Military Channel - Triggers of Change

[MikeBjerum]

I'm sitting at the desk working today, and as usual the TV is on across the room.  I see that there is a gun show on, so I unmute it.  Triggers of Change - Cool!  Now I just learned something that I'm sure many of you will also enjoy to have cleared up in your mind:

That thing on the end of the barrel is not a silencer!  That is a suppressor.  Perfect - color me happy!  Here is how it works:  (animated cutaway view of the suppressor with a bullet passing through and gasses being diverted and slowed down) The fired bullet passes through the middle of the chamber freely; some of the expanding gasses are trapped and slowed down within the suppressor; this trapping of the expanding gasses slows the bullet down to below the speed of sound and makes the weapon quieter.

This trapping of gasses slows the bullet down to below the speed of sound 

WTF   

[Timothy]

Maybe they need to buy "Physics for Dummies" from the local Barnes and Noble....

 

[JC5123]

Ummmm, most suppressors actually INCREASE bullet speed, which is why there is a slight impact shift up from the point of aim compared to the same weapon unsuppressed.

[Timothy]

Nu-uh!  Those explosive gases have little grippy fingers that claw at the projectile and try to slow it down....really!   

[Pecos Bill]

Ummmm, most suppressors actually INCREASE bullet speed, which is why there is a slight impact shift up from the point of aim compared to the same weapon unsuppressed.

Cool how those trapped gasses slow the bullet down. Let me ask this though, if you increase the speed of the bullet it impacts higher on the target? Why is that? I'm not the best external ballistician so help me out here. Don't want to hijack the thread just something that I don't know.

Pecos

[Sponsor]

[MikeBjerum]

Cool how those trapped gasses slow the bullet down. Let me ask this though, if you increase the speed of the bullet it impacts higher on the target? Why is that? I'm not the best external ballistician so help me out here. Don't want to hijack the thread just something that I don't know.

Pecos

I am not able to show you the exact formula that explains it, but in stupid Norwegian it is as simple as understanding that gravity acts on an object in the realm of time (an item moving forward will drop X over a period of time).  If an object gets from point A to point B faster it will not have dropped as much:

Bullets drop one inch per second;
It takes three seconds for a bullet fired from an unsuppressed gun to reach the target;
The bullet will drop three inches;
However, it takes two seconds for a bullet fired from a suppressed gun to reach the target;
So, the bullet from a suppressed gun only drops two inches and impacts the target one inch higher than the bullet fired from the unsuppressed gun.

That is as technical as I can make it.

[Solus]

Cool how those trapped gasses slow the bullet down. Let me ask this though, if you increase the speed of the bullet it impacts higher on the target? Why is that? I'm not the best external ballistician so help me out here. Don't want to hijack the thread just something that I don't know.

Pecos

the bullet travels above the line of the sights from close to the muzzle (for instance, an M14 round would cross to above the sight line at 35yds and then would cross again to below at 200yds) out to the zero range where it crosses below the sight line.

A bullet always falls towards the ground at the same rate, but how far it is from the muzzle when it crosses the sight line depends upon its muzzle velocity.

So, if you increase the velocity with the same zero, it will cross the sight line farther out than the zero, thus hitting high

[PegLeg45]

There are also other factors such as barrel length as it relates to the time the bullet stays in the barrel and muzzle rise from recoil.
This is not seen as often with higher speed rounds in rifles (as much as in handguns) but it can be a factor.

[MikeBjerum]

Regardless of how it all works,

The producers that work for the whole group of stations (Discovery, History, Science, Military, etc.) have once again proven they are idiots 

[Timothy]

I did enjoy the Hatfields and McCoy thing on History!  Lots of period firearms used!