Does wind drift cause pellet spiraling?
So this video made me ask the question. Can the wind affect yaw and therefore cause spiraling in what would normally be a solid flying pellet? I am going to conduct my experiments, but I wanted your thoughts on this.
This video has both stable flight and spiral flight with the same gun and shooter.
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Good shooting,
From all I have read its not the wind that causes spiraling, Its a bad pellet, If you get a few spiraling out of a 20 shots are so,
Or if a pellet is hot to fast all the shots will , Or most of them will be spiraling.
I bet we have a few experts on here that can jump in and explain a whole lot better than my limited knowledge can
I say NO to the wind…
Mike
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:hoot:
Dear Syphillic Forum Mouth-Breathers:
According to Isaac Newton, a former neighbor of mine, “spiraling” takes place because the propelled object (pellet) is rotating at high speed on a horizontal axis. The cause of spiraling is deformity of the object, resulting in uneven weight distribution. When rotating at high speed this causes the object to adjust from a perfect horizontal spin to an oblong spin to balance the weight of rotating object.
The Earth does the same thing. It rotates on a vertical axis and because it is not perfectly round, it “wobbles” like a top that’s coming to a stop. The physics of the motion is: everything that’s spinning seeks equilibrium so it can keep spinning. That’s why we have four seasons in the non-equatorial North/South regions of the Earth. There is no detectable wobble at the equator, so their season is the same year round. At the opposite poles the wobble is very pronounced and moves us closer and further away from the sun…resulting in a change of radiated heat from the sun, giving us four gradually changing temperature environments…Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter.
The reason a pellet going close to 1000 fps starts to wobble is the effect of the air being pushed ahead of the pellet. This forward air mass, approaching the speed of sound, creates a “transonic shock wave” that forces the spinning pellet to wobble to counteract the differing air pressures on the top/bottom/sides of the pellet. Many a good pilot has been killed discovering this transonic air mass.
In other words, “air turbulence” is the culprit at very high speeds. Uneven weight distribution is the culprit at lower speeds.
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While we are at it…Tomorrow, November 8th, is a fine day to have a nice evening meal…that being because we are likely to have to eat shit at the ballot box…..