How Many Yards Until No Longer Lethal

[bultinkle]

^ reliably lethal =reliably upsets

But, bullets obviously can still be lethal without even upsetting at all, and especially if they will tumble, but your reliability is going to suffer

 

[Korhil78]

But at low speed they don't work as intended anyway.
A bullet traveling at 200 or 300 fpm doesn't spread open and tear things up like it would at 2000 or 3000 fpm, regardless of type.

I'm sure you meant FPS…not FPM. Although I'd much rather get hit with something going 3000 fpm. Haha

 

[HARPERC]

Why i said mid mass...say the stomach, or ribs.

Clip an artery victim might not survive.

I've seen an extreme distance .22LR kill a large man in heavy winter clothing,

Variables, it's what makes terminal performance such a contentious subject.

 

[Small Lady]

I'm sure you meant FPS…not FPM. Although I'd much rather get hit with something going 3000 fpm. Haha

Sorry.
Yes fps.

 

[Small Lady]

I got discussing with some coworkers another thread on the forum, where a shooter claims to have shot another man at over 4100 yards away. Even though it is probably all BS, and the shot never hit him, even if it had, we got talking about how lethal it would be after traveling that far.
Most likely a bullet traveling a vast distance would hit larger areas, say mid mass, or legs. Legs likely wouldn't be lethal at all, so for discussion the 8 of us used a scenario of a stomach shot. But lets assume that this person is a regular Joe wearing just a shirt and jacket, not body armor like a soldier would have on.
We had a great talk, but nothing conclusive as to when a given cartridge became nothing but annoying or a bit painful to be hit by.
The largest of my 3 rifles is a 7prc, and usually I shoot factory Hornady 175 eldx in it, occasionally 180 eldm, but couldn't begin to say when it becomes nonlethal to stomach shoot a person at. Obviously there is a distance where it would just tick the guy off, but not sure when that is.
I do feel certain that my 22 lr and 30-30 would be nonlethal well before 4100 yards, but again not at what distance.

 

[shaughn]

21000 pound freightliner is moving at feet per minute or feet per second , I don't think it matters

 

[shaughn]

If memory serves a projectile that achieve a velocity of 300 fps is potentially deadly and according to a test done with Black powder cartridges rifles at Yuma proving grounds with a 50-90 650 remained in this energy range out to near 3600 yards give or take with a mv of 1300 fps now a suitable modern magnum can do much better.

 

[QuietTexan]

Bullets will remain lethal to whatever yardage you can get them to in the air - because the energy of a bullet is applied to a relatively small surface contact area, they can and will penetrate skin at free-fall velocities. When you shoot a bullet straight up it won't fall back to earth any faster than its aerodynamics dictate terminal velocity to be, but that velocity can still be very high. The same logic applies to any ballistic shot - the bullet will eventually reach a terminal velocity (but keep in mind the vector might be at a near right angle to the launch angle).

Incidentally, the bullet fired upward will not always come back down facing downward. Although the terminal velocities are much lower than the muzzle velocity, they still could cause severe injury and death. The bullets' terminal velocity required to penetrate the skin is between 45.1 and 60.0 m/s (148 and 197 ft/s),[6] and bullets traveling at <60.0 m/s (200 ft/s) can penetrate the skull.[8,9] If kept in mind that the falling bullets have the capability of reaching up to 180 m/s (600 ft/s),[6,7] the bullets could cause double penetration of the skull not only one pierce.

Cranial Gravitational (Falling) Bullet Injuries: Point of View - PMC

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[Weaver93]

It's not a matter of energy…..it's placement!

A bullet, even if small, into the "ear hole" doesn't require a lot of energy to kill! Energy is far, far overrated! memtb

Wait, what? Do you even own anything that shoots "small bullets?" Don't you prairie dog hunt with a .338?

 

[dfanonymous]

I got discussing with some coworkers another thread on the forum, where a shooter claims to have shot another man at over 4100 yards away. Even though it is probably all BS, and the shot never hit him, even if it had, we got talking about how lethal it would be after traveling that far.
Most likely a bullet traveling a vast distance would hit larger areas, say mid mass, or legs. Legs likely wouldn't be lethal at all, so for discussion the 8 of us used a scenario of a stomach shot. But lets assume that this person is a regular Joe wearing just a shirt and jacket, not body armor like a soldier would have on.
We had a great talk, but nothing conclusive as to when a given cartridge became nothing but annoying or a bit painful to be hit by.
The largest of my 3 rifles is a 7prc, and usually I shoot factory Hornady 175 eldx in it, occasionally 180 eldm, but couldn't begin to say when it becomes nonlethal to stomach shoot a person at. Obviously there is a distance where it would just tick the guy off, but not sure when that is.
I do feel certain that my 22 lr and 30-30 would be nonlethal well before 4100 yards, but again not at what distance.

Goes back to what I said about momentum and mass not typically being in the equation. A .50 BMG can be 700 gr. or more, in the form of an Amax. As long as it's going fast enough , say 4-500 fps…It can very much kill you center mass. As a sniper myself, I can tell you we have Roufuss round designated mk211 for the 50 bmg that even explode on impact light armour. Hence, bullet construction, hence, bullet design.
A 800 gr match will be going about as fast as a hot .45 acp at about the 4 times amount of weight…at 3000y…

 

[shaughn]

Look at all the hunters along the highways using those large caliber bullets made by Ford, Chevy, Chrysler, Dodge...Don't need to worry about placement or rapid expansion....

 

[Lee7588]

 

[memtb]

Wait, what? Do you even own anything that shoots "small bullets?" Don't you prairie dog hunt with a .338?

Nope…..my wife does! memtb

 

[Trm82]

If you run a 6.5 creed your familiar with this symbol because they really have no limits.