Re: Bullet fired into air...

"Joe Halbleib" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]

> > 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...

On New Year's of 1990, I had a bullet land in the street about 30 feet from
where I was standing.  The thing whistled as it fell.  If something whistles
as it falls, you don't want to be under it when it lands.

When we found it the next morning, its nose was nicely flattened.  That
requires considerable 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
>
>