Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Temperature of Fired Bullet

Depends on the alloys and the amounts.

Lead - Pb
Tin - Sn
Antimony - Sb

All Pb/Sn compositions have melting temperatures less then pure lead.

All Pb/Sb with Sb<~20% have melting temps less than pure Pb.

All Pb/Sn/Sb with Sb<~20% have melting temps less than pure Pb.

The more Sn, the more Sb you can add to keep it under the melting temp of pure Pb.

53% Pb, 20% Sn, 27% Sb melts about the same as pure Pb.

While that's correct, it's also irrelevant as a bullet doesn't travel for an entire minute.

A 12 twist barrel rotates a bullet one time every foot of forward travel it goes, regardless of the forward velocity. This probably diminishes as it slows down, but not a whole lot.

I had a 357 Harret and 110 gr hollow point pistol bullets would come apart and leave scrapnel holes in the target at 25 yds. what caused that??

The linear velocity of the bullet decays faster than the angular velocity. So as it gets farther downrange the spin will increase per linear foot traveled, rather than diminish.

I stand corrected...Thank-you

To convert muzzle velocity in fps into miles oer hour take muzzle velocity x60 x60 and divide by 5280. For example 850 [fps]x60=51000.51000x60=3060000. divide this by 5280=579.54 mph.

Just now reading this thread but I know first hand that this accessment is right on the money...A good friend of mine who was a "Spooky" crew member on our sister ship took an almost spent round in the right butt cheek as it passed through the thin skin of the aircraft.It was an AK round and he said it not only hurt but felt like he had been stuck with a hot poker..he survived of course but there's no doubt in my mind that it puts fire in the hole!!

Why don't we see burning targets or burnt hair on the game we shoot? I read that the advantage of the plastic tips was that they didn't burn off in flight as do lead tips. Think I will call that BS. Easy test- light a candle and hold a ballistic tip in the flame, gone in seconds. Now try it with a lead tipped bullet. You will drop the bullet before the lead melts.Rick.

because the 500 degrees is only touching the hair or targets for a thousandth of a second.

Doesn't need to travel for a whole minute to report its speed as rpm, just as I can drive 60mph without driving for a whole hour. In fact a police officer could give you a ticket for driving 60mph for just a few seconds.

My father took machine gun rounds through the stomach, bicep, and hand. He said there was no burning sensation at all.

Good possibility if they were through and through...my friends round stayed put in his azz and didn't go any farther,about 3" of penetration and I don't doubt his word!!!

If it's really hot, looks like it would start fires in grass, which it won't.

I suppose the perception of how a bullet in the azz feels could vary.

Can't figure why some of you guys are having a hard time believing this..of course they won't start fires...example: take a butter knife put it on the burner of a stove for several seconds then touch your arm and hold it there..a blister for sure.Then do the same even for a bit longer and quickly set it in "dry grass" Fire?? doubt it!! I think the problem here is the interpretation of the amount of heat generated vs time of flight.

Last year my guide told me that a .308 cal bullet leaves holes in game that are smaller than a 7mm. He explained that due to friction, the bullets diminish in diameter before they get to the target.

I guess you don't need to be a rocket scientist to be a licensed guide.

(No offense meant to anyone here)

shhh don't let the military that they don't need incindarys, just plain old bullets will get er done. "Throw some more hot lead at them there critters, Yosemite"

What pain you feel from a puncture wound depends on which pain receptors are damaged. Some people report knife wounds to be hot.

Your 357 pistol bullet broke up because most pistol bullets have very thin jackets, most rifling in pistols is very shallow, its easy for the deeper rifling to engrave the jacket and break it.

It you are shooting 300 yds, and the or 900 ft. and your twist rate is 1 in 12 the bullet will only rotate 900 times, the calculated rpm figure has no relevance.

If you have ever cast a lot of bullets you will know that sometimes fissure lines are produced length wise if the allow isn't ready, when shot the bullets appears to explode, drawn wire used in cup and extruded bullets can do the same thing giving the appearance of "vaporizing". The bullet is somewhat protected by the shock wave front, which is why rain drops don't affect the flight. (or by using the other reasoning bullets would be colder when shot in the raing or snow).

If anything a bullet can get shorter, especially when fired as the moment of inertia of the back part is over come before the front part, and a density packing occurs.

That's what I was going to say...and it also makes a difference if you take the bullet's temperature orally or anally.

Yeah.

Not that it's important, but it will rotate more than 900 times. The linear velocity decays faster than the angular velocity.

I have picked up intact SP bullets on a number of occasions after firing them across smooth, flat snow covered sea ice. The bullets do not melt into the ice but lay just under the surface of the snow generally. And they get a light coat of crusted snow due to being slightly warmer than freezing but quickly cooling upon stopping. I don't buy the melted core idea (though there is enough heat right around the jacket when the lands press into the jacket to momentarily melt streaks of lead under the jacket.)