obviously not shot much up in the air

by bj , Wednesday, December 21, 2011, 15:31 (4721 days ago) @ Charles

Uh..not so fast. A bullet falling straight down from several thousand feet will do serious damage or kill a human being if it hits them.

This was not what Gen. Hatcher discovered in his tests. He fired .30-06 straight up and the falling bullets could barely dent a wooden dock or a metal bucket. He concluded that they would not pose a danger to troops. He did further calculations and discovered of course that heavier projectiles would fall faster and do greater damage. Small arms projectiles would fall at just a few hundred feet per second but by the time you get to a 5" canon shell it will fall at supersonic velocity.

I think when personal injuries are attributed to something like this, then either the bullets were fired more horizontal than vertical, or there is more to the story than what is being told.