Dave Smith wrote:
>
> Default User wrote:
>
> >
> > >
> > > > The myth was about bullets fired straight up, and indeed if they are
> > > > fired straight up as in plumb bob straight up, it is impossible to
> > > > get anything more than a nasty bump if they land on you.
> > >
> > > My question to Mythbuster is this, was there someone insisting
> > > that drunk people were firing guns perfectly straight into the air
> > > and presumably killing themselves or the person standing right next
> > > to them? (laugh) Sometimes I don't get their point.
> >
> > It doesn't have to be perfectly straight up. It has to be to the point
> > where the bullet loses ballistic trajectory and begins to tumble. I
> > don't know what that angle is, and I don't recall them experimenting to
> > determine it.
> >
>
> The size and weight of the bullet have a lot to do with it too. A .22 bullet
> has very little mass behind it and when falling with nothing more than
> gravity behind it there is not that much energy. Having been hit by a blast
> from a shotgun fired from about 30 yards away I am all too aware of the
> effects. Of all the pellets that hit me, only those that struck by my
> shoulder blades broke the skin, and did not penetrate.

Yep, a shotgun (with a shot load) would be an exception since it has a
rather short lethal range even with a perfect trajectory.