In , on 12/15/03
at 06:57 AM, (J.R. Williams) said:

Tim:
Check "Hatcher's Notebook" and in the section on 'Bullets from the sky'
he records considerable data on experiments of vertical firing of ..30
cal 150 grain ammunition. With a muzzle velocity of 2700 ft/sec they
averaged only 300 ft/sec when they returned to the ground. This gives
an energy level of 30 ft. pounds and the Army considers 60 foot pounds to
produce a disabling wound. ("Hatcher's Notebook", Third edition,
pages 510 to 517). The majority of the bullets returned to earth base
first.

J.R. Williams

This was mentioned a few years back on the Compuserve Firearms Forum, &
one of the members who also happened to be a free fall sky diver as well
as a shooter undertook some experiments. He dropped various bullets from
both handguns & rifles, just as he left the plane. In all cases he was
easily able to overtake the bullets. Dropping bullets, even pushing them
downwards when in free fall were similarly overtaken once he adopted a
dive position. So, anybody killed must almost certainly be from bullets
fired not "straight up" , but at some shallower angle.

Perhaps noone told the Klansman to hold the brown bit, not the blued bit?
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John Lloyd - Cymru/Wales

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