? about shooting in the rain

[J Miller]

When shooting in heavy rain with minimal wind, will the bullet impact be different than when shooting in a clear calm day?

Nuther words, does rain deflect bullets?

Joe

[Booger Bill]

I have wondered about that forever too joe! How about shooting in a hail storm?

[Gun Smith]

Yes, rain, or hail, could deflect a bullet. In reality the flight time in most cases is too short to make any practical difference. But over a long distance, say 500 to 1000 yards, it could. I hope one of our forum members with long range military experence will chime in in this interesting question.

[Griff]

Yes, but what makes shooting in the rain or hail more challenging is the reduced visibility more than any deflection cause by H2O, frozen or otherwise!

[adirondakjack]

In practical terms, the only time I would expect serious issues would be with something like a hot loaded .22-250, where a bullet passing trough a blade of grass might blow all to heck, much less a big fat Forrest Gump raindrop.

[Terry Murbach]

GENERTAL HATCHER NOTED THAT RAINDROPS DO NOT PENETRATE THE SHOCK WAVE AIR SURROUNDING AND BEING PUSHED OUTWARDS BY A BULLET TRAVELING THROUGH OUR ATMOSPHERE.

[Griff]

GENERTAL HATCHER NOTED THAT RAINDROPS DO NOT PENETRATE THE SHOCK WAVE AIR SURROUNDING AND BEING PUSHED OUTWARDS BY A BULLET TRAVELING THROUGH OUR ATMOSPHERE.

But, Terry, I'm not certain that penetration would be necessary for the rain to have an effect on the bullet... does not air density itself affect the projectiles trajectory? Trajectories are altered based on the air density... IIRC, flatter in lighter air, and rounder in heavier... I seem to recall that the original program I got from the NRA included inputs for temperature and barometric pressure. I ain't sure, having been a number of years since any science instructor and I conversed (usually over my poor grades), but ain't barometric pressure, related to air density and moisture content? If so, moisture content in the air would have an affect on the shock wave, wouldn't necessarily have to directly affect the bullet, would it?

[Nath]

We soon learnt not to go lamping fox at night when raining, waste of time. We would hardly connect and just educate them, the rain was deflecting bullets. Same when harvesting rabbit with a 22.

As bad as a blustery wind IMO.

Nath.

[CarlsenHighway]

At short range hunting havnt noticed any difference, but then you wouldn't I suppose. Range shooting a couple of times I noticed that they would shoot high for some reason.

[Griff]

At short range hunting havnt noticed any difference, but then you wouldn't I suppose. Range shooting a couple of times I noticed that they would shoot high for some reason.

Light refraction? Maybe?

[JReed]

I have fired on the range for qualification in the rain on 2 occasions. The worst part is the lack of visibility and water beading on the sights causing a change of impact due to the front sight appearing to be changed similar to bright light on the front post.

[J Miller]

After reading my original question and the following responses I realize I did not complete my question.
So let me clarify by re-asking it with a qualifying comment:

When shooting in heavy rain with minimal wind, the shooter and rifle under cover and dry, will the bullet impact be different than when shooting in a clear calm day?

Nuther words, does rain by itself deflect bullets?

There, hopefully that will be clearer.

Joe

[meanc]

With medium rainfall and little to no wind at 300yds, out of a Rem 700 .308 , I have not noticed any discernible change in POI.

[J Miller]

meanc,

Thanks, that's what I was wondering.

Joe

[Nath]

Yes Joe, don't bother it's a waste of time and ammo

Nath.

[Jayhawker]

I've not ever noticed any deflection due to rain, but since the barometric pressure is generally lower during rain, bullets drop will be less than on a warm dry day. BTW, I like shooting on rainy days, especially when it's heavy enough to see the vapor trial to the target.

[Old No7]

On a much different scale...

A few years back, Precision Shooting Magazine ran an article by a Rocket Scientist (cause it was about rocket science in that case...) where they documented -- with extensive photos -- the damage done to rocket nosecones by rain drops.

Sure, they were firing over a MUCH longer range and higher velocities, but the article did apply some of the conclusions to firing in the rain at ranges from 600 to 1,000 yards. If I remember right, POI (point of impact) was impacted (no pun intended).

Old No7

[2571]

Technically OT, but I have always though my .32 black powder rifle shot high when it was snowing. Suspect that cold may be the operative factor rather than the precipitation.

[madman4570]

Remember back in the Day when shooting at a 600yd rifle match,asked my rifle coach how much the rain will effect my bullets path to the target(it was raining)
He said that bullets traveling at such a high speed that with my bullet there becomes a force of pressurerized air surrounding the bullet and the rain never makes contact with the bullet!
He said with somthing like good sized hail totally different story.
Since he was a prior 1000yd champion I figured he knew what he was talking about.

[J Miller]

The weather here has been dismal lately. Rain, rain, rain, rain, and more rain. Everything is going to turn green with mold including my Pathfinder.

Anyway I'm thinking of just heading out to the outdoor range and shooting from the 100 yd covered position. Just to hear some rifle noise. Not only that, but I'll be I'd have the place all to myself.

Joe

[Nath]

Remember back in the Day when shooting at a 600yd rifle match,asked my rifle coach how much the rain will effect my bullets path to the target(it was raining)
He said that bullets traveling at such a high speed that with my bullet there becomes a force of pressurerized air surrounding the bullet and the rain never makes contact with the bullet!
He said with somthing like good sized hail totally different story.
Since he was a prior 1000yd champion I figured he knew what he was talking about.

A drop of water may as well be a brick at bullet speed! No cushion of tiny air is going bounce a "brick" out the way!

Joe, with the moderate velocity ammo it may be acceptable at 100yds, why not test it?

Nath.

[madman4570]

Any guys on here that were/are Special Forces(snipers)?
Asked my cousin today that served 2 tours in Nam as a Army Ranger(Sniper) about this and he said with either the .223 or .6mm(what he mainly used) basically no effect from rain except visability issue.
Of all the matches I have shot in the rain with .223/.308/30-06 cant think of one time my bullet just went
There has to be somthing in regards to the air forcing away the rain drops!

[madman4570]

Somthing to ponder!


====================================================
==== case 1 ===========================================
==== assuming the rain does hit the bullet ========================
====================================================

Here some assumption are taken :
- the projectile is a cylinder with straight wall from meplat to heel
- the bullet flight duration is 1 second

Rainfall is measured by a gauge which have a funnel to catch rain and a measuring cup under the funnel.
The measuring cup surface area is usually exactly 1/10 of the funnel catchment area,
and the measuring standard should be height of catched rain / hour.

Statistically anything below 2.5mm (0.1 inch) of rain is classified as light rain,
2.5 - 7.5mm (0.1 - 0.3 inc is moderate rain
and higher than 7.5mm (0.3 inch) is heavy rain.

Ok, having established the rainfall measurement, lets forward to the next step.
2.5mm / hour rain is 2.5mm / 3600 seconds or 0.000694mm / second .

A very heavy rainfall of say 15mm/ hour, the rainfall is 0.00416 mm/ second.

Ok, now lets get a large and heavy .308 woodleigh of 200 grains length for our study case
The projectile length is about 25mm (1 inch) It is a good projectile to use for this study because it have a meplat area of about 0.270,
Or even say it is roughly a cylinder from meplat to heel.

So, we have a surface area of 7.62 x 25 mm = a bit less than 200 sqr mm projected from its side.
so if we take the standard rain gauge, the measuring cup should be 20 sqr mm cross section.

Ok, now the actual rain that will be catched by the projectile in 1 second would be 20 x 0.00416 = 0.0832 mm cube
with the weight of water at 1g / 1 mm cube, the weight of water that may hit the bullet in 1 second is 0.0832 gram
now with 1 gram is approx 15.4 grain, so 0.0832 x 15.4 = 1.28 grain

So by all the above lengthly calculation, the actual rain that may
hit the bullet in 1 second is 1.28 grain.
At my projectile weight of 200 grains, that represent 0.64% of the total weight.

The tolerance of factory made projectile is about that..
so here is proof that there is NO difference in trajectory due to rainfall

====================================================
==== case 2 ===========================================
==== assuming the rain does NOT hit the bullet =====================
====================================================

Due to the high rpm of inflight rotation of the projectile, it would be covered by a laminar layer of air.
Thus will deflect any rainfall that may came close to the projectile.