gravity again

Have you ever fired a 22 rifle straight up on a still day to see where it landed when it came down and wondered if it would kill you if it hit you on the head? Real dumb right.Well a twelve year old boy will do lots of dumb things like this and after all these years still wondering.I assume the air resistance would slow it down so it wouldent be dangerous.what do you think ? Also what kind of dumb ,funny ,dangerious,silly things have you done in your youth, and lived to tell the tale. I know I am lucky to be alive.How about you??????????????

We used to climb inside a old defucnt tractor tire at age 6 to 14 and have Our (friends ) lol roll us over the hill toward the creek ! Never broke a bone drinking that right off the cow milk !

How about taping a 12 gauge shotgun shell on the end of the barrel of a bb gun? Pretty dumb!!
DH

sorry I posted this before I read about the two boys and the atv accident.Iwish them the best and a full recovery.....

Hello Ken in Texas.
I don't know the balistics but i know the statistics.
I know it sounds like a loaded sentence! And it is.
A bullet fire in the air will kill you if it hits you in the head.
I hear it every new year when guns are fired in the air in the city, and someone gets killed.
On the other hand if you are in open country you have better odds on hitting a prairie dog then a human
Guido.

boys be boys,some do never get brains

Some excerpts from "Official Report of Vertical Time of Flight for Small Arms Ammunition" (U.S. Army Ordnance Office) expain this.

The firing platform at Miami was about ten feet square. There was a shield of thin armor plate over the heads of the men at the gun. Out of more than 500 shots fired after adjusting the gun so as to bring the shots as nearly as possible onto the platform, only 4 shots hit it, and one more fell into the boat. One of the shots that hit the platform was a Service .30-'06, 150 grain flat based bullet which came down base first and bounced into the water after striking the edge of the lower platform. It left a mark about 1/16 inch deep in the soft pine board. Two more bullets struck in a pail of water beside the machine gun.
It was concluded from these tests that the return velocity was about 300 feet per second. With the 150 grain bullet, this corresponds to an energy of 30 foot pounds. Previously the Army had decided that on the average, an energy of 60 foot pounds is required to produce a disabling wound.
Calculations indicate that the 150 grain .30 caliber Service bullet fired straight up at a muzzle velocity of 2700 feet per second will rise 9000 feet, taking about 18 seconds to do it; and that it takes 31 seconds to return to earth, the last few thousand feet of the fall being at a nearly constant speed of a bit over 300 feet per second.
If this same bullet were fired in a vacuum upwards at the same velocity, it would rise to a height of 113,000 feet. It would take nearly 84 seconds to make the ascent, and exactly the same time to come back, return with the same velocity that it started with.

Source(s):
Hatcher's Notebook, by Maj. Gen. Julian S. Hatcher. Copyright 1947, The Military Service Publishing Company. Third Edition, 2nd Printing. April 1966, pp. 510-518

The fellows on Mythbusters done this one. It will reach a terminal velocity on the way down. I don't recall the results, but I bet it would still hurt a lot!

You speak like a man with expeirence.....Yea, we tried it too....

just shoot a arrow in the air and when it comes down it will kill you happened last year to a 10 year old girl when her dad shot one straight up . hail stones have killed people and they are just falling

Firing guns into the air has killed many people. The once was an article about how many Iraqis were killed from celebrating their independence that way. I also remember something about that in africa. Nuff said Henry.

we used to make a small circle in the dirt stand in the circle then fire a bow up in to the air and see who could get their arrow closest to the circle. i did fire a 12 guage straight up once to see how big the patteren would be when the shot came down( dont look up when you do this) I don't rember the shot hurting any just feeling warm. I'll choose to remain silent on any other chilhhood indiscretions and retain my rights guarenteed by the 5th ammendment to the constituion of the United States of America.

I found a live hand-grenade from the Korean war era when I was 8. The were draining a lake near my house to look for Civil War artifacts and me and my friends found it in the mud and started tossing it around. Don't know how it got there, maybe a returning soldier brought it home and tossed it. My dad drove it up to the police station and they took it to the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville and detonated it. Imagine if you showed up at the local police station these days with a grenade!

I was hunting rabbits one day sitting on a dirt bank. Across the driveway was an old hedge post with a nice knot in it for a target. No rabbits so I just as well shoot something. The bullet ricochet back at me and buryed itself not 3 feet from where I was sitting. Have not tried that again, ever.

Vern below is dead on. Terminal falling velocity of a 30 caliber bullet is about 300 ft/sec which hits with energy of about 30 ft-lbs. That's equivalent to a good rap with a hammer. On top of your bare skull, it can, and has, killed.

Interesting info., not sure that I'll be able to put it to any practical use but interesting none the less....................

Yes Mythbusters tested the shot in the air thing. Trouble is if you don't shoot exactly up 90 degrees the muzzle velocity carries speed at an arc to the bullet, that is basically what they proved how people get killed.

Ken, you did hide under a tractor or combine after you took the shot, right???