shootin rooks with a rimfire

[henry d]

I`ve shot corvids in trees with a .222, however I was shooting downhill into a bank behind it and I could see behind the branches as there were no leaves, so as such it was pretty safe.

 

Branchers with leaf on the tree and only sky as a backstop........

[bullet boy]

I would never do it so my answer is NO!!

[dadioles]

Yes there were, a falling bullet is still like having somebody drop a bullet out of a skyscraper window though. Nothing like the velocity it had going up but enough to injure you if it lands on your head.

 

Very broadly speaking..... a bullet (any bullet, any weight) fired straight up into the air will come back down to earth at a little over 110mph, say, 160 ft/sec.

 

That assumes that on the way down the bullet reaches terminal velocity which is about 50 metres per second.

 

A typical .22lr bullet weighing 40grains will come to earth with an energy of a little more than 2.2ft lbs which is enough to hurt. Rather like being shot with an air rifle at 175 yards (Bisley Magnum 10.5 grain pellet .17 legal limit air rifle).

 

If you chucked something heavier into the air such as a 65 grain bullet, it would come down with an energy of getting on for 4ft lbs which would hurt quite a lot!

 

An air rifle pellet would not fire high enough to come down at terminal velocity but even so, a .17 Bisley Magnum 10g pellet would probably fall with something like (guesstimate) rather less than 0.2ftlb which is reasonably harmless.

 

Makes you wonder about all these arabs firing their weapons into the air in the middle of a city to celebrate a wedding, the bullets must be showering down somewhere not far away.... ouch.

[Beardo]

This is only true if fired straight up and it falls straight down - if its still travelling in an arc then there's a lot more to worry about surely?

Air rifle pellets also lose their spin and start to tumble, which is why they are much safer.