Sitting here watching the news I began to wonder about Libya and all the bullets these guys fire into the air; don’t they come down somewhere and if they hit someone on the way down would it kill them?
Any answers to this from some of our weapons oriented bloggers?
Boadicea's Chariot 
Rick: The projectiles leave the muzzle at about 2500 feet per second( fps , AK-47) they go up, way up and then they stop and start to come down, on the way down they will only reach a speed of about 200 fps (terminal velocity for a falling object) so they would hurt if they hit you on the head but would not kill you. Comforting, Yes?
I’ll leave the bullets to someone else.
But once I got a load of dead shot from a French Count shooting at a high bird and missing. Came straight down it would have been a #6/7 shot size and hurt like hell, especially on my bare hands.
I stalked over and apprised him of the fact that we didn’t shoot the peasants in the UK, no wonder they had had a revolution and when could we anticipate the next one?
The shoot owner was horrified and apologised to me and assured me that he had inherited the frog (his words) as a guest from his father and never again! Amusing, he never was there again. I suspect he was looking for a cheap excuse to not invite him.
Which reminds me, I must tell the tale of the geriatric Bishop, which was more a case of live shot rather than dead! The poor old soul was well past it, used to bring his own loader who I presume he relieved from clerical duties, I don’t think he could see the birds and the loader used to vaguely point and shout
“There my Lord” At which call the old guy used to wildly swing the gun far too low and let off both barrels in the general direction.
What was totally hysterical was that at the first sign of that swing, the beaters, keepers and guns dropped like stones to the ground to avoid being shot. The only one safe was his loader who took great care to sidle to his rear! Very funny to see the aristocracy taking a dive, the Duke of Northumberland and his brother who were young men at the time rolling around on the ground in total hysterics at the attempted culling of souls. It was a performance worthy of the Barchester Chronicles. Needless to say the Bishop had to be retired from the invitation list. As a final nuance he actually wore a purple shirt under his tweeds!
CO: Almost as funny as quail hunting with Dick Cheney.
Very similar, and definitely a cherished memory!
There was a science piece on this in the meeja only this week – can’t find it yet – but it concluded that a falling bullet could indeed kill if it hit the cranium.
Short answer Rick,
Yes.
Long answer, if the round went straight up (highly unlikely) it would eventually slow to zero, tumble and lose the spin imparted on it by the rifling of the barrel. Anything other than that and the projectile would take a balistic arc, retain its spin and momentum and would certainly be lethal on return to earth.
Terminal velocity depends on the co-efficient of drag but it would certainly have plenty of kinetic energy travelling at 200 fps the front bit is pointy and the force would easily be enough to crack skull. I read somewhere that a penny dropped from the top of the Eiffel Tower would gain sufficient speed to kill if it hit someone on the ground. Dunno if its true and I can’t be arsed to google it.
Would you shoot an arrow straight up in the air and stand still to see where it landed?
It is definitely not a good idea to shoot a gun up into the air!
I know Wikipedia is not always the best place to go for information, but there are enough links and references in this article to indicate that a falling bullet definitely can kill you!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebratory_gunfire
hmm sounds like Libya is dangerous without a steel umbrella then.
Thanks all, I thought some of our military friends may have an answer.
CoB I love your reply.