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Posted: 8/6/2008 7:22:31 PM EDT
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I understand the basic concepts behind most ballistics discussions. Big/heavy (excepting the optimal performance of hollowpoint pistol caliber) tends to overpenetrate and keep going. Lighter/faster is supposed to yaw and create a larger wound channel. I can imagine a 5.56 round yawing inside a body and why. My question is this: Is there any reason that a rifle round, after entering a skull, could not yaw upwards? This is for technical accuracy in a book I am writing. Even though it is a very small part of the story, it must be within the realm of probability. If this has been beaten to death, please post a link or let me know (white belt in search-fu.) |
YAW is not a description of the path of the bullet, but of the attitude in space of a bullet. Pilots can tell you there are 3 attitudes in flight*: ROLL, in which the body of the airplane turns around its long axis; PITCH, in which the body of the airplane turns around an axis level to the horizon, but 90 degrees to the long axis of the airplane; and YAW, in which the body of the airplane turns around an axis 90 degrees to both the horizon AND the long axis of the airplane.  So when a bullet, say, a 5.56 caliber bullet, hits a soft target, it begins to YAW violently, but its relative direction changes very little, urban legends to the contrary. One POSSIBLE exception is where the bullet is almost at the end of its trajectory; it has relatively little velocity, so it COULD be induced to change it's direction of travel by hitting, say, a lot of bone, like in the front of the face, where there is a mix of sinuses and bone. ETA This effect COULD be increased if the bullet had struck something just before hitting the cranium. So the bullet then would enter the body, yawing violently, creating a 'keyhole-shaped' entry wound. Look on Old_Painless's Web site, theboxotruth.com for some more info on how bullets behave when they hit stuff. In fact, if you are a shooter, you owe yourself an afternoon just browsing his site. Old_Painless is a member here; he's put up his own site which examines the effects of many different calibers, shot at many different substances. In short, he has performed the ballistics tests that most other shooters want to perform but don't have the time or resources to perform! It is most interesting. In fact, if you spend an afternoon on his site and don't find something to incorporate into your book, I will send you one (1) round of Q3131A! |
| Bullets can deflect if they go through some kind of hard medium. For example auto glass, a bullet usually deviates from its straight trajectory and instead follow the angle of the paine of the glass. However I dont think the change in direction is that extreme to the point where it would go directly upwards after going through a skull unless it hit something and deflected. |
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