Has anybody else experienced "The Matrix Effect"?

J

jcoyoung

New member
I was originally going to post this in the Rifle forum, but I figured it might be more interesting to the general TFL population.

This past Sunday, my buddy and I went shooting at his grandparents farm in Indiana. The weather was a beautiful sunny and 70° day. We were using our Reminton 700s in .308 to hit 2 gallon water containers at 400 yards and the mirage using 40X on the scope was brutal. Anyway, I’m taking shots at my target with my buddy spotting. "Holy crap!, I think I can actually see the path the bullet takes!" he exclaims. I ignore this, passing it off as him having too much sun or gatorade. I take a couple more shots, they go high into the woods, or low into the dirt.

Him:"I SWEAR I can see the bullet path!"
Me: "You mean like in "The Matrix?"
Him: "Yea! That’s EXACTLY what it looks like."
Me: "Suuuurre….".
Him: "No really! I can see if it goes high into the woods, or low into the dirt."
Me: "Lets see if it shows up on the videotape."

I get home and hook up the camcorder to the TV and sure enough, you can see the bullet path! It is very faint and hardly noticeable, but it is visible. My guess is that the bullet flight disrupts the mirage enough for the human eye to see the trajectory. Pretty cool!

So has anybody else seen this?


Jason


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"Ray guns don't vaporize Zorbonians, Zorbonians vaporize Zorbonians" The Far Side

[This message has been edited by jcoyoung (edited March 08, 2000).]
 
The higher the velocity, the greater the cavatation. The more moisture in the air the easier it is to see.
It is awsome though. Scarry if those tracks are pointed in your direction.
 
Shoot a copper jacketed handgun bullet into a culvert with the sun at your back. You can watch the bullet go into the dark. Amazing how slow it looks.
 
I can occasionally track projectile paths in dark indoor ranges with staggered lights. I think the lighting is causing something similiar to a strobe effect. Friends won't believe you until you tell them exactly where to watch.
 
That is a well known effect among military snipers, in fact, it is often the only way the spotter can call a long shot, since the bullet impact is not always visible.

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Cry "Havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war.
 
First noticed this firing .38 Special with the sun to my back. Could see the entire flight path of the bullet, clear as day.

It is amazing how slow the slugs appeared to move.
 
Be careful jcoyoung or the agents will be visiting you and your friend. But if you're lucky, Trinity will get there first and get you to the phone. ;)
 
Go to a match where there are several different types/calibers of ammo and weapons used. You can easily spot the bullets spiralling in different ways, some faster than others, some wobbling more, etc.
It's a pretty neat phenomenon. ;)
 
The first time I ever was aware when I was in the Field Artillery and we used to watch the projectiles. In indirect fire you could see it just about until it reached the highest point in its trajectory.
Rockets and RPG's usually are easy to see because of their lower velocity.

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Better days to be,

Ed
 
We need guns. Lots of guns...

I'll just have to say, it was the coolest thing I've seen on videotape. Now I'll have to pay attention next time to see it in person. ;)
 
I first noticed visible bullets at the indoor range I shoot at one day. If someone was shooting a couple of lanes over with a slow to medium velocity round I could see it flying through the target to the backstop. I thought I was fooling myself at first, but it was visible each time he fired. Very cool looking.. I suspected it was the staggered lighting and the jacketed ammo.
I hadn't heard anything about this phenomenon before, so I was surprised.

On the other hand, as I thought about I thought it made perfect sense. It would be surprising, in fact, if one couldn't see a bullet under the right illumination. A phosphorescent round, for example, can be seen; that's why we fire them. It's not as if the bullet velocity is so high it's path can't be traced if it is properly illuminated, in other words. So, it's just a question of the lighting being right. And sometimes it is.
 
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