2009-05-15, 09:46 PM
Thought some bored physics people may want to wrap their heads around this.
It's an air soft shotgun that I bought because it looked cool, and would be better than using pistols that I have to cock back for each shot, while the shotgun is an easier pump action.
I have no idea how strong my shotgun really is, because I use my pistols in mock firefights with my friends, who have better arms than me, like an M4 electric air soft rifle, and an electric P90. I wanted the shotgun so we'd have a more even fight. We wear goggles when we fight, because while we shoot each other for fun, we know better to get shot in our arms or legs multiple times than to risk losing an eye. We also don't directly shoot each other because we hide behind furniture and we fire with about 10-15 feet of distance between each other, or more.
Here's the conditions. The shotgun is about the size of the one Arnold holds in Terminator 2:
The only minor differences is I pump it from below the barrel to reload instead of having it near the trigger. It also doesn't look as nice since he's all black plastic and has the orange tip at the barrel to let people know it's not a lethal weapon.
It fires at 300 FPS, or 300 feet per second.
The plastic BB's that I use are 6mm, 0.12 grams.
I loaded the pellets and fired at a small plastic container like this 0.28 L container:
![[Image: Plastic_Container.jpg]](http://www.lakewoodconferences.com/direct/dbimage/50215303/Plastic_Container.jpg)
The plastic was not soft, but rather hard like those Hinckley Springs Water plastic.
From a 5 feet distance, 2 feet high, pointed down about 30 degrees (that means the barrel itself is actually the square root of 29 feet, or 5.385 feet from the container) I fired at the upside down container out of sheer boredom. After firing, I was shocked. The BB went through both sides of the container, leaving pretty impressive holes. They were not pierced clean like a needle, but shattered because the BB took a small piece of plastic with it when it went through. I made several more shots at the same distance. They all made cracked holes in the container, like this:
For a comparison, I used my pistol and shot the same container, at a 2 feet distance. It made a cracked hole only through the first side. The BB merely bounced inside the container afterward.
Yay for abstract physics?
So considering a shotgun with 6mm, 0.12 gram pellets shot from a 5 feet distance pointed down 30 degrees traveling at 300 FPS and shattered both sides of a #5 plastic container, what are:
1. The force it was hitting?
2. How painful would it be on a person from the same distance?
3. Is it painful enough that I should forbid myself from using it in a mock firefight?
There's no need to get super exact, I just want to know a rough estimate of the force it's traveling at.
It's an air soft shotgun that I bought because it looked cool, and would be better than using pistols that I have to cock back for each shot, while the shotgun is an easier pump action.
I have no idea how strong my shotgun really is, because I use my pistols in mock firefights with my friends, who have better arms than me, like an M4 electric air soft rifle, and an electric P90. I wanted the shotgun so we'd have a more even fight. We wear goggles when we fight, because while we shoot each other for fun, we know better to get shot in our arms or legs multiple times than to risk losing an eye. We also don't directly shoot each other because we hide behind furniture and we fire with about 10-15 feet of distance between each other, or more.
Here's the conditions. The shotgun is about the size of the one Arnold holds in Terminator 2:
Spoiler
![[Image: opb-layout-t2-winchester-shotgun-x800.jpg]](http://www.originalprop.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/opb-layout-t2-winchester-shotgun-x800.jpg)
The only minor differences is I pump it from below the barrel to reload instead of having it near the trigger. It also doesn't look as nice since he's all black plastic and has the orange tip at the barrel to let people know it's not a lethal weapon.
It fires at 300 FPS, or 300 feet per second.The plastic BB's that I use are 6mm, 0.12 grams.
I loaded the pellets and fired at a small plastic container like this 0.28 L container:
The plastic was not soft, but rather hard like those Hinckley Springs Water plastic.
From a 5 feet distance, 2 feet high, pointed down about 30 degrees (that means the barrel itself is actually the square root of 29 feet, or 5.385 feet from the container) I fired at the upside down container out of sheer boredom. After firing, I was shocked. The BB went through both sides of the container, leaving pretty impressive holes. They were not pierced clean like a needle, but shattered because the BB took a small piece of plastic with it when it went through. I made several more shots at the same distance. They all made cracked holes in the container, like this:
Spoiler
![[Image: holeinceiling1_msg_cimg1338a.jpg]](http://www.pettistree.suffolk.gov.uk/images/holeinceiling1_msg_cimg1338a.jpg)
For a comparison, I used my pistol and shot the same container, at a 2 feet distance. It made a cracked hole only through the first side. The BB merely bounced inside the container afterward.
Yay for abstract physics?
So considering a shotgun with 6mm, 0.12 gram pellets shot from a 5 feet distance pointed down 30 degrees traveling at 300 FPS and shattered both sides of a #5 plastic container, what are:
1. The force it was hitting?
2. How painful would it be on a person from the same distance?
3. Is it painful enough that I should forbid myself from using it in a mock firefight?
There's no need to get super exact, I just want to know a rough estimate of the force it's traveling at.
