How High do bullets go in their flight trajectory

Carstenbo

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Feb 1, 2020
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Denmark
Hi. This is my first post here. Like to shoot lr and starting on elr.
how to calculate how High a bullet fly on its Way to the Target. We fight and measure Wind at the Ground or near. But perhaps the Wind is stronger on lets sat 100 feet when we shoot atthe mile or longer distance. So is the a Way to calculate how High a bullet go on its path to the Target
 
Do you want the long way or the easy but slightly less accurate way of calculating max ordinate (max ord as I'll write it)?
Edit: saw you're from denmark when I was wondering about your typing. I changed out the slang to literal, just in case.


Y (max ord) =(X being horizontal distance)1000*(Angle of departure-angle if departure in mils)

Or an easier way is half the trajectory to target (in yards, meters, inches or mils)+ 10%.

And look at you all smart and stuff looking for that wind at max ord. Good on you. This is definitely the strongest wind and the wind to take most in to consideration when looking for sign. The ground lies to us, wind is not down at the shooter, so using smoke drift, trees bend blah blah can be deceiving. However it's hard to see what wind is doing at 16m in the air, but it's there.
 
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Look at your drop in inches at target. Meaning, how high your bullet will be above line of sight at it's highest point....I think.

For example:
6.5 SLR w. 130 OTM @ 2900fps, 2500' AMSL, 65°F, 10% humidity.
@ 1760 yards, 1410" drop, or 117.5' or 35.8 meters.
 
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Look at your drop in inches at target. Meaning, how high your bullet will be above line of sight at it's highest point....I think.

For example:
6.5 SLR w. 130 OTM @ 2900fps, 2500' AMSL, 65°F, 10% humidity.
@ 1760 yards, 1410" drop, or 117.5' or 35.8 meters.
Problem is that just shows total bullet drop. Not the max ord. of the bullet. The bullet is falling the second it is no longer making contact with the barrel. When you dial whatever you are dialing the barrel is pointed in the air, the bullet goes up to a certain height then comes back down. The disconnect is the calculator is telling you how much the bullet is dropping by the rate of gravity in total, not the max height it's going.
 
Problem is that just shows total bullet drop. Not the max ord. of the bullet. The bullet is falling the second it is no longer making contact with the barrel. When you dial whatever you are dialing the barrel is pointed in the air, the bullet goes up to a certain height then comes back down. The disconnect is the calculator is telling you how much the bullet is dropping by the rate of gravity in total, not the max height it's going.
My ballistic calculator shows 22.3MIL elevation.
Doing the math:
22.3 × 3.6 (1mil in inches @ 100 yards) × 17.7 (100 yards in 1760 yards or 1 mile) = 1412.928"

To me, that means you are holding 1412.9" over the target, so at the highest point of travel, would be less than your holdover?

Going in to Shooter and just changing zero to 1760, bullet at the highest point is 564" @ 1065 yards.

Good catch dfanonymous.
 
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564 inches seems more correct the 1400 inches without checking. That's about 60% of the target range. So as I said, take half the range, and add 10%.
However the technical way is the first formula, or if you don't have anything to go off of...like in the 90s.
 
About the easiest way to do it if you have an app is set your zero at the range you intend to shoot, run a calc, backtrack to max ordinate, usually 60-70% of the way to the target. I suppose you need the bullet drop function enabled.
 
I'd argue, unless you have balloons with wind meters spread from you to the target, you cannot accurately find a solution. Wind does not vary much at even 100ft in flat areas. Anything other than flat ground is just a guess
 
I'd argue, unless you have balloons with wind meters spread from you to the target, you cannot accurately find a solution. Wind does not vary much at even 100ft in flat areas. Anything other than flat ground is just a guess

Is the wind above you hard to measure yes I would argue that it does tend vary at least in the mountains maybe not as much on the prairie or somewhere flat like you said. When we are engaged with a wildland fire we measure wind speed 20' up. I can tell you from experience that I have seen wind speeds of 5mph on the ground but 10mph 20' up. Just food for thought this morning I suppose.
 
We landed in New Orleans a couple weeks ago with winds 25-30knots on the ground but 50+ at 1000' 3 miles out. I agree they can vary a lot based on weather, even in flat areas. Doubt many are going to shoot at a mile with storm fronts in the area.
 
We landed in New Orleans a couple weeks ago with winds 25-30knots on the ground but 50+ at 1000' 3 miles out. I agree they can vary a lot based on weather, even in flat areas. Doubt many are going to shoot at a mile with storm fronts in the area.
If I am out and a front is approaching, I'm taking the shot. It's a bullet, some powder, primer and some brass and barrel wear. It may be a learning experience. We can't control the wind whether it is on the ground or 30' up. You are either pulling the trigger or not. If you are in a ELR comp, you are up, you shoot. Recreational shooting, who cares, take the shot, for most of us, it is not life or death.
Do we need weather station vans to pull a shot off?
Maybe this new wind range finder from Trijicon may be a life saver.
 
You can shoot that far, my only point is, with a front coming in and winds like that, you aren't hitting within 20 ft of the target. Not sure what can be learned when you don't know what your variables are.
I agree, that trijicon looks very cool
 
You can shoot that far, my only point is, with a front coming in and winds like that, you aren't hitting within 20 ft of the target. Not sure what can be learned when you don't know what your variables are.
I agree, that trijicon looks very cool
I am not arguing with you and agree for the most part. But even the 20' miss can be learning experience, Yeah, you screwed up, but now look at the terrain that introduced the wind pattern. No matter how familiar, or how often you shoot one spot, a curve ball is coming your way at times. Could be just a 5 degree difference in wind direction from your best calculation that now is funneling wind at an unexpected rate. We have all been schooled by wind.
 
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