bullet hole in siding

Home alone, the nine-year-old next door discharged his father's deer rifle in the house. The bullet went through the wall of the house and the Masonite siding of my garage. A plank a couple of inches behind the Masonite stopped it.

Is it better to repair or replace the Masonite?

Reply to
J Burns
Loading thread data ...

J Burns wrote: ...

yes.

--

Reply to
dpb

J Burns wrote the following:

Replace the neighbor, or at least his kid.

Reply to
willshak

willshak wrote in news:ZM- dnef8zqGeFkjRnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@supernews.com:

plank or 2x4? amazing that a single plank stopped the round. You're very lucky.

at least teach both neighbor and kid gun safety. Ask that he buy a gun safe,too.

Reply to
Jim Yanik

No.

Reply to
Mike Hockisbigg

J Burns wrote in news:ib3v84$iau$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal- september.org:

You have so many problems on so many levels.

Reply to
frag

So it went through the house wall that is also the garage wall, and the masonite was in the middle, between the decorative siding and the inside garage wall?

I'm an amateur, but istm it depends on how much trouble it is. If the hole in the masonite doesn't show or doesn't have to look beautiful, you can fill it with any sort of filling, caulk, silicone, plastic wood, foam, a piece of cork, any old thing.

As to the kid, I would give his parents the option of either your calling the police and getting a written report from the police that you will keep**, or their signing before a notary a statement that they left a loaded gun or a gun and ammunition where 9-year old son could find it and shoot into your house. Otherwise the crapheads will let it happen again, next time with worse consequences. But if you tell them you'll be saving their statement and offering it as evidence when anyone in their household shoots you or any other neighbor or any property, there's a chance they'll try harder the next time.

Otherwise when that time comes, they'll deny anything every happened before, imply you are a liar, and all you'll have at most is a picture of a hole, that could be caused by anything, or could have been made by you yourself just after the next incident. I am also not a lawyer, but I think you should do this to remind them that if they don't care that much if their gun is loaded when they're not home, or in the other room, maybe they'll care about a lawsuit that you or the other neighbor will win and cost them thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars.

**Some places it seems to be hard to get a written report from he police except for what they consider serious. This seems serious to me, but you might call the police anonymously and ask if you'll get a written report if you report this. If they say yes, and then later they refuse, talk to the sergeant or the captain. If they say no, you can still give the same ultimatum to the neigbbor, but emphasize that it's in his interest not to call the police about this, that if keeps gusn away from his children and their visitors he'll be off the hook, without a police record of the incident.

If you do make out a report, get your paper copy now, and don't depend on the police to find it later.

I did go to law school for a year and the one thing I learned in Torts class is that without the threat of being sued, some people will take no care for the safety of others. In the case book, it was incredible the plainly dangerous situations that people allowed to exist and finally got sued for after an injury. Some will let their own children ride on ATV's when they're five, and there are more who don't give a darn about you. Because if they did, they never would have let this happen in the first place.

Reply to
mm

Where their son DID find it and DID shoot into your house. That they left him alone with this gun available to him.

You are also I'll bet not suing them now, I'll bet, and that you not sue is another incentive for them to sign such a statement. I doubt you have much physical damage and you're fixing it yourself (which courts usually don't pay for, except materials). I don't know if someone was home if he or she was actually made afraid by the sound of the shot of the breeze the bullet made when it went past her face. So I don't know if you have much of a lawsuit anyhow, but if you're not suing, all the more reason he should sign the statement.

Reply to
mm

I would recommend installing this product or similar:

formatting link
TDD

Reply to
The Daring Dufas

Recover the bullet, where is it?

Call your insurance agent and make his insurance company pay for the repairs.

Reply to
Oren

Depends on a lot of things. First is how much his insurance will pay you. From there, you look at it, and if it's something you can put some Liquid Nails, a patch, and a beer clock over, and pocket the difference, do that. If it is in a very aesthetic place, and you want it to look right, then either fix it right or buy a better beer clock, nude model, Elvis velvet painting, whatever, to cover the repair.

Other people's kids. Sheesh.

Steve

Heart surgery pending? Read up and prepare. Learn how to care for a friend.

formatting link

Reply to
Steve B

On Sat, 06 Nov 2010 14:12:49 -0400, mm wrote Re Re: bullet hole in siding:

+1 on that.
Reply to
Caesar Romano

Geez. Your question stirred up the rowdy answers for some reason.

Normally I would say replace but you may do more damage than you cure taking it all apart. I am assuming lap siding here but the same holds true for the

4x8 sheets.

I would fill with a non-absorbing filler using some type of scab on the backside and then prime at least two coats with an oil based primer. Then the top coat of paint. Once water finds a path to the inner structure that stuff rots pretty quick. If it is not on the hard weather side of the garage it may last for a long time.

Reply to
Colbyt

What would you suggest using in the UK? A squirt gun?!

Reply to
Oren

Presumably it went thru a layer of sheetrock, some insulation (or maybe a

2x4), some Tyvex, 2" of brick, maybe a mile or more of air, before hitting the garage.

Then, too, it could have acted like this:

--- begin quote

First thing out of the barrel of Reacher's Barrett was a blast of hot gas. The powder in the cartridge exploded in a fraction of a millionth of a second and expanded to a super-heated bubble. That bubble of gas hurled the bullet down the barrel and forced ahead of it and around it to explode out into the atmosphere. Most of it was smashed sideways by the muzzle brake in a perfectly balanced radial pattern, like a doughnut, so that the recoil moved the barrel straight back against Reacher's shoulder without deflecting it either sideways or up or down. Meanwhile, behind it, the bullet was starting to spin inside the barrel as the rifling grooves grabbed at it.

Then the gas ahead of the bullet was heating the oxygen in the air to the point where the air caught fire. There was a brief flash of flame and the bullet burst out through the exact center of it, spearing through the burned air at nineteen hundred miles an hour. A thousandth of a second later, it was six feet away, and its sound was bravely chasing after it, three times slower.

The bullet took five hundredths of a second to cross the [parade ground], by which time the sound of its shot had just passed Reacher's ears and cleared the ridge of the roof. The bullet had a hand-polished copper jacket and it was flying straight and true, but by the time it had passed soundlessly over McGrath's head it had slowed a little. And the air was moving it. It was moving it right to left as the gentle mountain breeze tugged imperceptibly at it. Half a second into its travel, the bullet had covered thirteen hundred feet and it had moved seven inches to the left.

And it had dropped seven inches. Gravity had pulled it in. The more gravity pulled, the more the bullet slowed. The more it slowed, the more gravity deflected it. It speared onward in a perfect graceful curve. A whole second after leaving the barrel, it was nine hundred yards into its journey. Way past McGrath's running figure, but still over the trees, still three hundred yards short of its target. Another sixth of a second later, it was clear of the trees and alongside the office building. Now it was a slow bullet. It had pulled four feet left and five feet down. It passed well clear of Holly and was twenty feet past her before she heard the hiss in the air. The sound of the shot was still to come.

Reacher's bullet hit Borken in the head a full second and a third after he fired it. It entered the front of his forehead and was out of the back of his skull three ten-thousandths of a second later. In and out without really slowing much more at all, because Borken's skull and brains were nothing to a two-ounce lead projectile with a needle point and a polished metal jacket. The bullet was well over the endless forest beyond before the pressure wave built up in Borken's skull and exploded it.

Reacher was watching it through his scope. Heart in his mouth. A full second and a third is a long time to wait. He watched Borken's skull explode like it had been burst from the inside with a sledgehammer. It came apart like a diagram. Reacher saw curved shards of bone bursting outward and red mist blooming...

--- end quote

Reply to
HeyBub

One years ago a townhouse we owned has an unactractive "box" up on the "masonite" planks. The box was for the distribution of the abandoned CATV system. When we had the masonite painted we told the painters to rip out the old box and just patch it.

That's what they did and you just can't find any evidence of the old box. I suspect their "patch" was one of those portland cement/sawdust products which DO absorb water but then so does un-painted masonite.

The painters filled a hole some inches is diameter plus some screwholes. A bullet hole is as nothing.

The real key to the job is qualify paint to protect both the masonite and the patch from the elements.

As far as the other comments, accidents happen.

Reply to
John Gilmer

Yes, no, maybe.

Reply to
JimT

anyone who owns a firearm should have a trigger lock or in a gun safe at all times, unless its in the active possesion of the owner.

just passing a law 5 years in the slammer for having a unsecured weapon would save many lives

Reply to
hallerb

Yeah, a trigger lock or a gun in the safe will do a *lot* of good during a home invasion. ...almost as much good as the police.

Reply to
krw

File a police re[port and an insurance claim before doing anything else. Then let your insurance company contact their insurance company for repiars. KEEP A COMPLETE PAPER TRAIL OF EVERYTHING!!!!

Reply to
hrhofmann

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.