Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I am looking for a moderatley advanced experiment involving projectiles. I have a .223 rem rifle, and a bullet reloader so i can make bullets with different heads, shells, and amounts of gunpowder. I could measure accuracy and I might be able to get a chronograph. I just can't think of anything complex enough. I want it to be about tenth grade level. Any ideas?

Thank you

Superball,

I am not sure of the exact capabilities of a bullet reloader, but have you considered trying out different rifling grooves on the bullet? This would be an intersting project if you could control the rifling of either the barrel or the bullet itself.

Hi Superball,

First, I assume you have CAREFUL ADULT SUPERVISION on this project, correct? Needless to say, this can be potentially dangers since you've got gunpowder and firearms.

I like Terik's idea of trying out different rifling schemes. Also you can experiment with bullets that have different weight distributions and see what gives you the most accuracy.

Shijun
Science Buddies Staff

Thanks for the ideas. Basically, a reloader puts the four components of a bullet(Primer, shell, gunpowder, and bullet) together. If bullets do come with different grooves, that would be a great idea. But i think its the barrel, not the bullet that can have different grooves. I think mine is a 1 in 12" twist. I dont know that much about bullets, but if they do have different grooves that could change the spin rate, that would be great to test on. Again, I'm not sure of this so tell me if you know. I will have to look into the weight distributions because i thought that the only things that could be different were the tip(soft lead, hollow, or ballistic) and the jacket around the bullet(Full metal for example). Tell me what you know. Thanks a lot.

And yes, my dad and a veteran/ex cop will be supervising, and I've completed firearms safety.