Salir el tiro por la culata
For the shot to come out through the gun's butt.
to backfire; **to backfire**; **to blow up in one's face**; **to have the opposite effect**; **to come back to bite someone**; **to rebound on someone**
Salir el tiro por la culata means to backfire, to have the opposite effect to the one intended, or for a plan or action to end up harming the person who initiated it.
Intentó dejarme en ridículo, pero le salió el tiro por la culata.
He tried to embarrass me, but it backfired on him.
Quería ahorrar dinero y la decisión le salió el tiro por la culata.
He wanted to save money, but it blew up in his face.
Su estrategia salió mal y el tiro le salió por la culata.
His strategy failed and backfired.
Intentaron desacreditarlo y al final el tiro les salió por la culata.
They tried to discredit him, but it came back to bite them.
The essential idea is that someone tries to achieve something, but the result is the opposite of what they wanted.
- a plan produces the opposite result
- an attempt to harm or criticize someone ends up harming the initiator
- a strategy fails spectacularly
- an action has unintended negative consequences
- someone tries to manipulate a situation and ends up worse off
The expression comes from firearms.
The culata is the rear part or stock of a firearm, the part held against the shoulder.
The literal image is of a shot going in the wrong direction and emerging through the culata, potentially injuring the person who fired it.
This provides an extremely effective metaphor: an action intended to produce a particular result turns against its creator.
The expression is particularly useful when the failure is not merely accidental, but involves a reversal of the intended effect.
Compare:
El plan salió mal.
→ The plan went wrong.
with:
El tiro le salió por la culata.
→ The plan backfired on him.
The second implies that the person ended up worse off because of their own action.
Spanish and English both use firearm metaphors to describe plans and strategies:
- Salir el tiro por la culata → it backfired.
- Dar en el blanco → to hit the target / to get it right.
- Disparar a matar → to go all out / to attack aggressively.
- Tener un as en la manga → to have an ace up one's sleeve.
The remarkable thing about salir el tiro por la culata is that the metaphor contains the whole story: you fire the shot expecting to hit someone else, and instead you get hurt yourself. ```
The best translation is almost always:
It backfired.
For greater emphasis:
It blew up in his face.
or:
It came back to bite him.
Do not translate culata literally as butt in ordinary English. In the firearm context, culata means the stock or rear part of the gun.
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