5,280 FPS ???
- Thread starter Lavan
- Start date
Interesting question, LOL. A bullet traveling at 3,600 miles an hour, must be made out of titanium or some such material. Depleted uranium might work, but that would be extremely expensive. The fastest I know of is a 40 grain 243 that could reach 4,000 fps, but I am sure it would burn up before it reaches one mile or 5,200 fps.
Because of air friction, all bullets will slow down at some point in their travel they will go from supersonic to subsonic during their travel so any measurement of 5,200 fps would only be at the tip of the barrel. Along with the pull of gravity downward it might be a physical impossibility to get a load that would give you the results you are looking for.
Good luck, you could try it in outer space where gravity and air friction would not apply. Stay safe and take plenty of oxygen with for your tests.
Jim
Because of air friction, all bullets will slow down at some point in their travel they will go from supersonic to subsonic during their travel so any measurement of 5,200 fps would only be at the tip of the barrel. Along with the pull of gravity downward it might be a physical impossibility to get a load that would give you the results you are looking for.
Good luck, you could try it in outer space where gravity and air friction would not apply. Stay safe and take plenty of oxygen with for your tests.
Jim
I would suggest you contact Hornady, it seemed to be about 2 months ago Hornady created a lot of drama about something that was going to revolutionize reloading. It had something to do with bullets melting. I was not excited, I am the one that would not walk across the street to watch an ant eat a bail of hay.
F. Guffey
Colorado Redneck
New member
.204 Ruger firing 24gr. Hornady NTX chronied at around 4350 fps. which is about on par for the load data provided by Hodgson. H4198 was the powder.
I wish I could remember the details, but there was an article in one of the gun rags a while back (well, probably 20 years ago), the writer was loading some really light handgun bullets in a magnum rifle, and got like 4600 FPS.
I think it is doable, but aside from an engineering exercise, there isn't much point.
I think it is doable, but aside from an engineering exercise, there isn't much point.
pctechdude
New member
I'd say if getting close to this would require a large case and necked down to a very small caliber. I.e. necking down a 30-06 or 338 lapua to say .20 or .17 caliber. Problem is will the bullet leave the barrel or even reach 5 feet in the air before it implodes and creates a miniature black hole lol.
Yep! got my 231 Snazer Rebated Belt Magnum to do pretty close to that (I had to use my Dopler Radar to measure the speed). I used a solid Titanium bullet at 123.75 gr. over a load of 87.3 gr. Bullseye shooting it outta my custom Ted Williams rebarreled 30-06. Used a custom, diamond lapped barrel (designed by NASA) made of high speed steel with a chrome/carbon alloy sleeve (I believe it will last at least 3 shots, mebbe 4) with polygonal rifling. Wasn't able to check accuracy though, the bullet was going so fast it just moved the atoms of the paper outta the way and didn't make a hole.
Yep, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.
Yep, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.
Archangel1972
Inactive
Google fastest bullet
Wideopen spaces dot com has a decent article talking about 8 of the top ones.
Wideopen spaces dot com has a decent article talking about 8 of the top ones.
Hornady addressed 2 different things, and neither had anything to do with speed at the muzzle. It was about maintaining bullet speed downrange with much more aerodynamic bullets.
#1 They tested some existing bullets using radar to determine actual down range bullet speeds. The speeds they were getting were slower than they should have been based on muzzle speeds. They determined the old plastic tips they were using were deforming from heat and changing the bullets BC. They switched to a more heat resistant plastic tip.
#2 They also released a new line of high BC hunting bullets which maintain speeds much farther down range.
A lot of shooters fail to understand the significance, but it does make a big difference. There have been such bullets available for a while, but all were designed as target bullets. This takes hunting bullets to a new level.
A bullets speed at the muzzle is irrelevant. It is the speed at impact that matters. A 30-06 firing one of the Hornady ELD bullets will hit harder and with more speed at 250 yards than a 300 WM firing an old school 180 gr Nosler Partition. A 308 firing one of the newer bullets is a virtual tie with old school 300 WM loads at 450 yards. Both out perform 300WM at longer ranges if the 300's are loaded with older conventional bullets.
Of course the new bullets fired in 300 WM improves its performance downrange too. But being able to get 300 WM performance on game from a 30-06 or even 308 is pretty revolutionary.
The Rheinmetall 120 mm smooth bore gun in an Abram has a MV of 5200 to 5700 fps. Bit heavy for the PBI though.
I do seem to recall reading something, somewhere(some magazine I think) about an experimental necked down(forget to what) .50 BMG that was hitting 5,000 FPS.
Ti is too light. Not dense enough to make decent bullets. DU maybe. 68.4% denser than lead.
I do seem to recall reading something, somewhere(some magazine I think) about an experimental necked down(forget to what) .50 BMG that was hitting 5,000 FPS.
Ti is too light. Not dense enough to make decent bullets. DU maybe. 68.4% denser than lead.
Here you go:
http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2015/08/5000-fps-with-22br-improved-and-30gr-berger-bullets/
From the link:
http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2015/08/5000-fps-with-22br-improved-and-30gr-berger-bullets/
From the link:
My father was one of the zillions of arms industry people paraded past the Reagan star wars rail gun that would do 10,000 fps.
Gun powder cannot do that.
Later, ~ 1994 at an amateur lab in a warehouse, some guys had some surplus rail gun capacitors. These were high Voltage, high capacitance, low ESR [effective series resistance], and low ESL [effective series inductance].
At first they tried to make steam guns, but eventually the crowd pleaser was magnetically shrinking coins. By the time I got there, they had welded together a shroud to keep bits of flying wire from shooting holes in things. So I shrunk some coins. It sounded like dynamite. The same magnetic field lines crowding and pushing out on the conducting puck in a rail gun can be used to push in on the sides of a coin.
Gun powder cannot do that.
Later, ~ 1994 at an amateur lab in a warehouse, some guys had some surplus rail gun capacitors. These were high Voltage, high capacitance, low ESR [effective series resistance], and low ESL [effective series inductance].
At first they tried to make steam guns, but eventually the crowd pleaser was magnetically shrinking coins. By the time I got there, they had welded together a shroud to keep bits of flying wire from shooting holes in things. So I shrunk some coins. It sounded like dynamite. The same magnetic field lines crowding and pushing out on the conducting puck in a rail gun can be used to push in on the sides of a coin.
