A Bullet Story

This happened last summer but I was too embarrassed to tell the story.

One day last summer Myra and I were taking target practice with our revolvers. Anthony, the twelve year old from Yentna Station was here with us at the time. He was just observing target practice and playing with the dogs at this time.
I had hung a target on a stump on the side of the hill in the front yard. The stump was from an old mostly dead tree that I had cut down earlier in the year. It was two thirds hollow or gone. I was comfortable shooting at it. Was is the key word her.
Between Myra and I we had shot about twenty rounds or so between the two of us before it happened.
This is the stump near the bottom right side of the picture!

I had reloaded my gun and stepped back about 10 feet further from the target. I was probably about sixty feet back. I shot at the target and did not see where I hit. I stood there looking and the twelve year old was standing beside me. I would say it was between six and eight seconds after the shot and I got hit on the bulge of my stomach by something falling out of the sky.
I was shocked by the impact and stepped back a foot or two. I pulled up my shirt and had a red streak and very slightly broken skin going down my stomach. After talking for a second the twelve year said hey, I bet it was the bullet and he dropped to his knees and started searching. Sure enough, he came up with a half smashed lead bullet right at where my feet were. We went to the stump and found where I had hit the top edge of the stump.
That bullet had hit the stump and went up into the air at such and angle and with the wind it came down on my stomach. Wow, was I shocked and scared all at the same time. I did not blog about it at the time because I was embarrassed to admit this one at the time. I thought about how stupid it was to shoot at a stump.
Now I find out people around here do that all the time. And people have been hit by ricochets off of all sorts of things from stumps and trees to rocks behind a target.
I guess I should just feel lucky I had a roof over the tool shed and call it one of those God things.
Another reason I have to be thankful today,
It was a lesson learned with only a little pain!
Thanks for letting me share.
Roger,

PS: I immediately made a target holder on a thin, frail wood stick and 1/4" plywood, planted in front of the side of a hill that was about 50 feet behind it. Now I find out the rocks back there are just as dangerous as the stump, Go Figure?
This is the new target location. See the white sheet by the trail.