I think if the bullet were fired in an arc, it would still be spinning from the rifling, and would probably be pretty aerodynamic so that there wouldn't be a lot of drag. It would lose some velocity to drag but not enough to make harmless.glock27 wrote:would terminal velocity come into play at that far? it would seem that one mile away you would be able to catch it in your hand.
i watch mythbusters they did a terminal velocity test on dropping a penny from "empire state building" all in scale of course. but a pennies maximum speed is something like 62 miles per hour. a .22 would weigh less than a penny and have less terminal velocity
which leaves me to think that if the bullet where already started to come downward when shot at a 45degree angle all or most of its energy/velocity from the gunpowder would be exemt????
Firing straight up (which the Mythbusters found was very difficult to do exactly), the bullet eventually stops, then starts falling again, which I would guess is when the tumbling starts in. If it's tumbling and stuff, it's going to have more drag and a lower terminal velocity.
I remember the penny episode also...it'd be interesting to replicate that with a .22 LR bullet under the different scenarios.