Firearms Science

[choprzrul]

My 25 year old step son has just lost his job and we have invited him to stay with us. I have tweaked his interest in the shooting sports by taking him to the range several times and to a 1000yd shoot (thanks for the help fjold). After reading 3 different reloading manuals, I have begun teaching him about reloading. His current project is working up a load for a NEF Handi-rifle .223, which he has dug into whole-heartily. Friday morning we went to the range and he ran through 4 different loads in the rifle and had great fun. Saturday morning we were going through books in the attic and found my copy of Jim Carmichael's Book of the Rifle. He is now 1/3 of the way through it and looking for more.

He excelled in High School in the sciences and has completed 2 years of general studies at the University of Nebraska. He is very science minded and is approaching reloading from an internal and external ballistics frame of mind. I want to get him more reading material to work through, but I have reached the limits of my knowledge of current books.

Can someone recommend reading material for this young man? Keep in mind his background in physics, chemistry, math, algebra, and calculus. Scientific cause and effect on all things ballistic will hold his interest I believe. I am hoping that the Book of the Rifle is a good foundation, but yet a jumping off point for bigger and better things. The Weatherby facility is an hour's drive from here, so I am thinking about a trip up there for a tour with him.

Your thoughts and ideas are sought and most welcome. Thank you for your help.

[chuckdc]

Hatcher's Notebook
The Gun and its Development (Greener)
Ballistics II (Rinker)--they have this one at my local Barnes & Noble
The American Rifle, a Biography.

I used to have the recommended reading list for trainee firearms examiners for the ATFE course, but I lost it and don't have access anymore. The above have some good stuff in them. Greener's book is OLD, but it really goes into the evolution of guns and also the older ways of making them. Interesting for those of a mechanical bent, as you can see how we got to where we are now.

[choprzrul]

Anyone have thoughts and experience with this title:

Modern Exterior Ballistics: The Launch and Flight Dynamics of Symmetric Projectiles by McCoy

http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Exterior-Ballistics-Symmetric-Projectiles/dp/0764307207/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262706082&sr=1-1

[ar15barrels]

Anyone have thoughts and experience with this title:

Modern Exterior Ballistics: The Launch and Flight Dynamics of Symmetric Projectiles by McCoy

http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Exterio...2706082&sr=1-1

I would take the Brian Litz book instead.

http://www.appliedballisticsllc.com/index_files/Book.htm

[phish]

Litz's book goes together with Vaughn's like peanut butter 'n jelly:

http://www.sinclairintl.com/product/5848/Books-Magazines

Since he's math/science oriented, there's plenty of differential equations in the appendices for his entertainment.

[ar15barrels]

Litz's book goes together with Vaughn's like peanut butter 'n jelly

How is the Vaughn book?

[johnny_22]

Carlucci and Jacobson

"Ballistics: Theory and Design of Guns and Ammunition" CRC Press

ISBN-10: 1-4200-6618-8

Great book on the subject.

Janes' book on Ammunition is fun, but, expensive. I bought the 1994 edition for $100. New is $800.

[phish]

Vaughn's an old school Cold War era engineer, so his writing style may seem a little dry, but his explanations are quite thorough and sound. He does provide a lot of graphs that makes his observations easier to understand. Chapter 4 covers barrel vibration with some methods to reduce it, chapter 5 goes over scope related issues and chapter 6 covers the barrel-receiver threaded junction. Those chapters could be considered the "meat" of the book.

There are some interesting solutions to the problems he found, you might find chapter 4 to be particularly interesting.