My friend was telling me not to shoot at the top of a dead tree, because any missed shots (none since it was 50 feet away) can supposedly come down with equal force.

I said the energy of the bullet going up is deadly, but once it reaches its apex, or loses its energy, it becomes a falling piece of metal and hits terminal velocity and wouldnt hurt anyone coming down.
Just like a shuttlecock flying 100mph after its hit, and falling at 5mph.
He said no, so please let me know if he is right. I mean it would be stupid if planes were flying around, but hopefully the old one-shot 22 could go up very far.

Other guns were a Enfeild something or other .303 and a .308 with a lever action cocker thingy. lol.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/v...subj=626005559

anyways here are some pics... right by Dodge Ridge.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pi...c&id=626005559

 

why are you shooting at a top of a tree?

do you know the 4 basic rules of gun safety?

see #3.

sigh...

 

to answer your question, thank the mythbusters:

http://kwc.org/mythbusters/2006/04/e...red_up_vo.html

 

wow. just wow.

 

better be safe than sorry... especially with a rifle round.

ive heard of confirmed kills (accidental) at 5 miles with a .50BMG

 

Your theory only works if the bullit goes straight up, comes to a complete stop, and falls back to earth following the same path. Since getting a round to fire straight up and come straight down is nearly impossible then this will not be the case.

If there is any arc in the trajectory, assume that the ammunition will still carry enough energy to kill or maim whatever it contacts on it's way back down to earth. Just because the projectile has a curved path does not mean it looses most of it's velocity.

 

Let's not forget that we have to calculate the horizontal velocity and vertical velocity seperately.

The vertical velocity eventually becomes terminal speed if the bullet has enough time to drop, but the horizontal velocity is only going to be slowed down by air friction.

 

iPod Touch Mounted on M110 Sniper Rifle
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2...-sniper-rifle/
We have seen some cool iPhone applications come out for shooting sports. But nothing comes close to the sheer awesomeness of the Knights Armaments M110 iPod Touch mount and accompanying ballistics software.

The M110 is the 7.62×51mm semi-automatic sniper system which won the Army’s competition to replace the aging M24 bolt action sniper system. While it will not replace the M24 in the near future, the system is seeing action in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The rifle is based on the SR-25, which in turn is based on the Stoners’ AR-10 design.

Knights Armaments have developed a mounting system for the iPod Touch that attaches to a side mounted picatinny rail. The mount attaches to an Otterbox protective case.

 

a falling object accelerates at 9.8 meters per second.
didn't we learn that in 7th grade or something.

people die all teh time in 3rd world countries from kids firing their ak47's at teh sky.

 

Thats pretty weird?? I wonder how it would handle the recoil?

 

the aluminum and plastic in the iphone are stronger than your shoulder....

 

Too bad physics isn't that easy. While that's an estimated number, that number is in a perfect vacuum, some certain distance from earth. Once the bullet hits a certain speed, enough air friction will cause the bullet to stop accelerating, and according to mythbusters (not always right), this speed isn't fast enough to kill.

A perfect (albeit overly simplified) example of air resistance would be dropping a sheet of paper. Obviously it doesn't accelerate at 9.8m/s/s due to air resistance.

 

wrong. that was for a falling bullet in a tumble. when the bullet tumbles it has a large cross section and generates more wind resistance much like a poorly thrown football.

while the energy will dissipate over time in an arch, it is still enough to be lethal.

http://www.clickorlando.com/news/4084756/detail.html


hell, even the CDC keeps statistics on it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebratory_gunfire

 

that the stats on that pge are based of bullets fired "nearly" straight up

 

hmmm interesting...

I was hitting a the top of a dead tree and any misses would've hit the 1000 other taller trees behind it...hopefully there was nobody in those trees, we yelled to see if anyone was out there...so unless they were mutes climbing in the trees...

But thanks for the 411.