How fast is the bullet fired from the gun?

Factors that affect the speed of a bullet fired from a gun are divided into two main categories: internal ballistics and external ballistics.

1. Internal ballistics include propellant, bullet weight, barrel shape and length.
2. External ballistics includes the forces that wind, gravity, and flight exert on the bullet as it moves through the air.

Most bullets are made from heavy metals such as lead, coated with copper to help them retain momentum.

When impacted by the gun's firing pin, a primer ignites the propellant, creating pressure that pushes the bullet forward. When moving toward the muzzle, the bullet creates a little friction due to rubbing against the barrel wall.

However, guns with longer barrels provide faster shots because the gas has more distance to increase velocity and the faster the bullet leaves the barrel. Therefore, a rifle is the gun with the fastest bullet firing speed. and the farthest it can fly is more than 3 km.

To produce such shots, rifle bullets are designed to be aerodynamic. Rifle bullets are longer, thinner, and heavier than handgun bullets. To keep the bullet spinning, thereby stabilizing its horizontal flight, spiral ridges were added to the barrel.

The above characteristics allow rifle bullets to be fired at extremely high speeds. For example, the bullets of a Remington 223 rifle leave the muzzle at a speed of up to 4,390 km/h, fast enough to fly across a distance equivalent to 11 football fields in one second.

Meanwhile, a bullet fired from a 9 mm Luger pistol has a speed of only 2,200 km/h, and will only travel half that distance in 1 second.

As soon as it left the muzzle, the bullet began to decelerate and fall due to the impact of air resistance, gravity and gyroscopic motion. The bullet will move very straight for a while, then begin to fall.

Samuel Daniel

Update 17 September 2023