Re: Bullet fired into air...

"Karl Hungus" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> "Objekt" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > > JOHNSON CITY, Tennessee (AP) -- A bullet fired in the air during a Ku
> Klux
> > > Klan initiation ceremony came down and struck a participant in the
head,
> > > critically injuring him, authorities said.
> >
> > I guess this answers the old question regarding what happens when people
> > fire into the air in celebration. :P
> >
> > Would be interesting to have details as to caliber and type of round.
>
>
> I seem to recall a thread from about a year or so ago on this subject, and
> that someone was arguing that a bullet fired straight up into the air
could
> not inflict a serious injury upon its return to earth.

I have not done the experiment but it seems to me that any compact mass, of
an even slightly aerodynamic shape, will reach a rather high terminal
velocity when dropped from a decent height.  A bullet fired into the air
meets this description.

A web search on the subject suggests that sky divers can reach terminal
velocities of 120 to 170 mph.  That's 176 to 249 fps.  A human's drag
coefficient is much higher than a bullet's.  Bullets should get up to 200 to
500 mph or 293 to 733 fps.

Serious injury or death is likely for heavy bullets shot straight up.  Shot
on a low trajectory, they would retain a large amount of the original muzzle
velocity's horizontal component and still be lethal for sure.

Lighter bullets might just sting alot and create a heck of a knot depending
on what part of the body they struck and what face of the bullet was facing
forward (sideways slows the bullet more) on the vertical drop.  They might
also still maim or kill.  Low trajectory shots are still very dangerous.

Don't do it.  Straight up is bad.  Angling away from straight up is even
worse for whomever is located where the bullet strikes the ground again as
some horizontal component of muzzle velocity is also present in addition to
a vertical component from dropping the bullet from its highest point of
flight.

Check out the following results from google to a query of bullet terminal
velocity...

http://perpetualbeta.com/woifm/archive/002290.html

http://isaac.exploratorium.edu/snaktalk/hypermail/0091.html

http://www.loadammo.com/Topics/March01.htm

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=00AX5M

http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/dec98/913922171.Ph.r.html

http://www.villman.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1087


Joe