When a bullet leaves the barrel, does it rise before it starts to fall?

Question

U dum blonde!! Every bullet of every caliber travels in a arc, as gravity begins to pull it down as soon as it leaves the barrel of the gun that fired the shot

Answer 1

Oh My people !

"When a bullet leaves the barrel, does it rise before it starts to fall? "

Answer:

No it will not rise any after the bullet leaves the barrel. The "Arch" that everyone seems to think is the bullet is really your line of sight compared to the bullet. Once a bullet leaves the barrel of a gun it begins to drop. Your line of sight does not drop, therefore your bullet must be arched to the target point. This can best be seen in a bow and arrow. Shoot it close and seems like nothing ! Fire the arrow at a distance and you better be aiming way above your target, same as throwing a baseball.

The law of gravity feeds this question. Heres an example of how it works.

1. In you left hand you have a Colt 1911 45acp. You hold it perfect horizonal with the ground.

2. In your right hand you hold the bullet of the same 45 caliber as in the gun without the casing at the same height as the barrel.

NOW, If you drop the bullet in your right hand at the same time the left hand fires the gun, which bullet hits the ground first ? The simple answer is neither, they hit at the same time as the weight the same and gravity pulls them down the same. It doesnt matter that the fired bullet is traveling at XXXXfps, they will both hit the ground at the same time due to gravity. Now if a firearm fired a bullet horizonal and the bullet did rise after the barrel, this would not be possible.

The front sight is lower on every firearm you buy. The reason is so that you kick the front of the barrel up slightly so that the bullet is arched to the target. Draw a striaght line from that barrel and you will see no matter how you hold the gun, the bullet comes out falling.

Here is a link to a page that might help you understand better !

http://www.chuckhawks.com/bullet_trajectory.htm

Good Luck & Happy Shooting !

Answer 2

WOW! Some of you are foolish! The blonde girl was exactly right!

Think of a 5' straight stick laid horizontally level. Imagine an 8" rear sight and a 2" front sight. Now make the sights level. You will see that the barrel is indeed pointed upward. On real firearms the same relationship exists but is not so extreme. So in effect the bullet rises to the level of the sights, (which are higher than the barrel) continues above the sights for a while, the begins to drop down below the sights.

It goes up because it is pointed up and resists gravity until it can no longer and then begins to fall.

Smart girl the one that first answered this question!

Answer 3

The path of a bullet is called its "trajectory". Every bullet (the lead and copper projectile inserted into a brass cartridge) has a different trajectory based on its weight versus the amount of gun powder used to propell it. Bullets leave the barrel climbing to the top of an arch and then, as the power behind it lets off, begins to respond to the pull of gravity and starts its fall to the ground. It is NOT safe to say that ALL bullets "...don't drop at all for the first 100 meters of flight..." because some have such a poor trajectory to begin with that 100 meters is stretching the limits of its capabilities almost from the start. The old .44-40 is an example of a caliber designed for use in a handgun and later added into the lever-action guns so cowboys could carry ammo for both guns on their belt. It was tolerable for six-shooters but dismal for long guns. You can shoot the old-timer and put the gun down before the bullet strikes the target. If you aim at a target 300 hundred yards away, the bullet will have fallen over 3 feet by the time it gets there. There are more than 30 pages of "ballistic tables" in one of my sources which list the more commonly manufactured ammunitions available to hunters and shooters. That doesn't even include all the smaller .22 caliber rimfire and .17 calibers some of us also like to shoot. Needless to say, there are a lot of options to consider and I won't begin to count all the calibers, and then the individual loads of powder or bullet weights available for each, but you can be 100% safe in saying the exact opposite of what you have said in your question above. It IS entirely possible for a bullet to leave the barrel of a gun and then to reach the top of its arc and begin to drop BEFORE it has actually travelled its first 100 meters of flight. However, there will be a LOT of bullets for which that statement could be very accurate. Consult a ballistic table to see which ones. Good luck and good shootin'...

Answer 4

Interesting discussion! However I am a blonde thus I suggest there is a slight lift upon the exit from the barrel no matter the angle of sighting nor the angle of the barrel. The so called lift is only for a very short dist. 1.5 inches or less due to the aero dynamic's of the bullet, the pressure differential between bore and air pressure and of course gravity. Regardless a point blank shot at 1 inch might be a bit high from sights not that it matters (load, bullet, caliber. etc.) but to the most expert and every day shooter it does not matter. But there is a slight split second lift again trajectory ratings and statistics depend on the afore mentioned. Of course after the initial transformation it falls due to gravity.

Answer 5

When the bullet leaves the barrel it will start to fall back to the earth, due to gravity. The only reason the bullet will go up is if you aim up. Neither the bullet or the gun alone will cause it to climb. If it weren't for gravity the bullet would just travel in a straight line. Hope this helps.

Answer 6

No. Its a physical impossibility. Once the bullet has left the barrel, it has lost its propulsion and has no means to generate lift, and as it flies, begins to loose velocity (some more rapidly than others).

When a bullet leaves the barrel, it becomes subject to gravity. If its light, and traveling at a high velocity, its trajectory will be flatter. A heavy, slow bullet will drop more rapidly.

When you look at trajectory charts that say things like +2.0in at 100yds, that is not the bullet rising, rather where the bullet will be in relation to the zero at a specifc range. So on a .308 Win (eg), if the zero on the scope is 200 yards, the bullet will be 2 inches high in relation to your crosshair at 100 yards, because the bullet drops 2 inches between 100 and 200 yards, and you have it set to be dead on at 200.

Answer 7

WARNING: SCIENCE LESSON INBOUND!!
to all who like to know if you could drop the bullet (not the round or cartridge) from the same height as a fired bullet at the same time as the bullet is fired then BOTH will hit the ground at the very same time gravity will pull both down at the same rate of fall----that is at level if you point the gun up then the it will travel for a longer time---if the bullet has , for want of a better word, wings that make it spin or glide it will also stay aloft longer but if none of this is of any use to you then try to contact Gun and Ammo magizine or another gun author(s)

Answer 8

YES! absolutely, bullistics rules and gravity is only a part of that. as the bullet leaves the barrel there is tremendous velocity combined with the shape of the bullet causing it to rise. As velocity decreases and the bullet becomes increasingly affected by wind resistance the bullet starts to fall in an arc. the first 100 feet of travel of a high velocity load will be higher than the point aimed at thru the sight.

Answer 9

Yes.

For example:

if you sight the rifle in for 100 yards (depending on the caliber) the bullet will hit high if the target is closer then 100 yards and will drop if the target is beyond 100 yards. Now depending on the cartridge, depends on how much it will rise or drop. often the faster the cartridge the flatter it flies.

-edit-
Actually, I suppose its more the shooter compensating for gravity and more or less "lobbing" the shot. so technically no the bullet does not rise however sighting the gun in at 100 yards would cause the point of impact to be high at closer distances. The bullet rises relative to line of sight not bore line.

Answer 10

depends on the barrel and the settings on the gun some are set to rise a little bit also depends if your shooting up at the sky or not but if your aiming at the clouds it will rise if your not most likely it will come out and is set to rise a little bit so it doesn't start dropping immediately but in the long run it starts moving toward the ground because of gravity