Dumb firearms related question I thought of today

[BillyT]

The barrel is rifled in a spiral pattern so the projectile exits the gun spinning so it will travel further and straighter.

So then why has there never been a bullet made that also has spiral grooves on it just like the rifling spiral grooves inside the barrel?

[BillyT]

They make rifled slugs for shotguns so why not rifled bullets?

[jknelms]

The barrel is rifled in a spiral pattern so the projectile exits the gun spinning so it will travel further and straighter.

So then why has there never been a bullet made that also has spiral grooves on it just like the rifling spiral grooves inside the barrel?

i think it would cause a loss of pressure (force) behind the bullet. and since that would increase outside mass of the bullet, it would probably be more subjected to outside forces, like that of wind.



haha, i really have no idea....... just some BS ideas i thought of...

[bige97]

maybe cuz it is a rifle so they don't need to be. not trying to sound like a smartass

[mark226]

When fired the bullet takes on the shape of the rifling of the barrel.

[jknelms]

maybe cuz it is a rifle so they don't need to be. not trying to sound like a smartass

well, it is important to think of what great aim a rifle has as opposed to a shot gun. the 'grooves' could possibly even slow down a shot due to the increased surface area of the shot.....just ideas, not that i really know.

[jknelms]

When fired the bullet takes on the shape of the rifling of the barrel.

thus leaving marks on the shot distinctive to the rifle that shot it. good point.

[bige97]

i don't know, guess that would be a good question for someone at remington or hell the guys at barrett

[jknelms]

i don't know, guess that would be a good question for someone at remington or hell the guys at barrett

we have to have a member here who knows something about this. somebody has the education to tell us.

[BillyT]

[BillyT]

When fired the bullet takes on the shape of the rifling of the barrel.

Not the full length of a conical bullet.

And I've picked up fired bullets off the ground before and never noticed and rifling grooved scored into them.

[BillyT]

Nerf knows what I'm talking about!

[jknelms]

okay...there has to be something common sense that we're just missing...or they would have done it.... i just don't know what it is....maybe the shot would make more of a sound going through the air? hmmm...nah. more subjected to the force of the wind? i think that could be a good point. i really don't know...

[jknelms]

maybe the bullet would go too fast? i know it sounds stupid and contradictory to what i said...but the bullet would probably just go right through an object instead of staying in the object?

[TransAm11973]

rifled slugs are rifled because they are meant to be shot out of a smooth bore shotgun. This stabilizes the projectile as it exits the gun. If you have a rifled barrel you dont need rifled slugs because the barrel will do the stabilizing. When a regular bullet or slug ( when I say regular i mean non rifled) is shot, the grooves in the rifled barrel actually grab and indent the projectile. These grooves act as a guide ( like a roller coaster on a track) to spin the bullet down the barrel and set it in that motion to stabilize it out of the barrel for increased accuarcy and distance. all guns have different grove patterns and twist ratios.....like a human finger print...this is how a CSI unit can determine if a certain bullet was fired out of a certain gun. The barrel rifling leave a "print" on every bullet that passes through it. The only bullets that have rifle groves in them are because they are made to be fired out of a smooth bore gun. If you tried to fire a rifled slug out of a rifled bore you would get bad results. First off the rifling of the two wont match up so groves will be made by the rifled barrel into the rifles on the slug that are already there, this causes turbulance. It will also cause fouling (defragmenting of the bullet) inside of the barrel due to the mismatching of the rifling. Lastly you will get a loss of pressure in the breach....this groove on groove action will allow for spaces between the bullet and the barrel wall....less pressue equals less power and possible damage to the barrel.......when a regualr bullet is fired from a rifled barrel it fits very tightly, thus making the rifled grooves. these tight proximities also allow for the exploding gases to stay behind the bullet where they belong.......hopefully that makes sense

[LS1FirehawkWS6]

I'm gonna go with cost. Rifling a bullet would take more work, therefore costing the consumer more.

[BillyT]

okay...there has to be something common sense that we're just missing...or they would have done it.... i just don't know what it is....maybe the shot would make more of a sound going through the air? hmmm...nah. more subjected to the force of the wind? i think that could be a good point. i really don't know...

My only shot at common sense is this:

Because the TRUE thing that spins the bullet is the barrel rifling, you don't want to have have grooves on the bullet itself since there is no way of guaranteeing that they will line up perfectly with the grooves in the barrel and the chances of actually having them work against each other is far greater than the chance of having them work perfectly together.

That's all I got.

[TransAm11973]

the spinning stabilizes the bullet, keeps in from tumbling, and allows it to cut the air better........any bullet fired from a rifled gun that it was intended to be shot out of will always have grooves in it.......like i said its just like a finger print....

[BillyT]

the spinning stabilizes the bullet, keeps in from tumbling, and allows it to cut the air better........any bullet fired from a rifled gun that it was intended to be shot out of will always have grooves in it.......like i said its just like a finger print....

So what if I retieved said grooved bullet after firing it and use it as a reload and fire it again? What would that do?

[LS1FirehawkWS6]

So what if I retieved said grooved bullet after firing it and use it as a reload and fire it again? What would that do?

you'd risk damaging the lans and grooves due to the bullet not lining up exactly the way it was fired the first time