From: forda@gtephx.UUCP (Andrew Ford @ AGCS, Phoenix, Arizona)
Newsgroups: rec.guns
Subject: Re: .22 LR can kill at 1 mile
Date: 19 Nov 92 15:11:59 GMT
Organization: gte

In article <fpcqs4l@dixie.com>, jgd@dixie.com (John De Armond) writes:
# th2_oate@csd.uwe-bristol.ac.uk (Tom Oates) writes:
[...]
#                                 .22 cal bullet 
#                        (Calculated using Ingalls' table)
#       Bullet Weight .........  40 grains   Bullet Caliber ........ 0.224   
#       Sectional Density ..... 0.114        Coefficient of Form ... 0.791   
#       Effective Bal. Coeff... 0.144        Bal. Coeff. at STP .... 0.144   
#       Cross wind ............ 10.0 m.p.h.  Altitude .............. 0    Ft.
#       Atmospheric pressure .. 30.00 in.    Temperature ........... 60.0 F  
# 
#     Range  Velocity  Energy   Momentum  Mx. Ord. Defl.   Drop   Lead   Time
#     yards   f.p.s.   ft-lb.   lb.-sec.    in.     in.     in.  in/mph  sec.
#        0     1000      88.8    0.1776     0.0     0.0     0.0    0.0   0.000
#      239      771      52.8    0.1370    32.8    18.8   120.3   14.5   0.824
#      478      611      33.1    0.1085   169.2    76.9   577.2   32.9   1.871
#      717      484      20.8    0.0860   493.9   183.3  1568.1   56.2   3.192
#      956      383      13.1    0.0681  1146.7   350.7  3402.4   85.5   4.860
#     1195      304       8.2    0.0540  2370.1   595.1  6563.6  122.6   6.966
# 
[...]
# In any event, a 40 grain bullet is not going to hurt anyone going 200 fps
# unless it happened to hit an eye and then it would not kill.  Even 300
# fps is not going to do much more than sting.  300 fps is about half the
# velocity of an average .22 cal pellet rifle.  Indeed, I have one of
# the super cheapo chinese made air rifles that sell for under $15 at
# the gun shows that chronos out to almost 700 fps.

First, what is the weight of that .22 cal pellet?  A few grains at most?

It is not the velocity that kills, it is the energy transferred to tissue
the destroys the tissue and can lead to death -- both mass and velocity
come into play and when you've ten times more mass, you've got no 
comparison.

To look at it another way, 
    (300 feet/second) * (3600 seconds / hour) * (1 mile / 5280 feet) 
        = 205 miles per hour.

    200 fps == 136 miles per hour.

Granted, the liklihood of being killed if a .22 bullet happened to hit 
you from a mile away is very slim, but to deny that possibility is 
foolish.  A strike on the temple could kill.  A hit on the juglar
could fail to penetrate skin but still break the vein and the person
would bleed to death.

Taking it to the bizarre, the victim might be standing a few feet from
a campfire, holding a gallon of white gas when the bullet penetetrates
one wall of the conatiner, spills gas on the victim and the victim 
burns to death: there's more than one way that bullet could kill.

To be a little less bizarre, suppose you have someone on a horse when
the horse it hit by a little chunk of lead doing 100+ miles per hour:
the rider could be thrown and seriously injured or killed.

So call me paranoid, but I want to know where the bullet is gonna
stop!
-- 
"25 States allow anyone to buy a gun, strap it on, and walk down the street with
no permit of any kind: some say it's crazy.  However, 4 out of 5 US murders are 
committed in the other half of the country: so who is crazy?"   -  Andrew Ford
gtephx!forda@enuucp.eas.asu.edu  OR  !uunet!samsung!romed!enuucp!gtephx!forda