Am I seeing things?

[rkt88edmo]

I love it when that happens

[Pvt. Cowboy]

I've noticed a phenomenon while shooting in the snow and fog at high elevation where part of the bullet path downrange can sometimes start developing a streak of contrail following the projectile like a high altitude passenger jet traveling through the stratosphere. I don't know what exact meteorological conditions cause this, but the humidity should be about 100% with very cold outside temperature -- like below freezing, at least.

Seems to work best with very high velocity large caliber bullets. The effect doesn't last but an instant.

Like others, I've seen .45 ACP fly downrange under the right lighting circumstances. Also, the bullet wake through a spotting scope on a distant target and the big puff of lead dust after the bullet strikes a metal gong hundreds of meters away.

.45 ACP is much easier to see in flight when firing a Thompson SMG.

[lawboy]

You saw the bullets. I see this regularly when shooting in the afternoon at my home club. We all get a kick of it and 45acp is the one we see the most because it it big and slow. You see the sun reflecting off the base of the bullet. It is very distinctive and easy to spot when the sun angle is right.

[forgiven]

+1 on the Thompson. Pretty neat really.

[vta]

you can definitely see a slow 45 round at 7:00 from the shooter.

With a faster round, a vapor trail is also sometimes visible as it cuts thru the air evaporating the moisture in it with the friction it creates.

[Pvt. Cowboy]

+1 on the Thompson. Pretty neat really.

Under the right conditions, it's one of the things that shooters seeing a Thompson or a .45 MAC-10 fired for the first time notice. The swarms of .45 slugs zipping downrange in a flurry.

[olderthaniam]

Thanks for all the responses folks. I feel lucky that I got to see this. It was a really striking indicator of the power of the firearm, more so for me than seeing the destructive effects on the target or backstop.

There was a shooting outside our apartment a few years ago (when we lived in the Tenderloin in San Francisco), and I was surprised to hear a bullet go whizzing past our window. It sounded like an extremely angry hornet and the doppler effect was also evident. That also surprised me, though it was the first time a bullet had ever gotten closer to me after it was fired!

[forgiven]

Under the right conditions, it's one of the things that shooters seeing a Thompson or a .45 MAC-10 fired for the first time notice. The swarms of .45 slugs zipping downrange in a flurry.

The conditions were in the late afternoon shooting into a open shaded area. And it was the first time for us shooting the Thompson. I never noticed it on the .45 MAC-10. We were shooting it at mid-day. Next time I'll pay more attention.

[sprintcar]

I see this with my Vaquero in .45 Colt. You see this shooting pellet guns also.

[bohoki]

ive seen 45s and 22s at the late in the day sun

also have seen wakes of bullets in spotting scopes

[spddrcr]

I was shooting with a friend at usi in concord yesterday and noticed this same thing coming from people shooting .45. it was pretty cool seeing the bullet travel downrange and hitting the paper