Quote:I don't know nothin' about Douglas Ridge specifically.. But I DO know that SOME Highpower ranges ban Black Powder Cartridge rifles because (true or not) of safety concerns stemming from a rather steeper impact trajectory causing an unsafe condition for the people in the pits... the bullets fall well short of the designed and designated impact area.
This may be more imagined at some ranges than real, but I recall shooting Highpower in Medford at the White City range (600yd), and recall some conversations in the pit with local club members that tried it (black powder) and were getting bullets impacting less then 10 feet beyond the target,
Paul F.
This is an old wive's tale that can easily be disproven by a few minutes' examination of the trigonometry involved. Merely take the sight 'come-ups' between 900 and 1000 yds and use that dimension along with the 1000-yd distance to figure the mean angle of flight (at 950 yds), then do the same for the 'come-ups' between 1000 and 1100 yds if available. You get the picture. The come-ups will vary with each load but I bet you'll find that it's
highly improbable that any of this ever happened for real. I don't lke to use the expression 'impossible' but I'm very tempted here.
I've forgotten the exact figures for the only time I ever bothered to run the calcs but seem to recall an angular figure of around 8 degrees, that is, a bullet at 1000 yds would pass over the butts at an angle of ~ 8 degrees below the horizontal. Actually, since the arc of the trajectory follows an asymptotically-curved path, the angle would be slightly greater, say ~ 10 degrees below the horizontal.
According to the actual figures, the butts would hafta be about a foot high for the bullet to hit 10 feet beyond them. So, with all due respect to the tale-tellers, I've gotta conclude that leprechauns or fairies or something like that was to blame. Or could it have anything to do with adult beverages, perhaps?
This is JMO, I await correction and chastisement, Joe