Sosalty

Haven't seen this discussed on a hunting forum, just on airrifle forum some years ago.
Background:
Seems with a 22air rifle, around 15-20grains, one might expect 400yds at a 30degree trajectory. If said pellet is fired upward at a much steeper angle, 45degree plus, opinion is that it won't come back down with the energy to crack a window and unlikely to hurt anyone.

Now I'm moving to a semi-rural area and have a .17 B-mag that I'm in the process of setting up. A bud of mine just brought up shooting crows. But what about shooting up at 'em with the .17 rimfires? On several occassions I've heard of 22s getting the blame for cracked windows, but I'd bet those were fired on the horizontal. The .17 calibers generally come in 15.5gr, 17gr, 20gr, & 25gr weights.

I'd shoot a 15.5gr HMR up(steeply up) knowing no serious problems would result, but don't have anything to go on for 20gr, the lighter WSM bullet. Your opinions please.

Sosalty

Seems this question has few facts and studies. There are terminal velocity calculators. Somebody calculated the decent of the 22 long rifle round and got an answer 100s too fast to be realistic. (I tried, took a while to convert all the values needed to plug in.) It yielded that a 20gr .172caliber bullet would fall at 65fps; unrealistically low to me. Lots of stories of firing a heavier round with resulting injury or death.

Another great unknown; does a .17 fired at 45+degrees travel an arch with the pointy end remaining forward? Some studies conclude that the 9mm & 30.06 rounds swap ends, perhaps during the transition from sonic to subsonic speed (1100fps) or fall sideways such as a human body tends when you spread your limbs skydiving. The wider base is heavier on a polymer bullet. Do .17s keyhole targets beyond 300yds?

Sigh

Nomercy448

I'm not sure if the physical explanation for it is well documented anywhere, but it DOES appear that bullets do travel tip forward throughout their flight, rather than maintaining a constant tip direction from the barrel. I'd say it's safe to assume that this rule applies to the .17WSM as well.

Not able to run the numbers at the moment, but if you're honestly curious, I could do so later when I get back to the casa. It's a pretty straight forward simulation.

A bullet shot straight up has been proven to only hit around ~100mph on the way back down, which isn't going to be good for anybody, but is considered less than lethal. BUT... a bullet fired at an angle never reaches a static stall height, therefore can maintain higher decent velocity than it's terminal speed.

All that physics aside (how often do you boys hear me say that?!?!?!), I've shot literally thousands of .22lr, .22WMR, or .17HMR rounds upwards while coon hunting, and I know I'm not alone in that.

It all depends on where you're shooting. It's pretty easy to angle yourself away from the ONE lone farmhouse within a few miles if you're out in the middle of nowhere. Lobbing a bullet into the air in the direction of a suburb is probably a less than stellar idea.

Sosalty

Thanks NoMercy, I sorta did an end around using the Hornady Ballistics Calculator, entered 2000yds for the zero and range. At 45degree, yielded 1200 yds for peak and 352fps at 1975yd back to tierra firma. Spend the time with your new totler!
http://www.hornady.com/ballistics-re...ics-calculator
Here I get 338fps @ 60degree and 4.9ft/lb, not enough to kill a squirrel with a head shot, but enough to knock it blind Enough to break glass or bare skin.
http://www.jbmballistics.com/cgi-bin...j_simp-5.1.cgi
Did validate the HMR.17 in 15.5gr descends at 122fps/2ft.lbs. IMO that makes the HMR a near perfect bird/varmit rifle.

Anyway, looks as I'll take up the shotgun loaner for crows. Never could hit much with the shotgun