[TheForge] OT - Yak Gun question

[Hochewa at aol.com]

To All,
Take my 44 mag for instance..
Muzzle velocity with a 240 grain FMJ is about 1600 fps, muzzle energy in  
excess of 1000 ft-lbs.
If I shoot it straight up in the air, the projectile follows   V  = Vo - at - 
Ra. Where Vo is the initial velocity, a is the  gravitational constant, t is 
time and Ra is the drag on the projectile due to  the air.  At some altitude 
the velocity goes to zero and it begins to fall  back to earth.  In theory it 
will hit the ground at almost the same  velocity as it was launched minus some 
losses for air resistance.  The trip  back to earth will be more turbulent as 
the spin of the projectile is not as  stabilizing as it was going up.  Which 
means that it is going to hit the  top of you head with only 900 foot pounds of 
energy which will only drive  the projectile to about mid torso.  Logic does 
not mean a lot when it is  put up against Physics.
 
Hochewa   
 
In a message dated 1/2/2006 11:53:42 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
theatre_weapons at yahoo.com writes:

It  doesn't seem logical to me that a
falling piece of lead would gain enough  speed to do
anyone any real harm. 
My guess would be something about  like throwing the
spent bullets at them. Am I way off on the  velocity
that a bullet world gain?