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<blockquote data-quote="Bennett Prescott" data-source="post: 42259" data-attributes="member: 4">Re: Airplane faster than a speeding bullet?Jack,The muzzle velocity of the unladen sparrow, er... 30-&#039;06, is about 2700 fps with a 180 grain bullet out of a 24&quot; barrel which is normal for folks who don&#039;t mind a little recoil, but perhaps a little heavy for coyotes. The speed of sound is about 1116 feet per second in 65° dry air. Montana has a higher altitude, let&#039;s say 3,000&#039; above sea level, so while the speed of sound is unchanged the bullet loses a little less velocity at range. We don&#039;t know how fast the plane was going, but let&#039;s say exactly Mach 1.Problem number one with hitting the plane is that, while the bullet may start out faster than the plane, by the time it gets out to a range that is meaningful on the scale the plane operates at it has slowed significantly... it is only doing just over 1400 feet per second at 1000 yards.Problem number two is bullet drop, by the time the bullet gets to that 1000 yard mark it has dropped nearly 400&quot;.Problem number three is timing. It takes the bullet 1.54 seconds to travel 1,000 yards. Even if the plane were that close, it is a very fast moving target that will be very small. Your uncle would have had to know exactly where the plane would be 1.5 seconds after pulling the trigger, would have to perfectly estimate wind and have already sighted in the gun for a 1000 yard drop, and would have to make his shot perfectly. I suspect none of those things happened.I like to shoot skeet, a 4&quot; target moving at about 80 feet per second that I am trying to connect with an 8&quot; cloud of shot moving at 1200 feet per second at a distance of 20-60 yards. My scores are usually in the low 30s, meaning I broke about 30-40% of my targets. Considering how critical leading the target properly is with that kind of velocity mismatch, I am of the opinion that it would be impossible with projectile and target moving at close to the same speed, even ignoring the issue of whether the bullet would ever get there.Cool story, though!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Bennett Prescott, post: 42259, member: 4"] Re: Airplane faster than a speeding bullet? Jack, The muzzle velocity of the unladen sparrow, er... 30-'06, is about 2700 fps with a 180 grain bullet out of a 24" barrel which is normal for folks who don't mind a little recoil, but perhaps a little heavy for coyotes. The speed of sound is about 1116 feet per second in 65° dry air. Montana has a higher altitude, let's say 3,000' above sea level, so while the speed of sound is unchanged the bullet loses a little less velocity at range. We don't know how fast the plane was going, but let's say exactly Mach 1. Problem number one with hitting the plane is that, while the bullet may start out faster than the plane, by the time it gets out to a range that is meaningful on the scale the plane operates at it has slowed significantly... it is only doing just over 1400 feet per second at 1000 yards. Problem number two is bullet drop, by the time the bullet gets to that 1000 yard mark it has dropped nearly 400". Problem number three is timing. It takes the bullet 1.54 seconds to travel 1,000 yards. Even if the plane were that close, it is a very fast moving target that will be very small. Your uncle would have had to know exactly where the plane would be 1.5 seconds after pulling the trigger, would have to perfectly estimate wind and have already sighted in the gun for a 1000 yard drop, and would have to make his shot perfectly. I suspect none of those things happened. I like to shoot skeet, a 4" target moving at about 80 feet per second that I am trying to connect with an 8" cloud of shot moving at 1200 feet per second at a distance of 20-60 yards. My scores are usually in the low 30s, meaning I broke about 30-40% of my targets. Considering how critical leading the target properly is with that kind of velocity mismatch, I am of the opinion that it would be impossible with projectile and target moving at close to the same speed, even ignoring the issue of whether the bullet would ever get there. Cool story, though! [/QUOTE]

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