what is the slowest velocity a bullet has before hitting the ground

[john keyes]

any ideas?   

I'm referring to the time/place where a bullet has run out of energy and starts falling to the ground. However I am prepared to be scolded by those that remind me that it is falling to the ground as soon as it is fired   

I just always wondered if angle/trajectory etc could be optimized so that a bullet is traveling the same speed as an underhanded tossed pebble at the very end of its flight and could be caught barehanded   

[Graybeard]

Nope. I think the slowest a super sonic bullet might ever be would be if fired more or less straight up. At some point gravity would overcome it's energy and it would stop dead still then begin falling to earth. At impact it would be going at the free fall velocity which I've long since forgotten from physics classes.

Fired at any normal angle I think you'd best not try catching one unless your name is Clark Kent aka Superman. Even at free fall velocity I think you'd not wanna try it.

[blind ear]

Angle and trajectory do play a roll, If you shoot it straight up vel will drop to zero before the ball starts the fall back to earth. If you shoot it flat on the horizontal a velosity chart will tell you the loss in speed before hitting the ground. Shooting at any angle less than horizontal shortens the distance shot and ups velocity (less friction loss) at impact. Raising the angle above horizontal increases flight time and decreases velocity up to the point that the angle reaches 45 degrees. After 45 degrees the velocity vectors (vertical) takes more speed fighting gravity. Bulit doesn't gain much falling speed due to gravity, just up to terminal velocity, mostly due to air drag.

Bullits don't rise when you fire a rifle unless you fire at an angle that is above horizontal which comes into play zeroing a rifle. The bullit crosses the line of sight twice in a normal rifle zero.

Get reloading manuals and read exterior ballastic and think about it some.

Now, this probably hurt more than it helped and I likely mistated something,

eddiegjr

[Skunk]

At impact it would be going at the free fall velocity which I've long since forgotten from physics classes.

Oh, here's the formula GB. Please, let us know the final figure. 



where
    m, is the mass of the object,
    g, is the gravitational acceleration,
    C_D, is the drag coefficient,
    A, is the cross-sectional area of the object, perpendicular to air flow,
    v, is the fall (vertical) velocity,
    and p, is the air density.

[BBF]

If you were thinking of catching a falling bullet you would have to shoot it straight up and be at the highest point( or very close to it)as it starts falling down.
When a bullet( rifle) comes down from several thousand feet I would not want to catch it.

[williamlayton]

My head hurts .
The optimum angle cannot be determined because all parameters are not know.
Tha said, it could not be straight up. If it was, the weight of the bullet and gravity would be an added effect not cause by the fireing of the bullet and would, in efffect, be the only propellant left in the equasion and so the bullet would be traveling at about 120 miles per hour.
IF, and this makes your head hurt, could figger out all of the other angles and deflections + the gravity and even, time of day and humidity, THE bullet would not be traveling at any velocity when it hit the ground.
It would have expended all energy in a nano before impact. In effect it would settle down in one place without any skid, bounce or skip.
I could show you that in a secret formula I alone know--
, but then I would have too kill you.
Blessings   

[no guns here]

Okay, figuring in a bunch of factors...

Let's shoot the following:

Large caliber like a fifty

Litest bullet with worst ballistic coefficient possible with no rifleing

I'm thinking something like a .50 wadcutter from a smoothbore barrel

Limit speed to cowboy action speeds, say about 650 fps or so

Shoot in the winter during a rainstorm (very dense, cold air to help slow it down faster)

Uphill at a high angle... say up a mountain about 300 yards

Into the wind...

Let's minimize speed and the ability of the bullet to carry it's energy.
Let's maximize the effects of air density, friction, humidity, gravity etc.

I think you could get the bullet to the point where it would be moving at a very slow speed an it would be catchable.
I wouldn't want to try it without some serious calculations that I have no intention of doing.
But considering that you can catch a 100mph fastball that weighs 5 oz... it seems to reason that you could catch (theoretically at least) a 100 gr bullet moving at almost zero almost vertically up the side of a cliff.  I think I would want a kevlar mitt on though until it all got figured out...



NGH

[Singleshotsam]

if you fire a bullet strait up in the air, it will eventually start to fall and will achieve terminal velocity.  Just like a person jumping from an airplane at a very high altitude.  mythbusters did a special on it where they figured out the TV of a falling bullet and then built a device to shoot it a hogs head at that speed.  It didn't break the skin but i looked like it would hurt like hell.

[rex6666]

I THINK if you shoot a bullet straight up it will stop and on the way down
it will reach the speed of 16 feet per second if i remember correctly.
Like i said i think that 16ft ps is the speed gravity pulls on every thing.

[Dixie Dude]

I've read and heard that for someone to parachute and it doesn't open, you hit the ground at 120 mph.  I think that is also true of a bullet.  A bullet being much smaller is more apt to penetrate something.  There was a guy who parachute jumped in Montgomery a few years ago.  His chute didn't open, neither did his backup.  He hit the ground in a lady's yard about 3' from the sidewalk.  His imprint was about a foot into the ground.  He broke both legs, hips, and fell to one side breaking his arm and the ribs on one side.  He survived.  Was young and strong.  Don't know what happened to him.  But being in a full body cast had to be awful.  He knew he might survive by falling to one side after hitting.  He didn't break his neck but did his collarbone.  Wonder if he jumped out of a perfectly good airplane again.  

[slim rem 7]

 jus don t do it with black powder..shooting a crow i think,,he nearly blowed his face ,off...
  he was new at it an mabe 11 yrs old..we sure though butch had done his beyes in that time..
 but a wash cloth showed him pretty much intact ...couldn t have hurt his eyes as he latter flew jets in several campaigns... he retired now but was an airline pilot all his working life..butch was one of the finest
 kids i ever knew...ive found spent but undamaged 22 rnds in the earflaps of my hat..i didn t even notice when they landed..probably just felt like a limb grasing my head..

[torpedoman]

If you fire a bullet at a perfectly level angle and drop on from the same height they will both hit the ground at the same time. basic physics.  The bullet will be quiet fast when it impacts the ground as it will not loose speed nearly as fast as it falls.

[mtbugle]

A bullet falling to terminal velocity would be faster than a body falling at terminal velocity as is more mass verses frontal area to resist against air. a penny weighs about same as a large piece of paper. which falls faster.( in a vacuum both would be same, but we don't live in a vacuum.)
BTW I believe the gravitational constant some were trying to remember is 32 ft per sec per sec.(or 32ft devided by seconds squared.)
I might be able to see a ball sized object in order to catch at 120 miles per hour. But doubt I could see a bullet sized frontal area at over 120 miles per hour before it hit me in between the eyes.
thanks Don.

[nw_hunter]

A bullet falling to terminal velocity would be faster than a body falling at terminal velocity as is more mass verses frontal area to resist against air. a penny weighs about same as a large piece of paper. which falls faster.( in a vacuum both would be same, but we don't live in a vacuum.)
BTW I believe the gravitational constant some were trying to remember is 32 ft per sec per sec.(or 32ft devided by seconds squared.)
I might be able to see a ball sized object in order to catch at 120 miles per hour. But doubt I could see a bullet sized frontal area at over 120 miles per hour before it hit me in between the eyes.
thanks Don.

I think Longfellow said it best...Just substitute bullet for arrow
If you shoot it straight up, don't wait around to see where it lands!

I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.

I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.