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Shoot! But Not Up in the Air
Question: What is the terminal velocity of a returning .223 bullet once shot into the air and coming back to the ground, and will it perforate a standard corrugated steel roof? And what is the attitude of a bullet falling to earth? Point first? Point up as it was when it was fired? Flat?
I’ve lived in this house for probably eight years, and it’s pretty standard to hear relatively distant gunfire on midnight entering the new year. In years past living at a different house, this has been done from a high public park perched over the ocean, firing (one would think) out to sea in the direction the old Spanish cannons are pointed, and incidentally setting the steep grassy slope to the ocean on fire – never knew how – but pretty and without fireworks, and lasting a good hour or so. Not much danger, except to the local cemetery. Cemeteries, it seems, always get the choice locations and best views.
But for the past several years I’ve lived inland, and rapid gunfire on New Year’s was always in the distance. This year new neighbors (there are a lot of them, including on the adjoining hill facing my house) have been getting less neighborly with their loud noises, setting off what I assume were M80s either singly or seemingly tied together and lit with a single fuse, pretty much testing them (or enjoying them) any time of the day or night. They sound like gunfire and I figure this was why several police cars rolled up with sirens on a few days ago.
It’s hard for me to tell wrapped fireworks from semi-automatic gunfire, though tonight at half past twelve I did hear full-auto fire a quarter of a mile away, oddly, coming from the direction that I hear “The Star Spangled Banner” played every morning on the naval base.
As an aside, when I was in my teens, I wanted to live in a faraway land, in an exotic location, and in my imaginings, Truk (now called Chuuk) was pretty much as far as anyone could get, thousands of miles from anywhere. And very interestingly, I recently realized that that’s just where circumstances have led me to live, in Oceania, near enough to Truk (or Chuuk) where Chuukese can find it in their interests to fly in on weekends and deliver reasonably fresh reef fish and rock lobsters to the local Sunday morning market. And even today I’ve had a couple of Chuukese men and a boy cutting ten-foot-tall grass and jungle on my side lot. Nice guys, Christian, and they speak English, though they are hard for me to understand and tend to do other things than what I employ them for, performing a different job than I wanted, but it seems to be turning out alright anyway.
Getting back to New Year’s, I was awakened a little before midnight by music blaring, engines revving, and explosions, and alerted with the sound of what seemed like a bullet or two hitting and clanging either along or through my roof. And it got me thinking.
Spitzer-shaped bullets, in all the charts I’ve seen, travel in an arc, but never have I seen – but only was left to suppose – the attitude of the bullet in flight. If a bullet is fired into the air at, say, a 30-degree angle, and the spin of the bullet continues throughout its flight, does the bullet keep its upward-pointing attitude? Or does the spin reduce and allow the bullet to tumble? And if tumbling, does free-fall cause the bullet to nose down at the end of its trajectory, perhaps as the result of aerodynamic drag?
In other words, am I more, or less, likely to have a hole in my roof? Any answers would be welcome – other than that I just have to get up there and look for scratches or holes – which, deep down, I already know.
Thanks in advance,
Flicker
Also, those bullets ehich have not tumbled after such a long and bent trip are likely a great minority. These aren’t snipers using hand selected spin balanced rounds.
When I was in the Airborne, we were told that if our ‘chute didn’t open, we would hit the ground at about 120 mph (our terminal velocity); that would probably have penetrated your roof, also.
So would an elephant at only 80 mph. Though I can’t say I have any experience with it.
Probably not much left of that roof, huh?
Nor of the interior. How would you get the elephant out?
What about shotguns? The previous owner of my previous Minneapolis home always went out on the 2nd floor deck and blasted both barrels of his shotgun every New Year’s Eve at midnight. He was a Land-o-Lakes exec and had the big one sitting in the living room in 1976. The next owner did not have shotguns and the tradition died right there in the living room. When we bought the house in 1992 I brought shotguns (along with other items protected by the 2nd Amendment) back into the home. However I’m not much of a NYE guy and somewhere between 1976 and 1992 a roof was put over the 2nd floor deck (a disasterous renovation as I later found out). So the tradition ended.
Back to the question though, what about just a nice shotgun blast in the air? The falling shot wouldn’t hurt anyone…right?
Bon Ami?
The elephant will likely take care of that as well. I expect the experience will leave him quite grumpy.
I have a great deal of respect for the damage a .22 can do. When I was 17 years old I got shot in the shoulder at point blank range. It shattered my collar bone plus other damage.
of course .22 LR has considerably more power.
Keep throwing pennies in. Before you reach $3,500,000, he’ll be able to step out through the hole in the roof.
(I’m actually not sure I got the math right, as the final number feels way to high to me. But I’m not going to check it tonight.)
I would recommend bird shot, and shoot it directly overhead, while holding an umbrella. And don’t look up. Should be fine.
I brought a 30 lb. church bell home a few tears ago, with ringing it at New Years in mind — and old family tradition.
But I can’t ring it without hearing protection, and if you can’t hear it, what’s the point.
I have it on good authority that Bon Ami doesn’t remove blood stains.
Hang it across the yard and shoot bird shot at it?
How did that happen? Don’t say you were cleaning it.
And stingers.
I was out shooting rabbits with a couple of buddies. They invited a friend of theirs to join us. We startled a doe. I was less than 5 feet from the deer. The kid tried to shoot at it over my right shoulder. The end of barrel hit me just to the right of the shoulder blade as he was pulling trigger.
That church bell will land at terminal velocity with 1.5 million foot-pounds of energy. That will clear out the elephant.
I’m not sure “clear out” is the right term. Hip waders, a chainsaw, and a mulcher are recommended.
I think dropping church bells on top of elephants is just not an appropriate way to celebrate New Years Eve.
That’s racist.
Thanks exactly how I drink out of my aquarium.
Oh, you’ll hear it.
Sacrilege. Well, though I’ve got to say, deer slugs would be worth trying just once a year.
Because this is rock & roll, not jazz.
I hope you recovered fully. I suppose your friend never tried to shoot past anyone again.
Great! Finally a solution to our awkward little employee Christmas gift exchange. I mean, you can’t regift an elephant if you can’t get it out of the house.
The elephant has to be painted white before you regift it.
Truly lol! As I said, it’s a family tradition.