Buffeting

[Muddog]

This is s story I wrote and Emailed to G&A few years back . See what you think of it.

I was looking for a good 100 yd pest control gun and picket up a .22 rim fire magnum ( this was 1-1 ½ year before the .17s).

When target shooting I have noticed some problems with this round. Some days I can fire 3 shots and have them stack neatly one on top of the other in a one inch string. On a another day it will throw them wildly in a three inch group. Well if your trying to pop a Gopher at 100 yds this wont do. So I looked for a answers. After a lot of shooting over the year and a lot of gun care this is what I came up with.

A .22 rim fire magnum round will leave a 24 in barrel at 2100 feet per sec.

The speed of sound is approximately 720 miles per hour.

When trying to break the speed of sound and the barer nears, a thing called buffeting occurs where the object will be throw about until the barer is broken. This happens at mach 1, 2, 3 and so on.

The speed of sound depends on a lot of thing. Altitude and Atmospheric pressure to name two.

So to break this down;

The speed of sound is approximately 720 miles per hour. 1056 feet per sec. 1056 times 2 = 2112.

A .22 rim fire magnum round will leave a 24 in barrel at 2100 feet per sec. This mean as the weather changes do to Atmospheric pressure. This round is trying to walk both sides of the line. With the round nose it will not stay above Mach 2 long.

So if you want pin point accuracy start below a Mach 1,2,3 or 4. And stay between the two as long as you can.

I tryed to write this from memory so it has changed some but the end result is the same.

I hope this will help some of you when your looking for a fire arm in a new round. The new .17s do this well and faster is not always better.

[Cooter]

I think I just had a brain fart.