Extreme maximum range

[Beerd]

This question came up last night at a Hunter Ed class.
Manufacturers of 22 long rifle ammo give a maximum range of 1-1/2 miles for their bullets.
Some of the wizz bang centerfire stuff will top 5 miles.
Does anyone know how far a .50 or .54 roundball can travel before garvity & air resistence bring it to ground?
Thanks.
..

[waksupi]

I seem to recall that 800 yards is about maximum for a round ball. There was a diagram of the trajectory in the old Buckskin Report.

http://www.ctmuzzleloaders.com/ctml_experiments/rbballistics/rbballistics.html

[451 Pete]

Beerd,

A very good question. Although I could not find anything specific to black powder driving a round ball type of projectile I did come across some information about round balls being fired from a shotgun and simple formula for the maximum distance that a round projectile can be driven because of its ballistic coeffecient and constants like gravity. A fellow named Journ'ee came up with this rule of thumb and it is evidently pretty close as it is used in an Army Ordnance Technical Manual: Simply take the shot or ball diameter and multiply it by 2200 and you will have the answer of the maximum range that the round projectile can travel in yards.

Journ'ee also stated that some factors will increase this distance. He stated that a 10 mph tail wind can increase the maximum range by about 15 %. Higher elevation will do so because of less air resistance or drag.

So using his formula and plugging in a few numbers :
.50 x 2200 = 1100 yds. max range
.54 x 2200= 1188 yds. max. range

Smaller calibers like a .32 ( 0 sized buckshot ) will still travel 704 yds.

The bottom line is that although these are not hunting distances but the maximum distance the round ball can travel, the distances are still pretty impressive.

Hope this helps .... Pete

[Boerrancher]

Cool info Pete. I only made it through the first year of college physics, but what little I remember about the applied forces of resistance, air and gravity, to a spherical object those numbers sound about right. Thanks for posting that information.

Best wishes,

Joe

[2571]

Amish kid got killed in OH recently. Everyone agreed it was aguy clearing his ml but I never saw more details. Unknown if it was tradtional or in-line, but the shot was supposedly over a mile.

[Omnivore]

I guess we'd need to know the elevation of the barrel (is that for 45 degrees?) and the muzzle velocity too.

2571; that could very well have been a conical bullet, therefore having a far better BC.

[2571]

I guess we'd need to know the elevation of the barrel (is that for 45 degrees?) and the muzzle velocity too.

2571; that could very well have been a conical bullet, therefore having a far better BC.

Seemed like local media did not want to give any details. Angle of trajectory was discussed on other fourms. IIRC, maximum range angle was in the 30 degrees range.

May the kid RIP.

[405]

The Journee formula has proven to be as good as any for spheres (shot, buckshot, roundballs and the like). I know the NRA uses it along with ballistic calculators and some military testing results for modern high ballistic coefficient bullets when assisting in the planning and design of shooting ranges. Yep, 2571 (if that is in yards) is most certainly a conical. Even the 12ga (64 cal) roundball max is something just over 1400 yards.

[451 Pete]

I guess we'd need to know the elevation of the barrel (is that for 45 degrees?) and the muzzle velocity too.

2571; that could very well have been a conical bullet, therefore having a far better BC.

Angles of elevation to achieve the maximum range a projectile can travel are a bit less than 45 degrees of barrel elevation and are rather suprising.

( Not meaning to go off topic here but the U.S. Ordnance Dept. in testing for the maximum range of a .22 long rifle show some very interesting results, having done extensive testing in this area. Because maximum yardages for a .22 and a round ball are fairly close along with the intitial muzzle velocity I would think this would apply, or at least be close , to our muzzle loading rifles in shooting a round ball. )

The elevation to reach the maximum range of 1450 yards for a .22 is at a 25 degree angle. They state that increasing this angle has little change in maximum range up to about 33 degrees after which the maximum range or yardage decreases.

What I found to be of even more interest is what happens at much lesser angles of elevation. A less than 8 degree angle is all that is required to attain a distance of 1000 yards and only 2 degrees in elevation is required to reach 500 yards.

Again just my thoughts..... Pete