How or why does a hummer barrel shoot better?

[SS427]

Take barrels of equal dimension, same load with same velocity, and in perfect conditions are equally accurate. Now add wind to the equation, and the hummer barrel shoots smaller groups. What is the hummer barrel doing to the flight of the bullet to make it less sensitive to wind drift?

I have no doubt there are hummer barrels. But like religion, I am taking it on faith they exist. I would really like to understand why or how they work though.

 

[jonbearman]

If you can answer that then you understand how women think.

 

[savagedasher]

If you can answer that then you understand how women think.

+1

 

[DCRYDER]

I (which am not in the greatest shot in world) do not believe in the "hummer" theory. I believe that after the bullet exits the muzzle it is just as affected by the wind as the next one (as long as everything else is equal....i.e. crown is square, twist is appropriate, load is optimal.....etc).

 

[Erik Cortina]

A hummer barrel will stabilize a bullet better and faster than an average barrel. A bullet with have a higher BC when it is stable than when it is not.

Think of a football and how the same football will fly through the air differently depending on how is is thrown. A stable football with a perfect spiral will fly a long way. The same happens with bullets.

 

[jonbearman]

+1 Erik,that is a good straight forward way of explaining it!!

 

[DCRYDER]

I agree that a bullet that leaves the muzzle perfectly would have a ballistic advantage over a bullet that wasn't. But is it the barrels fault or the smith's fault? I would lean toward the crowning job.

 

[DCRYDER]

In short, a hummer barrel has a hummer shooter behind it.

 

[LHSmith]

Most seasoned shooters find out eventually that any given "good" quality barrel worthy enough for competition and tuned to a certain load will favor a specific wind condition....it will shoot smaller in a L-R vs. a R-L ...or vis- versa.
The same thing also may be in play with the hummer....only the hummer allows for bullet stability to the next level and also may be more indifferent to the wind direction.
This phenomena may be difficult for some to wrap their head around, but there are many things in BR that after one experiences it, one just accepts it just "is".

 

[Erik Cortina]

In short, a hummer barrel has a hummer shooter behind it.

Not necessarily. You will notice shooters that have done ok but will get a new barrel and all of the sudden will start winning just about everything. Then, when that barrel burns out, they go back to just shooting ok.

 

[CatShooter]

Bullets and Foot balls (and spinning tops) have nothing in common.

If a bullet is launched and it is unstable, it does not get better, it gets more unstable.

That is not my "opinion", it is Newton's second law of motion (which has NEVER been found wrong).

This is a somewhat simple explanation of it (if any explanation of Newtonian physics can be called simple).

http://eng.upm.edu.my/~nizam/download/MS4/chapter6-2notes.pdf

Bullets that are shot in identical barrels (same twist, same numbers of grooves, same groove depth, and same velocity) will be affected by air and cross wind the same.

Once a bullet looses stability, there is nothing that can make it right, and it continues to get worse until it starts to tumble.

 

[Erik Cortina]

The football analogy was used to explain how the same object can have different BC due to it's stability.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pF8W5liSRc

Feel free to call Bryan Litz and explain to him how wrong he is.

 

[WyleWD]

In short, a hummer barrel has a hummer shooter behind it.

+1 Definitely agree. JMHO, there are more "hummer" barrels out there than hummer shooters/reloaders. WD

 

[BoydAllen]

A little light reading that may relate to the subject at hand.
http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1205/1205.2071.pdf

 

[watercam]

In short, there are degrees of stability or instability...

 

[Larryh128]

In short, a Hummer barrel is a barrel that actually is straight and all grooves and lands are in the proper place. That only happens every now & then.

 

[BoydAllen]

I think that the use of the word unstable can lead us astray in this discussion. There are motions of the bullet that damp out over time. This does not mean that bullets are not stable, just that their motion is more complicated, and become less so as they go down range. The slang for this is going to sleep, and the assumption is that the sooner this happens, the less that the bullet will be affected by a given amount of cross wind. Skimming the material in the link that I shared in a previous post, one might conclude that the alignment of the bullet with the bore is an important variable.

 

[Terry]

A little light reading that may relate to the subject at hand.
http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1205/1205.2071.pdf

Boyd

Thanks!

Downloaded and printed. I'll read it tonight.

 

[Beau]

A little light reading that may relate to the subject at hand.
http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1205/1205.2071.pdf

Boyd

Thanks!

Downloaded and printed. I'll read it tonight.

After seeing the 3 pages of mathematical nomenclature, I think I'll just look at the pictures! :-[

 

[skeetlee]

I also believe barrel vibration, and or harmonics of a particular barrel, play into this equation. Lee