Perhaps the oldest rival of the 5.56mm round is its older brother in the intermediate cartridge world, the 7.62x39mm round developed by the Soviets in the late 1940s from their earlier 7.62×41 M43 cartridge. The 7.62x39mm, despite its age, has maintained a very [Read More…]
This is one of those posts I’ve been meaning to get to for a while, but haven’t really felt the urge to write. The subject came up recently* in my comments, though, and I really enjoy responding to people, so I might as well kill these two birds with one [Read More…]
Previously in our introductory series on ballistics, we’ve discussed the concept of caliber, as well as ballistic coefficient and its close relative form factor. Today, we’re going to look at the concept of rifling, and how it relates to bullet stability. [Read More…]
In the second installment of Ballistics 101, we took a look at the concept of a “ballistic coefficient”, or a drag model based on an empirically tested projectile, against which other projectiles can be measured and compared. Mentioned in that post – [Read More…]
In 1946 a man by the name of John Nosler went on a particularly frustrating moose hunt. Nosler had made an accurate killing shot on a moose using his .300 H&H, then watched as the animal failed to go down. Due to the events of that hunt he decided the gun industry [Read More…]
On my recent article “Ballistics 101: What Is Ballistic Coefficient?”, commenter Anthony asked for clarification on some points: Thanks for the info, but I don’t feel I know what ballistic coefficient is after reading the article. You state, “A [Read More…]
When a bullet flies through the air, forces called “drag” are exerted upon it. These forces slow down the bullet as it flies, but they don’t act the same way on every bullet. While the subject of aerodynamics is extremely complex, one way to account [Read More…]
In a recent post, I discussed four ballistics myths that I’ve heard over the years, and why they are just that – myths. One of these was the myth that the momentum of a projectile is equivalent or otherwise indicative of the stopping power of that [Read More…]
“Caliber”. It can mean a lot of different things, but when we use it, what does it really mean, and what’s its significance? Title image: From left to right are the 7.65 Parabellum, 7.63 Mauser, .300 Blackout, 7.62×45 Czech, .30 Remington, 7.62 [Read More…]
I don’t consider myself more than a hobbyist when it comes to ammunition – I reload a little, play around in SolidWorks a bit, and read dry, dusty tomes full of other people’s hard work collating every minute detail about ammunition. I’m, [Read More…]
I received this email from a reader a little less than a week ago: Hi! I’d love to see a series of articles on the advantages and disadvantages of the various pistol calibers from the perspective of the concealed carrier. There’s a lot of conflicting [Read More…]
There’s a lot that can be learned by shooting different rounds at various targets, barriers, armors, etc, but the knowledge that can be gleaned from these sorts of tests is limited without the aid of very high speed recordings, which allow us to actually see [Read More…]
Greg from Canada emailed me an idea. He proposed creating a 360 degree rotatable musket barrel with cuts perpendicular to the path of the ball that would impart a spin on it. If a ballistic computer controlled the rotation of the barrel, the bullet could be fired in a [Read More…]
My hat is off to the staff at LuckyGunner.com who after the success of their 10,000 round test of 5.56 ammo could not rest on their laurels. Instead, they upped their game with what I would consider the gold-standard of ammunition testing (although ShootingTheBull410 [Read More…]
.22LR is a popular round for many reasons from its soft report to its minimal recoil – and, of course, it’s just plain fun. It was designed in 1887 by the J. Stevens Arms and Tool Company, and if you really want to trace its roots all the way back they [Read More…]
Its commonly understood that ammunition that is hot will propel a bullet to a higher velocity than those at colder temperature. In fact, the 1:7 twist rate for the M16 was chosen to be able to stabilize the tracer round at sub-arctic temperatures. The Wound Channel did [Read More…]
Earlier this week, I was asked what my thoughts were on the video below, coming from HEMA instructor Matt Easton, on his YouTube channel Scholagladiatoria. In it, he discusses some of the limitations of early blackpowder (especially muzzleloading) firearms, specifically [Read More…]
If you like knowing more about the ballistics of your ammunition, Federal Premium Ammunition has a new app that should fit your gun-loving expectations. The new app covers everything from ballistics to making recommendations regarding loads and even directs you to where [Read More…]
The flight of a rifle bullet may seem to be a simple thing – it flies through the air at high speeds, steadily losing velocity and energy until it either impacts the dirt or simply falls out of the sky. In fact, though, there is a lot of complex fluid dynamics to [Read More…]
One of the great innovations in the past 50 years pertaining to the study of what projectiles do in flight and why is the advent of ultra-high-speed photography – the kind that can keep a rifle bullet in focus. This sort of endeavor is not for the novice [Read More…]
The Outdoor Channel performed some tests of common home defense rounds and what they do when interacting with drywall. The video seems a bit skewed in terms of what they recommend and what the results of the test were. For example, the use of an AR. In the video, [Read More…]
This video is a must watch. It is hands down the best slow motion video I have ever seem! It demonstrates … Frangible bullets on different angled surfaces What happens when bullets collide with flying objects Air gun pellets Shotgun pellets Bullets that hit the [Read More…]
20 year old Briana was shot at by her former boyfriend. The bullet, reported as “.40 caliber” presumably .40 S&W, passed through her windscreen and hit her at the back of the skull. Her hair weave prevented the bullet penetrating her skull. Her only [Read More…]
Ballistics by the inch is an exhaustive ballistics experiment done by Jim Kasper, Jim Downey and Steve Meyer. We decided to test thirteen common pistol calibers, each over a range of barrel lengths from 18″ down to 2″, and each using a variety of ammunition [Read More…]
From AccurateShooter.com One of our readers asked “What effect does altitude have on the flight of a bullet?” The simplistic answer is that, at higher altitudes, the air is thinner (lower density), so there is less drag on the bullet. This means that the [Read More…]