My god, someone actually did it!

I also read an article ,a few years back, on either the 17/50 or 22/50 can't remember which, but the guy said the velocity was something over 7000fps and shot out the barrel in 10 or 20 shots. Why he did it....because he could!!!;)
Bob
 
bobv said:
I also read an article ,a few years back, on either the 17/50 or 22/50 can't remember which, but the guy said the velocity was something over 7000fps and shot out the barrel in 10 or 20 shots. Why he did it....because he could!!!;)
Bob
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Ummm, ya, 7,000 fps, must be an internet record. :rolleyes: However a 17/50 would be a great novelty.

For velocity, bigger isn't better. There is a theoretical limit around 5,000 fps.

Here are the velocity records and these were designed to be all out velocity champs and designed to break 5,000 fps.

The 22 Eargesplitten Loudenboomer only achieved about 4,600 fps. It is a 22-378 with a 60" barrel

The 17 Flintstone Super Eyebunger got up to 4,798 ft/s. It is a 17-250 with a 52" barrel.

If you want to truly get over 5,000 fps, you will need a sabot.
 
Wouldn't the bullet be long gone before even half that s**t burned through?



I have a better idea, fix the propellant to the bullet so that it continuously pushes it.... oh wait that's called a rocket.
 
It's not pointless if it's an attempt to exceed the fastest recorded MV's.

The theoretical limit of around 5000 fps is based on the speed of expanding gasses. They all expand at about the same rate at a given pressure, but are slowed by the obstruction in front of them - the bullet. I don't believe anyone who says they shot, or saw a round shot at faster than 5000 fps, although many have heard of one. For what it's worth, I've seen 4100 fps, and know people (who are reliable) who have seen just over 4200 fps.

There are technologies that can accelerate a bullet faster than powder, but no-one here has access to it.
 
That would be right up there with trying to custom load a Rem 22 accellerator sabot & 40gr bullet in a 300 win mag.
The 30-06 unit is a hoot to shoot at gophers. Easy to tell if you hit or missed. hits were just a red mist floating across the field. Mucho fun, but made for one helluva sore shoulder after 40 rounds lying prone in the field. Plus the risk of starting a grass fire from the muzzle blast is very real! :redface:
 
acrashb said:
and/or a multi-chamber pump gun. See Gerald Bull.
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Correct. Large artillery pieces also use "firebrakes" (flame front retarders) along the powder column (between selected numbers of bags of powder) which pretty much do the same thing. They prevent the entire powder charge from igniting at once and "stage" the pressure pulse. Without these flame front retarders, the entire powder column would ignite at once and you would end up with a really BIG kaboom. (This is one of the things they investigated that might have caused the USS Iowa turret explosion.)

I believe that Bull got one of the HARP guns up to about 5,400 fps. It was a 7" smoothbore 55' long loaded with 110 lbs of powder.

The projectiles were saboted about 3 to 4" in diameter.


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Here is the Abstract of a report by Gerald Bull about the 16" HARP project. MAR 1967

Abstract:
The usual powder charge in the 16-inch HARP gun can be as long as 12 feet in an even longer chamber. If the charge length is more than 2 feet shorter than the available chamber, the pressure time curve can be significantly improved by dividing this interval into 2 to 4 sub-intervals by use of wooden spacers. An even more dramatic improvement can be achieved by igniting this column of powder at several points. Recently, five point ignition with two squibs in each location was used in the 119-foot long 16-inch gun with very good results. The service charge for a 16-inch gun is 660 pounds of standard 16-inch gun propellant. This charge will launch a 3000-pound projectile at 2800 feet per second, but is too slow burning to launch the standard HARP projectile plus sabot weight of 410 pounds at this velocity. With multiple point ignition, 1275 pounds of this old propellant accelerated the HARP projectile to 5900 feet per second, and an apogee of 414,000 feet was achieved. Even better performance can be achieved with multiple point ignition. A WM/M propellant with 0.220 web, 920 pounds, allows the HARP projectile to reach 6800 feet per second and an altitude of 540,000 feet while a 0.225 M8M propellant yields a muzzle velocity of 7000 feet per second and 590,000 feet (180 km) apogee.
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So SEE, you can get a "bullet" over 5,000 fps, all you need is a 120 foot barrel, (1440 inch) and a thousand pounds of powder per shot... :cool: But damn, varmints at 100,000 metres :D (oh, and you would have to be almost 3,000 feet above ground to see a point at the same elevation on the horizon because of curvature of the earth)
 
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