Muzzle Energy

[Pawnee Bill]

As I was perusing a reloading manual the other day I noticed they had Muzzle Energy right next to Muzzle Velocity. Now I had seen this in most reloading manuals since I started reloading 50+ years ago and never paid any attention to it as it did not mean anything to me as compared to Muzzle Velocity.

My question is what exactly is muzzle energy? What does it do for the shooter? How is it determined? If it is not a weighted factor in the ballistics of a given round then why do they bother listing it?

 

[mmcu]

Muzzle energy, expressed in foot pounds of energy (fpe), is calculated using the following formula: velocity x velocity x projectile weight in grains / 450,240. This calculation simply provides the muzzle energy of the bullet. This resulting number is typically utilized by hunters to determine the theoretical killing efficiency of the bullet being used.

Hope this helps!

 

[dcali]

It's the kinetic energy of the projectile, which is equal to 1/2 x the bullets mass x the square of the bullet's velocity. Unless you care about terminal ballistics, it does not matter at all. If you do care about terminal ballistics, it's a rough measure of the potential of a bullet to do damage to its target. Beyond that, it gets complicated.