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txinvestigator wrote:Yeah, I shortened it and made it simpler than it is. I think the key is to know at what angle the bullet would lose fatal velocity before beginning its arc downward. I am not a physicist

Theoretically; A bullet fired at 90 degrees will actually lose all velocity before beginning to fall back to earth. Then it will only reach velocity from gravity. As the angle is decreased from 90 degrees, there is a point in which at the bullet will not lose enough velocity from being fired to cease being potentially fatal.

Does that make any sense?

I think the key is whether the bullet "noses over" in a ballistic arc.

A bullet fired vertically maintains its spin velocity even after it loses forward velocity. The gyroscopic effect keeps it stable, and it falls to earth base first, propelled only by gravity and limited by the aerodynamics of the blunt base.

But if it's fired at an angle far enough from vertical that it will continue its ballistic path point-first, it will be more deadly on impact.

The guys at Natick (small bullets) and Sill (big bullets) have mountains of data about this.

Kevin

cyphur wrote:They had to cut off the end of the barrel, and the Maintenance Chief decided to use it as a 40lb door stop/conversation piece.

"This here's my sawed-off Abrams!"

I guess that would screw up the optical collimator system, though, eh?