 Pictures of Bullets in Flight! |
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The following pictures were taken on my own initiative for a High School
physics project in 1971. The pictues show a .22 short bullet at various stages of
flight travelling from the rifle muzzle to the target. Each picture was taken of
a different bullet at a different location in flight.
Bullet Photographs
1. Shows the bullet a few inches from the muzzle.
2. The bullet is midway between the muzzle and target (also, some polaroid aging).
3. Captured the bullet nearing the target. Notice the air currents.
4. Point of impact - bullet is entering the target.
Click on Picture to See Full Size
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Setup For Bullet Photography
This picture shows the setup used for taking pictures of the bullets
in flight. An older .22 single shot bolt-action rifle was clamped in a mount and
pointed at multiple 2x4s for a target.
A 4x5 Speed Graphic camera was loaded with
polaroid sheet film and set for time exposure. A Honeywell 880 strobe was positioned
about six inches from the bullet path to ensure a computerized 1/40,000 flash duration
(as indicated by the mfg specs). A home made sound trigger device (far right in picture)
consisting of audio
amplifier and thyratron tubes was used with a microphone under the muzzle to sense the
sound waves and fire the strobe in a dark room.
A typical shooting sequence consisted of: 1) loading the rifle
with a .22 short, 2) Inserting a sheet of polaroid film into the camera, 3) Turning
off the room lights, 4) Opening the shutter on the camera, 5) Pulling the trigger on
the rifle, 6) Closing the shutter on the camera, 7) Turning on the room lights, and
8) processing the polaroid film to see if a bullet image was captured.
If a bullet image was captured on film, the microphone under the muzzle could be moved
ever so slightly toward or awauy from the target to change the bullets positon in the next
photograph based on the sound waves from the muzzle. If no bullet was captured on film,
the microphone was moved to a new test location until a bullet image was captured.
Home
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This picture shows the setup used for taking pictures of the bullets
in flight. An older .22 single shot bolt-action rifle was clamped in a mount and
pointed at multiple 2x4s for a target.