The shot takes for ever to get there...

[CharlesP]

Myself and a couple of friends have noticed a tendency for cartridges to exhibit a really long flight time recently. Once one of us noticed the effect it is sometimes really striking. This happened last winter, too, and we thought nothing of it really.

Obviously this is only apparent on clays that you actually hit, but the delay between bang and the shot hitting the target is sometimes astonishing. It seems to happen with a variety of cartridges. I'm using Armusas, they use them too, albeit 12 bore to my 20 bore, and we've noticed it with Eley as well.

Naturally the two of us watching notice it more than the chap actually shooting.

Is there any way we could measure this delay? I have thought about taking a video, then analysing the footage. One gentleman has reckons that the time in flight is excess of one second on occasions

 

[RobertBeard]

Just suppose the speed of shot is 1000 feet per second then it travels 333 yards in one second - well not really because its slowing down as soon as it leaves the barrel really but shot will carry that distance no problem especially if the wind is in the right direction.  As a result I doubt the shot takes a whole second to get to kill the bird at say 60 yards - it just seems to take that long.

 

[jake.keeling]

You must be shooting at some serious targets at least 100m away to get 1sec flight time! with say a 1400fps shell which is of course at the muzzle, but even so, I've never personally seen a delay beyond about 1/8 second.


tiroVesti seamless performance clothing.

 

[Will Hewland]

You can also get the effect of just a few pellets hitting the clay, which then takes a moment to fall apart.

 

[shootinguru]

Where is the resident "experts" on this subject? :fie:  

 

[Hamster]

Myself and a couple of friends have noticed a tendency for cartridges to exhibit a really long flight time recently. Once one of us noticed the effect it is sometimes really striking. This happened last winter, too, and we thought nothing of it really.

Obviously this is only apparent on clays that you actually hit, but the delay between bang and the shot hitting the target is sometimes astonishing. It seems to happen with a variety of cartridges. I'm using Armusas, they use them too, albeit 12 bore to my 20 bore, and we've noticed it with Eley as well.

Naturally the two of us watching notice it more than the chap actually shooting.

Is there any way we could measure this delay? I have thought about taking a video, then analysing the footage. One gentleman has reckons that the time in flight is excess of one second on occasions

I'm the resident expert  :zoro:  yes you do occasionally see a delay on breaks especially on certain targets such as very long Teal but as Jake says you'd have to be routinely shooting some very long birds to have this happening regularly enough. 

Without following you around on a shoot it's difficult to say but I'd go with Will's suggestion, maybe a hard batch of clays are getting hit but taking a nano second longer than usual before tearing themselves apart or something along those lines.

 

[ips]

Will and hammys theory sounds feasible to me.

 

[** Pending Removal **]

+1 with Will, Hammy, Jake and Ips

 

[chippy]

You can also get the effect of just a few pellets hitting the clay, which then takes a moment to fall apart.

You have just described 50% of my kills. I always thought my clays were further away then everyone else's.

 

[Skeet UK]

The shot does slow down extremely quickly. By 40 yards, even your 1500fps shells have dropped off to around 600.   This is why some people suggest going for a slower cart to start with (as they all end up about the same speed, at about the same distance).

Of course...this still equates to very short flight times, not usually noticeable. You do get duff shells of course, which could easily give slower muzzle velocities. 

They could also be being stored incorrectly, such that they are damp...which will give reduced performance and account for it happening on more frequent occasions.

 

[RobertBeard]

Interestingly slower speed ammo is more accurate at longer distance in target shooting given equal quality ammo at both speeds.

 

[Bryn12]

Have noticed some seemingly long delays on some sporting targets, not just me as the shooter but Mrs Bryn on the button as well, seems to be mostly on stands in a particular area at Westlands, wouldn't say they were particularly long targets, maybe 40-50m. Doesn't seem to be confined to any particular cartridge/shot size. Think the hard batch of clays theory is most likely explanation.