Death to genocidal cuntmuffins
Cyberflunk
joined 2 years ago
Hey Jesse, did u know liburals can study really gud? Mostly becaus3 we believe in education.
A common long-range civilian setup: .338 Lapua Magnum, 250–300 gr (≈16–19 g) very-low-drag bullet, muzzle velocity ~850–900 m/s. Target distance: 2000 yd ≈ 1829 m.
What happens to the bullet
1) Drag (air resistance) does most of the work.
Drag scales roughly with the square of speed. The bullet leaves supersonic, slows hard at first, then even more as it nears the transonic region (~Mach 1.2→0.8). A .338 LM VLD bullet often goes subsonic before 2000 yd, which adds small, messy instabilities (buffet, increased yaw). Result: time of flight stretches to on the order of 3–4 s.
2) Gravity never clocks out.
While the bullet is covering the 1.8 km, gravity pulls it down continuously. With realistic drag, you’re looking at dozens of meters of drop by 2000 yd—think ~40–55 m (rough scale), not centimeters. That’s why long-range optics dial many tens of mrad/MOA.
3) Wind is a tyrant.
Sideways air matters because the bullet lives in the airstream, not on a chalkboard. For a steady 10 mph (≈4.5 m/s) full-value crosswind, lateral drift at 2000 yd is meters, not inches—roughly 5–15 m depending on exact bullet, density altitude, and how much of the flight is subsonic. A 1 mph error can easily shove you >0.5 m off at this range.
4) Spin drift (gyroscopic drift).
Right-hand twist barrels impart a subtle rightward drift as the bullet’s spinning axis processes in a gravity field. At 2000 yd this is commonly ~1–2 m to the right (order-of-magnitude).
5) Coriolis (Earth is rotating under you).
Over a ~3–4 s flight, the Coriolis deflection is modest but real—typically tens of centimeters up to ~0.5–1 m, depending on latitude and the firing azimuth (most noticeable shooting north/south; almost none due east/west at the equator).
6) Energy on target.
Muzzle energy for .338 LM is ~6–7 kJ. After 2000 yd the bullet’s speed may be ~250–350 m/s, giving ~500–1000 J remaining—still serious, but a small fraction of launch energy.
A compact worked picture (illustrative, not a firing table)
- Cartridge/bullet: .338 LM, 250 gr (~16.2 g) VLD
- Muzzle velocity: ~900 m/s
- Time of flight to 2000 yd: ~3–4 s
- Gravitational drop: on the order of 40–55 m by impact (drag-inclusive)
- 10 mph crosswind drift: roughly 5–15 m
- Spin drift (RH twist): ~1–2 m right
- Coriolis: ~0.2–0.8 m scale, sign depends on azimuth/latitude
- Impact speed/energy: ~250–350 m/s, ~0.5–1 kJ
Why 2000 yards is “edge-of-envelope” for typical civilian rigs
- Transonic crossing: Many .338 LM loads go subsonic between ~1500–1800 yd. Crossing transonic erodes ballistic coefficient and can perturb stability.
- Error growth: Tiny input errors—muzzle velocity spread, wind gradient with height, density altitude shifts—balloon into meters of miss distance.
- Angular resolution: At 1829 m, 1 milliradian ≈ 1.83 m (1 MOA ≈ 0.53 m). Your scope’s clicks, your hold estimation, and your bullet dispersion have to play nice at that granularity.
The physics takeaway
A 2000-yard shot is a four-second argument between inertia and atmosphere, refereed by gravity and heckled by Earth’s rotation. The bullet’s story is written by drag (v²), gravity (g), and a stack of second-order effects (wind fields, spin drift, Coriolis, aerodynamic jump), all amplified by long time-of-flight. It’s not magic; it’s compounded small physics.
Take this fucking lie down