Golf Ball distance and other questions

[NitroSteel]

How far will a golf ball go?  Is there any way to project distance, if you know the muzzle velocity (I'm shooting through a chronograph Saturday) and the angle of fire?  I've been using about 2.8 ounces (3.5 is max load - never tried) of BP, but I believe the muzzle velocity and angle are the real considerations.  I know it can be heard from over 6 miles away.  My "neighbors" asked about all of the noise from our direction on Saturday.  They thought it was sonic booms.  You really could feel it in your chest, very impressive.

Do any of you guys use a patch on your golf balls to keep it firmly seated on the powder/generate more volume?  Is it recommended?  Bore diameter is 1.75".

I've got a good 5 mile depth of planted pines that I can shoot over and am not worried about surpassing that distance, but I normally like to shoot in a different direction, to be pointing directly away from my house (less window rattle/ wife fusses / baby wakes up).  In the "preferred direction" a highway crosses through the pines about 2 miles out.  It would be an odd and rare occurence (1 in a million or more) to hit a random unseen car in this direction, but if it will go 2 miles or further, then I'd rather just not shoot in that direction.  I'm not real crazy about the idea of being in the newspaper for hitting a car or anything else unintended with my cannon.

[Double D]

Why would you want to shoot a golf ball or any projectile for that matter out of sight. What does it prove, what purpose does it serve and how can you be sure it's going to land in a safe area if you have no Idea how far it will go. You would not point you deer rifle up and shoot it like that would you?  You will never know where the ball went.  This violates  one of the basic shooting rules---Always know your target.

 Pick a target or back stop far off in the distance ands shot at that. Some place where you will know for sure that the neighbor kid has  not snuck in and is wondering around.   Know where that golf ball is going.

Everytime this subject comes up it bothers me and I get fired up.  We need to think and practice safety and never compromise it especially with these guns.   



 

[jeeper1]

200 grains of cannon grade in my mortar maxes out at about 400 yds.

[Rickk]

You can estimate the distance with an Excel spreadsheet (or computer program if you do that better).

If you know the muzzle velocity and the angle with respect to horizontal, you know the forward velocity (velocity times Cos(angle)) and the upward velocity (velocity times Sine(angle)).

When I did it with Excel, I calculated it in 0.1 second increments, which is fine for mortar use.

You have to make an assumption that the velocity does not vary during flight (no air friction) to make this uncomplicated.

The horizontal distance at any time is the velocity time elapsed time.

The vertical position is  (vertical velocity times time) - 16 times elapsed time squared. [ that is the rise distance due to muzzle velocity minus the falling distance due to gravity]

if you use excel, set it up to graph the horizonal distance verses the vertical dstance and you will see the trajectory. When the vertical position hits zero, you have impacted.

I already have a spreadsheet set up to do this. What was your angle and muzzle velocity?

here are some possibilities for 45 degrees:

100 f/s - 318 feet
200 f/s - 1250 feet
300 f/s - 2800 feet

there will be an error between the calculation and real life due to the ballistic coefficient of a golf ball. A golf ball is not very heavy, so it will slow down... something the simplified prediction ignores. That means it won't go as far as my prediction... unless you can fire it in a vacuum on earth.

If you can hear it hit, and time it, you can figure out how far it went (don't forget to subtract the speed of sound from the estimate). If you can't hear it hit, it probably went farther than you want it to.

[NitroSteel]

Thanks RickK.

I don't know how fast it shoots, but my guess was much faster than 300 fps.  I know you can't see it leave and I haven't been able to catch a glimpse of it.  I'll know how fast it leaves the muzzle after Saturday morning and I'll post up then.

I was just curious what the maximum distance was.  A 22 lr. says it will travel 1.5 miles, but I don't shoot it at the optimum angle to make it go as far a possible...  Just curious and wanted to be safe if shooting it after dark in the field.  There's much more likely to be something (that I don't want to shoot [cow, horse, etc.] standing/parked in the field at night than in the middle of the 3 mile stretch of woods, so I'd rather shoot it into the air rather than straight across the field at the 3 ft off the ground level.  The safest thing after dark I guess would be to shoot a blank load.

Will just powder in the cannon be loud?

[Rickk]

here is some interesting golf ball info:
http://www.patryangolf.com/2006/pat_ryan_golf_other_interesting_stuff/pat_ryan_golf_interesting_golf_facts.htm

note that 148 mph is about 200 feet per second.

here is a golf ball simulation calculator that considers golf ball aerodynamics:
http://www.ecs.syr.edu/centers/simfluid/red/golf.html

it only allows input up to about 250 feet/second (80 meters/second).


At 200 feet/second, it predicts about half the range of my simplified program... wind resistance is a killer. On a 2# , 2.25 inch lead ball (what I shoot) the wind resistance contributs a is less significant error.

[GGaskill]

You probably remember high school physics where the instructor said to calculate the trajectory of a cannon ball neglecting wind resistance and it came out as a parabola.  Well, that was all nice for learning the process and so on, but it turns out that the wind resistance is something like 80 times the strength of gravity so that the simple parabola way over estimates the true trajectory.

The flight of the golf ball will be significantly affected by the spin imparted to it, so if the spin is the right way, range will be enhanced, but if the wrong way, range will be reduced.  Also, the ball could deflect right or left from spin.  My guess is that you will be lucky to get 1000 yards from a golf ball considering its low density.