Caught A Picture With The Hammer Down

[lynn jones]

Here's my friend at Summer Blast 06. Notice the bullet just leaving the end of the barrel. I think was an image taken off the video we shot but I can't be sure of that

that's the kewlist! bad ass!

lynn

[XRe]

If he's using a D1-ish Nikon, or a Canon 1D, he can get 1/16000, otherwise 1/8000. Even so, a 9mm bullet at Major is still going to travel 3/8" long at 1/16000. Nolan's bullet is a .40 - and even its stretched some. At Major, its doing about 916 fps.

Suffice it to say that with current gear, you can catch a bullet in flight - although getting it completely stopped and perfect takes special gear (dark room and powerful high speed sync'ed flash, generally...)

However, my experience, at this point, is that digital SLRs exceed film in every possible way - including high speed performance. Hell, medium format digital SLRs seem to produce prints on par w/ large format film, even. The thing is - you can't use a cheap point and shoot... you need the good stuff, with the real lenses and expensive sensors....

[mcflyiup]

These pictures are very cool. I need to get my girl to come out and take some action shots of me.

[Mark A]

Very Cool, I think the coolest part is that your dad came to take the pictures. Thats got to make you feel good.

[GlockSpeed31]

These aren't really pics of bullets or brass, but muzzle blast. I took these back in August.

Enjoy!

Edited November 22, 2006 by GlockSpeed31

[XRe]

Fire! Fire!!

HK-53??

[Glk21C]

if you want to go down the muzzle flash direction............

Muzzle_flash.BMP

[gotm4]

I got one with the hammer forward. This was at the Blackwater Steel Challenge on Sunday.

My friend Brett Simon.

[GlockSpeed31]

Fire! Fire!!

HK-53??

It's a semi-auto version SBR. I think it had a 8" barrel, belonging to one of our local shooters. It was a blast to shoot & watch (yes, pun intended).

[RaySolomon]

Great discussion. I gotta pipe in. Check out my photos on www.raysolomon.com and you will see two good examples of bullets leaving the 1911 and the gun is still in battery. Some photos show air being expelled rapidly out of the gun at the moment of truth.

1. Officer Yong Lee's Montana Gold has left the barrell and gun is still in battery. He is using 180 gr. Montana Gold JHP. I gave him an 8X10 at nationals that year of this shot.

2. Nolan Smyth's bullet has left the barrell and gun is definitely out of battery (a little), possibly using a lighter recoil spring. My guess is the equilibrium is gone quicker due to lighter springs? Who knows?

I use a Nikon D1X using only F2.8 lenses (70-200F2.8 wide open) in manual. ISO at 800 in full daylight will give me 1/16,000 at F2.8. I use this speed combo to CATCH BULLETS. You have to anticipate and press the trigger (pun intended) before the gun is fired just to time it. I always shoot one frame at at time. Never in motor drive mode.

Check out my homebrew videos also, you have to download Apple's QuickTime to see the MP4 videos.

Ray--

[shred]

The way the 1911 is designed, the slide will be locked up until the bullet leaves-- the bullet is busy trying to drag the barrel forward as long as it's in there.

[Grump]

austinkroe:

I would suspect a vertical-plane shutter for that short of an exposure. That type of slit going down the film would allow some horizontal bullet streak if it caught the bullet.

If a horizontal-plane shutter, you could see some shortening of the image of an object moving horizontally... which would/could lead to a short fat copper-looking bullet.

However, I still vote for the bullet gone-residual flame theory on your outstanding hammer down photo. The placement and size matches the area occupied by the inside surface of the barrel as viewed from that angle. Look at the front of the slide/bushing area.

Now, Mr. Smythe's photo linked to in this thread (2/3 down the page) is definitely the bullet. It has traveled far enough past the muzzle for a supersonic projectile to start passing the portion of the gas cloud which jumps ahead of the bullet the first inch or three past exiting the crown.

I've looked at a lot of Edgerton's photos, even before me Mum worked for one of his companies. There are a lot more out there than Edgerton's collection, too.