Civil War ammo manufacture

[BLUEHAWK]

Rigger -

Well, I got a number 258.3, but I don't what it is OF. I cannot figure out how to count one revolution of a projectile

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAALP!

[82Rigger]

The RATE OF TWIST of the rifling is 1 turn in 12 inches as we have stated. That means that the bullet is making one complete revolution for every foot (12 inches) of forward travel.

The MUZZLE VELOCITY is 3100 feet per second which means the bullet is traveling forward 3100 feet in one second.

Now, combining those two facts...in one second the bullet travels 3100 feet, and makes a complete spin every foot, so...

In one second the bullet spins 3100 times...3100 revolutions per second, or, since here in the US of A we normally use RPM to designate spin...

3100 x 60 (seconds in one minute) = 186,000 RPM

That's about six times faster than high speed on a kitchen counter blender.

If that were a soft point or a hollow point bullet, peeled back like a banana and spinning at that rate, it essentially liquifies the tissue that it passes through...utterly destroys it.

Nope, not like on TV at all.

[BLUEHAWK]

Wow...

Now, IS there any deformation of a lead pointed (esp. hollow point or soft one) AS it is propelled through frictioned air, Rigger?

[82Rigger]

Mike, I don't know for sure the answer to your question. We may have to get Col Murph to help with this one.

My best guess would be that there probably IS a slight amount of deformation on a soft point bullet in flight, due to the soft lead tip heating up due to air friction and flowing to the rear. Just an educated guess. It apparently doesn't have much affect on the bullet performance, however. Recovered bullets indicate that they almost always perform as expected.

Interesting things CAN happen to bullets in flight.

Some types of "varmint" bullets...those designed for ground hogs and small animals of similar size...have thinner copper jackets covering the lead core than do bullets for deer and large animals. This is so that they will expand quickly in a short distance (inside the small animal's body).

If you drive those varmint bullets too fast i.e. in a 22/250 or a .220 Swift, the centrifugal force of the incredibly fast bullet spin will literally tear the bullets apart IN FLIGHT.

I had that happen once. Loaded some of the varmint type bullets into 22/250 ammunition to a velocity of about 3500+ feet per second. What happens is, when you shoot, you see what looks like a "vapor trail" along the bullet path, ending somewhere along the way to the target. But, alas! No hole in the target!
Took me a while to figure out what was happening. Finally, I saw some very tiny pin holes in the target paper where small pieces of the bullet had struck. Weird!

[BLUEHAWK]

Rigger, thats exacraly what I was wondering about too... whether at a certain velocity along with a number of other factors, a proectile simply flies to pieces or goes off in a not-straight line purely from having grown sorta "wings", disturbances in the airfoil... interesting.

[Desdichado]

Only my wife's logic does that.

[BLUEHAWK]

Which is why you have them stars all over yer unit patch, eh Des

[colmurph]

A 450 grain Minnie Ball projectile fired from a 41 1/2 inch barrel (Length of all the Civil War Rifled Muskets) with 70 grains of black powder develops a muzzle velocity of around 900-950 fps. The turn in the rifling is around one in 15 inches at the chamber end ending up as one in 12 at the muzzle end (Progressive Rifling) At those speeds there isn't enough air friction to heat the round so there is absolutely no deformation of the bullet while in flight. When a round impacts it will only turn around one time when passing through the average human body (12" front to back" however at those speeds it doesn't pass through. The damage is done by the massive weight of the bullet and the fact that it was made out of soft lead. It flattened when it hit bone and in fact the bone fragments did most of the damage after the bullet hit. 450 grains x 950 feet per second is like being hit by a Mack truck. The damage was even greater when people were hit with the .69 cal musket ball of the Mod. 1819 Musket that was used throughout the war. (they were converted from flintlock to percussion and had shallow riflling put into the barrels) It was like getting hit with a small cannon ball.

[Tamaroa]

To bring home some of murph's comments. there are document examples of minne ball wounds in the WBTS that would astound you. One fellow was hit in the elbow by a minnie ball and it shattered his entire arm, 18 breaks were counted.

On the other hand Joshua Lawrence Chamberlayne was wounded in the torso. the bullet passed completely through him without hitting bone and he lived for another 50 years.

Generaly the impact shattered the bones to the extent that amputation was the only remedy, there usually was no bone left to mend.

Bill

[colmurph]

Chamberlain was wounded by a .36 cal Pistol Ball which passed through his hips and nicked his bladder. He eventually died from this wound in 1914 when the scar tissue on his bladder ruptured and he developed septicemia.