite the window.

I'm a pretty avid airgunner, and I've not seen any pellets that look like this.

Slingshot?

Anyone recognize it? This is where my kids play.

 

[Garufa]

Where any lawnmowers running when it happened?  Whatever it is it looks like it's been on the ground a while and maybe was kicked up by a mower.

[BrasilNuts]

If I'm reading that ruler correctly, that object is 1.5" long?

I agree with Garufa, given the size and rust... lawn mower projectile.

Edited June 13, 2017 by BrasilNuts

[Sam1]

Yeah that definitely did not come out of a barrel, air gun or otherwise.  Garufa's assumption makes the most sense.

Does that nick/dent on the middle ring look fresh?  If so that would all but confirm it was probably hit by a mower blade.

Edited June 13, 2017 by Sam1

[1fast4by]

Im going to back the lawnmower projectile theory here

[gjohnsoniv]

Definitely got kicked up by a mower. Objects tossed by mowers can absolutely ruin your day, speaking from experience here. 

[SupaRice]

I initially thought that also, but the neighbor said from the path it entered looks like it came from a wooded area around the creek in back of their place.....  Still, mower looks most probable to me also given the limited info.

Thanks guys

Edited June 13, 2017 by SupaRice

[Smokin45]

Could have been a ricochet off a tree or something and then entered ??

[Smokin45]

Edit  a ricochet from the lawn mower

[SupaRice]

I think that's most probable. It's like CSI! hehe

I did a few google searches for fasteners and things, I think I've seen a part like that before working on windows are something around the house. Just can't place it.

 

It more or less has captivated my OCD to figure out what it is at this point...

Edited June 13, 2017 by SupaRice

[MP5_Rizzo]

By what looks like rust it would be a something made of steel.  I would think if it had been kicked up by lawn mower it would have a freshly defined nick in it somewhere.

So here's another possible scenario for consideration.  When I was a youth I had a wrist rocket or better known as a high tech sling shot.  They still make them and I'm sure they are better than when I was a kid.  This object appears to be perfect size and shape for wrist rocket ammo.  It is possible for this thing to have travel well over a hundred yards from such device.

[SupaRice]

True, that was proposed also.... I'd like it to be the mower more than that though.

[Murgatroy]

An axle race of some sort?

 

I have seen a chain thrown from the blades of a lawn mower take out two car windows in spectacular fashion and a piece of gravel take out a rear window with similar fanfare. That would be closer on my list than a group of ne'er-do-wells trying to wreak havoc. 

[Fourtyfive]

I think it's from one of Kim Jung's rocket test......

[E4 No More]

10 hours ago, gjohnsoniv said:

Definitely got kicked up by a mower. Objects tossed by mowers can absolutely ruin your day, speaking from experience here. 

 

1 hour ago, Murgatroy said:

An axle race of some sort?

 

I have seen a chain thrown from the blades of a lawn mower take out two car windows in spectacular fashion and a piece of gravel take out a rear window with similar fanfare. That would be closer on my list than a group of ne'er-do-wells trying to wreak havoc. 

In 1982 I was mowing my father-in-law's yard when the mower kicked out a rock so hard that it bounced off of a landscaping rock and struck my left calf on the inside of my leg  just a couple of inches from my tibia. I though I had been shot! It created compartment syndrome that made a nasty bruise from the bottom of the back of my knee down to the bottom of my ankle and around my calf almost completely. I reported for the Marine Corps a couple days later, and the squid doctors were astonished that I could even walk on the leg let alone run. I am convinced that had it struck my tibia it would have broken it completely.

[Sam1]

17 hours ago, MP5_Rizzo said:

When I was a youth I had a wrist rocket or better known as a high tech sling shot.  They still make them and I'm sure they are better than when I was a kid. 

Found a pic of MP5_Rizzo using his wrist rocket as a kid:

[monkeylizard]

22 hours ago, SupaRice said:

I think I've seen a part like that before working on windows are something around the house.

I agree. It looks a LOT like the piece on a double-hung window sash that allows it to pivot. When you remove the window sash, there's a part like this on the side edges that lock into a slotted "receiver" in the frame. That receiver is attached to counter weights to assist in opening the window.

Did your neighbors have new windows installed in that last couple of years? If so, it probably fell out of the old windows during removal and has been in the grass ever since then, just waiting for a passing mower.

Edited June 14, 2017 by monkeylizard

[MP5_Rizzo]

4 hours ago, Sam1 said:

Found a pic of MP5_Rizzo using his wrist rocket as a kid:

I was really good with it too!  After this incident I lived like a King.

[RED333]

2 hours ago, monkeylizard said:

I agree. It looks a LOT like the piece on a double-hung window sash that allows it to pivot. When you remove the window sash, there's a part like this on the side edges that lock into a slotted "receiver" in the frame. That receiver is attached to counter weights to assist in opening the window.

Did your neighbors have new windows installed in that last couple of years? If so, it probably fell out of the old windows during removal and has been in the grass ever since then, just waiting for a passing mower.

That part in a modern window is way smaller, like 1/4 inch or so.

[monkeylizard]

Yeah, but if the part fell out of an old window, who knows what size it may have been in a window from yesteryear? Or maybe it's not a window part at all. Just a guess.

[JAB]

When I was in high school a buddy of mine lived across from the railroad tracks - their living room faced the street and the tracks were across the street.  One day I came in to visit and noticed a hole in one of the front windows and a hole in the wall directly across from the window, above their couch.  I asked if someone had shot through their window.  My buddy said that no one had shot through the window.  Instead, the grass in the area beside the train tracks was being mowed and the mower threw something with enough force that it traveled across the road and across their small front yard - a total distance of probably 35-40 yards or so, give or take, through the window glass and still had enough force to punch a hole in the wall.  Because of the angles involved if anyone had been sitting on the couch whatever it was likely would have hit them in the head and probably killed them.  So, lawnmower thrown object sounds plausible, to me.  However...

There is a channel on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/taofledermaus - which is largely centered around trying out different types of shotgun slugs or even replacing the normal loads in live shotgun shells with various objects and firing them from a shotgun.  I can't tell for sure from the pic but am thinking that thing looks like it just might fit into a 12 gauge shell.  Someone might have decided to try shooting it from a shotgun in the wooded area you described.  Accuracy with such an improvised projectile would likely be poor so - if that scenario is actually what took place - the person who fired it may have been aiming at a 'safe' target but the projectile may have gone off in an unexpected direction or the person may have not thought it would travel very far.  That would mean - if it were actually fired from a gun - the person who fired it was stupid and negligent but probably not acting with intentional malice.  One thing that made me think of the shotgun theory is that the bulge in the center and on one end of the object are pretty bright and shiny while the rest is pretty heavily rusted.  I wonder if the middle bulge lost its rust while traveling down the barrel of a shotgun and maybe the one end had the rust burned off by the gunpowder blast?  Of course, the rust could have been rubbed off when the projectile hit the wall but it would have had to be traveling pretty fast when it hit said wall to shine those areas up so much while passing through what was probably not a very thick barrier.

I thought of this because the shape of the object kind of reminds me a bit of this Russian shotgun slug they tested.  Not exactly like it but similar enough that I could see someone trying it.

Still, the lawnmower theory probably makes the most sense.

Edited June 14, 2017 by JAB