Science this 200 yard shot anomaly

I’m not sure what the phenomenon is you’re taking about? The dots that appear to be the Bullet in multiple places at once?
If that’s the case it’s caused by shutter speed of the camera, if your camera shutter works right to left, then it would get the bullet in one pass, and in the next pass the bullet would be past it, but it catches up and in another pass (all on the same frame) it would catch the bullet again, and by the time the frame ends and it goes on to the next, the bullet has moved and it’s all over again.

The reason it’s showing up so well here is the angle to the bullet. If the camera was near directly in line with the projectile it would not have this effect. Too much angle and the bullet would be faster than the shutter relative to the camera so it wouldn’t catch it.

Otherwise, a little clarification on what exactly you’re meaning would be nice and then I might be able to answer that as well.

 

I think he's referring to the pre-emptive water spout caused by the spalling effect of the pressure front from the "sonic boom" of the bullet tip as it compresses the air waves on its leading edge?

I hope he's not merely referring to the shutter speed...

 

This is what I gathered as well.

 

Yep, the shock wave. You're also seeing some rebound effect from the air pressure building against the plywood causing blow back.

 

Physics is fun

 

It's phenomena not what he said.
edited by a pedantic SOB

 

I have watched a .308 call bullet travel from within about 10 yards in front of the muzzle to about 80 yards out with my bare eye. The bullet left the muzzle @ a little over 2900 fps. Same day same time I saw about 4 of them . Tried to catch it on camera but could not. The sun was going down and we were shooting at a slight angle to it, but toward it. Why was I able to see it? The angle was perfect so the sun was flashing off it as it went.

Have not seen it again.

 

My initial guesses were that he skipped the bullet on the water (thus the water spout) or with the lower light of the setting sun, he had a mirage on the water that made the board appear lower, thus aimed lower, thus the splash. These guesses have nothing to do with bullet phenomena so I'm going to rule that out.

Others have stated that the splash is from the sonic boom air pressure but there is a video out on youtube from DemolitionRanch where Matt (the host) shoots a .50BMG round through a house of cards from about 100 feet and the cards do not wiggle as the bullet flies through so I am ruling out the sonic boom theory as well.

My only other guess, and I think the fact that the camera actually could catch the bullet on multiple frames gives this away, is that you caught the exact moment the bullet crossed the transonic barrier as it went from supersonic to subsonic which if I remember correctly causes an air disturbance and is also why accuracy goes out the window after your bullet drops subsonic and bullets begin to tumble. That my only other guess and I hope OP tells us because now I'm genuinely interested in what I saw.

 

I can see my bullets at night when calling coyotes and hitting the weapon mounted light just before shooting. The light reflects off the bullet.

 

Neat ain't it.

 

I don't know. Please tell us. I watch bullet trace in spotting scopes all the time at 1000 yd matches. You can even tell if there is a flyer. But I can't see bullets strike at 1000 because you can't see the bullet holes. I'm sure at some ranges you can but not Williamsport. Shep

 

smarter every day video

 

If it's the multiple bullet images, it's sampling time of the camera. Much like the appearance of helicopter blades when spinning.