Re: Falling bullets
Hatcher's notebook devotes an entire chapter to this subject.  Bullets fired
from '03 Springfields straight up did not fall fast enough to penetrate a tin
bucket nor the tin roof of the shanty structure Hatcher and Co. were in. One
bullet struck a pine board in a boat used for the tests and penetrated 1/16
inch before bouncing into the water.  The return velocities were calculated
at about 300 fps.  30 ft lbs given a 150 grain bullet.  While these could
concievably be lethal this would be very unlikely.  The military considered
bullets returning from extreme altitude to be non-lethal.
This says nothing of bullets which are not traveling straight up-straight
down.  Every year it seems someone is killed or wounded from July 4 cowboys
firing their guns into the air.  It is the horizontal velocity in these cases
which makes the bullets potentially lethal.
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