Have you seen bullets flying down range?

[DPR]

Hi- I just purchased a PM9 and shot it for the first time. Only 100 rds fired. Ammo used was Federal Range and Target 115 gr FMJ. My wife shot several rounds and I could see the projectiles as they flew down range. I have never seen bullets in their trajectory with the naked eye except .22LR. Never have seen it with my .40S&W/.357sig P229 and I have shot all kinds of ammo from WWB, Speer Lawman, American Eagle, UMC, TulAmmo to cheap reloads.
Is this normal? Could it be the short barrel not accelerating the bullet enough or is it the Federal ammo?

[CJB]

Normal depends on your locale.

At the range, its not unusual to see the bullets fly. We used to always see the 44specials go downrange. Big n slow.

However, locale being important, in Detroit, South Central Los Angeles, South Chicago, parts of Philidelphia, etc.... its more normal to see the bullets as they fly towards you, not away from you.

[muggsy]

Visit Camp Perry during the NRA National Matches. You'll really see the bullets fly. Thousands of them.

[pbagley]

Just curious - what were the weather conditions? With the proper humidity you can see the bullet trail from a 30-06 or .308 on it's way to the 600 yard target.

I've only seen the bullet after it hit a falling plate - hovering in the air as it bounced back on it's way to landing a few feet in front of the plate rack. I've always wanted to video this at 60fps so I could slow it down.

Video next trip to the range may be fun. Go super slow-mo at 60fps so we can all see it.

[Surlyman]

Bad ammo? Maybe?

I've thought I've seen some once. When I was just a wee lad, My family was out shooting and using some .38sp reloads that were from the local PD armory.

Someone said, "I think I see the bullet" we kinda laughed it off and and poked fun at the individual. Eventually a round "popped" out of the muzzle and landed about 10ft in front of the shooter.

I'll never forget it. We were hoping these were not being issued to officers on the street. Probably target ammo. Most officer's were carrying autos at this point in time.

[wyntrout]

It's very common to see the bullet in flight if you're close to the bore's axis... .22 on up. You're inline with the fight path. Off to the side it's not so easy. It's a blur, but you can definitely see the moving bullet.

I kind of first noticed that with my "target" .38 reloads. I could watch the bullet go from the barrel until it impacted the ground about 70 yards away. Hot .357 Magnums didn't do that.

Wynn

[leftysixty]

Light and maybe weather conditions gotta be juuuust right

[wyntrout]

All you need is enough light to see and your eyes be adjusted to the ambient light.

It's not a rare sight.

Wynn

[100percent]

Our home range faces north. We notice the projectiles on there way to the target.

I have seen some ammo fly straight with a slight ballistic trajectory but before hitting the target start hooking. I'm guessing that their spin rate decreased below a critical value or that they went from supersonic to subsonic and became unstable.

[Bill K]

I've only noticed with .45 ACP but then my eye sight was never anything to brag about.

[DLButler]

I used to watch the projectiles from the 3 inch 50 cal and 5 inch 54 cal guns on my ship all the time.

[muggsy]

Spotters for snipers watch the flight of the bullets to help the sniper to zero in.

[wyntrout]

I single-framed through a bunch of the video of my wife shooting .22 and 9mm at the range about a week ago. I couldn't quite catch the actual bullet at 30 frames per second, but then I only caught a few good frames of the flashes... one with a halo. A camera that slow can't catch a 900-fps projectile in 7 to 10 yards... not so you could see it stationary, anyhow. The camera was focused on my wife and the target wasn't in focus, so I couldn't even see where the bullets impacted.

I'll have to try running the camera close as possible to the axis of the barrel of the pistol and focused to catch impacts on the target. It might be possible to catch one inflight...?

I would like to have a faster, more capable camera to play with at the range, but mine still works well for most things and is easy to carry along... not so my last SLR-like 3MP Fuji the size of a 35mm SLR of old.

Wynn

[wyntrout]

In video mode, the camera takes a picture roughly every 33 milliseconds at 30 frames ps. At 900 feet ps, it takes about 23 milliseconds for the bullet to hit the target at 7 yards. The gaps between the frames leave a lot of room and it's hard to catch the flash sometimes.

I can see the blur that is the bullet in flight with my eyes, though... unless I blink... which is what the camera is doing between frames.

Wynn

[bsmith712]

Yep. It's not uncommon.