A bit of silliness

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Now I've found it. And now for the silliness. I cobbled this little tidbit together a few years back. Note the missing front sight! It doesn't have one because I didn't make it to shoot bullets, I made it to shoot empty 12 Ga. shotgun shells' Slip the empty over the muzzle end chamber a 22 cartridge and fire away. It will throw the empty over a hundred yards. Shorts are better than long rifles but both put a hole in the shotgun shell. Shot cartridges work best of all. My own little game is to fire the empty straight up, drop the pistol, grab the shotgun and try to hit the empty on the way down. I usually (damn near always) miss, but the exercise does generate another empty!!;)
 

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Your might try a NERF football with the tail if you feel like lobbing something with more ballistic efficiency, though shooting one of those with a shotgun is sure to make a big mess. Have you tried nail gun blanks?
 
That is a very fun idea. I can see it being very costly for me to own such contraption. I wonder how this would work on one of the 22 over 20ga guns.
 
Sure do.[/QUOTE]

Thank you. My range has a shotgun range and signs saying not to shoot shotguns on the rifle range. The signs are ignored and the hulls left for people to walk on or around. I try to ignore what uncaring people do or don't do but I can't help becoming just a little annoyed by this.
 
How about just plain .22 blanks as used in starter pistols?

The nail gun cartridges are probably stronger though. Either way, not having to worry about a stray .22 projectile is a plus.
 
Don_P said:
Where does the .22 round go? :eek:
Click to expand...
Don't know how much energy it has left after going through the base of the shotgun shell but I shoot in the direction of an 80 acre field. There is nothing out there but crops. No people. Nearest road is two miles away. With the shot cartridges it isn't a worry at all.
 
.22 blanks can be easier to get a hold of.
A number of construction supply houses will limit access to the "powder actuated fastener" charges.
They come in color-coded strengths, from Grey to Purple, and typically on strips or coils.
Blankcartridge.jpg
They may ask for some form of Contractor identification (Hilti encourages this; it's hit-or-miss with Ramset dealers).
Brass case Purples are around 700fps; nickle Purples are around 1200 fps
 
CapnMac said:
.22 blanks can be easier to get a hold of.
A number of construction supply houses will limit access to the "powder actuated fastener" charges.
They come in color-coded strengths, from Grey to Purple, and typically on strips or coils.
View attachment 978896
They may ask for some form of Contractor identification (Hilti encourages this; it's hit-or-miss with Ramset dealers).
Brass case Purples are around 700fps; nickle Purples are around 1200 fps
Click to expand...
Good Info CapnMac , thank you for it. I have no connections to any contractors so all I can do is try.
 
The Bushmaster said:
That was my question too, Don P. A bullet fired straight up has to come down and at 32 fps squared it WILL hurt someone.
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I did actually have one come back down and land on my picnic table twenty feet away. I heard a quiet "thump" and when I walked over to examine it I was surprised to see that it was slightly flattened at the nose. The table was undamaged save for the tiniest of dents in the wood. Quite sure it still would have stinged had it hit me. This is why I always use shorts or shot cartridges. The shorts are less powerful and they seem to throw the empty shotgun shell just as far as the LRs. And a falling to earth 29 gr. bullet is safer than a 40 grainer.
 
The Bushmaster said:
I might, also, mention that in many states it illegal to shoot in the air.
Click to expand...
Now that is a curious concept, because one cannot discharge a firearm at all without "shooting in the air." I assume you mean at high angles in populated areas which does make sense. I will research to see if Illinois has such a law. If they do I will Ignore it. :what:
 
The Bushmaster said:
That was my question too, Don P. A bullet fired straight up has to come down and at 32 fps squared it WILL hurt someone.
Click to expand...

32 feet per second per second is a unit of acceleration, and if it is shot directly up, velocity is going to end up as zero at the apex. How many seconds does it fall, and what is the terminal velocity of a .22 bullet? I’ve not run the numbers, but I’m guessing it isn’t the bullet’s acceleration due to gravity that kills someone when a bullet fired “up in the air” hits someone.
 
Hatcher has a chapter, 'Bullets from the Sky'. It relates a lot of vertical firing over the centuries. By a combination of firing tests and ballistics calculations, he concluded that the terminal velocity of a 150 gr .30-06 bullet coming straight down was a little over 300 fps for 30 ft-lbs energy. The Army then considered 60 ft lbs the minimum for significant wounding. Size matters, a vertical .50 BMG bullet is coming down at 500 fps and 400 ft lbs.

And yet we regularly read of bullets from "celebratory gunfire" coming down and putting holes in roofs and heads. A Baen's Barfly recently reported a perfectly round hole in the hood of his car and a .44 or .45 bullet on the engine.

It would be nice if a modern ballistician would aim his doppler radar straight up and get some direct readings.
 
When a bullet is fired straight up, it eventually comes to a stop. Then it falls to earth with no more force than if it was simply dropped from the same height. It also must be taken into account the speed the bullet loses when punching through the base of the empty shotgun shell. Hatcher's 150 grain bullet had 30 ft. lbs of energy. I imagine a 29 or 40 grain bullet has barely enough to even cause much of a bruise. All of this only applies to bullets fired straight up at a near 90 degree angle to the earth. Bullets fired at lower angles is where the danger lies. But where I live, I could not reach any of my neighbors with a 22 bullet even if I aimed directly at them, the nearest one is two miles away. I am surrounded by corn fields, so I don't worry much about where the bullet lands.
 
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