Dennis Nicholls
Senior HTF Member
The air friction on bullets is extreme as they leave the muzzle in excess of the speed of sound. That, by the way, is why guns make that loud "bang" - it's a small scale sonic boom.
It's late so my mind is slow, but IIRC the speed of sound at sea level is around 1100 fps. Consider that the cheap Turkish 8mm ammo I shoot for grins has a muzzle velocity of around 2800-2900 fps and you see it's well over Mach 2 leaving the muzzle. I doubt it would ever return at over Mach 1 if I shot straight up with one of these Turk loads.
Think of it this way. Meteors hit the atmosphere at thousands of miles per hour and de-accelerate to only hundreds of miles per hour by the friction. At least what's left of them. Bullets will come back to Earth at a fraction of their cartridge's muzzle velocity.
It's late so my mind is slow, but IIRC the speed of sound at sea level is around 1100 fps. Consider that the cheap Turkish 8mm ammo I shoot for grins has a muzzle velocity of around 2800-2900 fps and you see it's well over Mach 2 leaving the muzzle. I doubt it would ever return at over Mach 1 if I shot straight up with one of these Turk loads.
Think of it this way. Meteors hit the atmosphere at thousands of miles per hour and de-accelerate to only hundreds of miles per hour by the friction. At least what's left of them. Bullets will come back to Earth at a fraction of their cartridge's muzzle velocity.