The flight of most bullets is not visible to the naked eye. Occasionally, a flash of bullet can be seen, but when velocities are more than 1,500 feet per second, there is little hope of seeing it. I think it's worth noting that under certain atmospheric conditions such as early morning or late evening, the eye might see a wisp of vapor along the bullet's path. The performance of a bullet in flight is pretty much controlled by its ballistic coefficient, and I've pointed out in past columns that the BC of a bullet is determined mostly by its shape. It was thought for years that a bullet had only one BC, and reloading manuals showed a BC for each shape of bullet. However, modern technology and improved testing facilities show that the BC changes somewhat with velocity changes. Ballistic tests have shown large changes in ballistic coefficients occur when velocities run between 900 and 1,200 feet per second (fps). This is not important to big-game hunters using cartridges such as the 270 Winchester, 30-06, 8mm, 243 and other cartridges that have velocities more than 2,000 fps. These ballistic coefficient changes can have important effects on bullet trajectories for certain rifle cartridges such as the 444 Marlin, 44 Magnum rifle and 45-70. Pistol bullet trajectories are also seriously affected by ballistic coefficient variations. It's a fact that the ballistic coefficient is not really a predictable parameter. If a bullet is not well stabilized in flight, the apparent ballistic coefficient can be much smaller than the value determined from the shape of the bullet only. Other factors come into play. For instance, two bullets with the same point shape and tail shape, but of different weights or calibers usually do not have the same form factor. This means that measuring ballistic coefficients (instead of calculating the BC) is important. For years, simple theoretical calculations of ballistic coefficients provided adequate ballistics for most shooting situations. It's now known that measured ballistic coefficients are needed to calculate highly accurate long range trajectories to match the exterior ballistic potential of high performance cartridges. Some bullets have a "coning notion" in flight. Technically, the coning motion is called gyroscopic precession. The term "coning" gives a visual image of what a bullet is doing in flight. To bring this down to a more understandable illustration, we'll watch a quarterback throw a pass. But first, it is known that when a bullet is perfectly stabilized in flight, the spin axis of the bullet is almost perfectly tangent to the trajectory. Now, let's look at a quarterback's pass. When he throws a perfect pass, the spinning football follows the arc of trajectory perfectly, with nose upward in the early part of the trajectory and bending downward as the football trajectory arcs downward toward the receiver. This same concept of perfect stabilization applies to the flying bullet. As an afterthought, the coning motion of a bullet usually begins as it exits the muzzle. Several things can cause a bullet to cone or wobble. If the crown in the muzzle is imperfect, gases will escape prematurely -- before the base of the bullet is completely out of the muzzle. Also, a bullet with an imperfect base does not make a complete seal and gases escape past the bullet causing it to tip, so to speak, as it exits the muzzle. The flight of a bullet is rather complex.

---

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)

---