Dumb 308 questio

[thegoodlistener]

I was wondering does a .308 bullet arc or is it a flat bullet?

 

[hak]

uhhh

all bullets (objects) will fall at the same rate (ie: of similar density: bullet and bowling ball, not neccessarily bullet and a lint ball)

so all will 'arc'.

the only difference is the bullets with higher velocity will go farther before hitting the ground (ever seen an I vs. J vector diagram?) giving a flatter arc, but only lasers are 'flat'

so besides initial speed, the shape of the arc will depend on the weight of the bullet vs. the cross section and some shape characteristics (search for BC) so the fastest at the muzzle may not be the fastest at 700M if its' a lighter bullet or one with a lower BC (higher BC = stays faster longer), b/c we don't shoot in a vacuum.

so, google for some ballistics software and pull up some different rounds and plot them. even if the free tools you find don't show it visually, put the output (inches of drop at a given distance in yards) values in Excel and graph them, or put them here: http://www.google.com/googlespreadsheets/try_out.html

so they all arc. the benefit of the 308 for newbies is that it's been around so much there is a lot of data on it and many Bullet Drop tools/assumptions/averages will use the 308 as the standard.

 

[hoghunting]

Every fired bullet has to travel in a path that arcs. "Flat shooting bullets" just arc less.

 

[jbech123]

no such thing as a bullet that is not affected by gravity.