For 22 cal. rifle and air rifle there are small commercial bullet traps available at low cost, less than $50. They do an excellent job containing the bullets. A switch on the trigger worked for me.>
Bob wrote: > >"I'm speaking from a position of almost total ignorance here, but >surely a bullet is travelling 2 or 3 times faster than sound? Over the >short distances involved is it really possible to do this?" > >bullet velocities can vary between 700 fps and 2300 fps for common guns. >There are other more exotic ones that approach 4000 fps. I could make some >custom loads that would be around 500 fps but the pictures may not be as >dramatic. > >I'll be conducting these experiments in daylight at a rifle range unless I >can figure out some way to build a bullet trap in my basement. <G> > >I would have thought a light or electric trigger would be better. >e.g. fit the trigger or the hammer of the gun with an electrical gizmo >to fire the flash. > >I will try to do this in daylight with flash equipment set relatively close >to the target for maximum power. My camera will be a bit further away with a >telephoto lens (I don't want splattered fruit all over my lens!). I thought >I'd stop the lens down to f/22 and shoot at maximum flash synch speed. >Hopefully, the flash duration will be short enough to freeze the bullet and >the small aperture will minimize the daylight exposure on the film. At 700 >fps a bullet travels 5.6 feet in 1/125th of a second so I have to eliminate >daylight as a light source. This may require a box with the flashes poking >through holes in the side. A flash duration of 1/50,000 of a second would >give me bullet movement of .168". That might be the best I can reasonable >expect. I don't know what the shortest possible duration of my flash >equipment is. I have an AF400FTZ and a METZ 50 MZ-5. They can supposedly be >operated together. Hopefully the combination in TTL mode will give me the >short flash duration that I will need to make this work. > >This isn't something I'll be doing next week unless the weather gets a lot >warmer. > >Thank you everyone for all your input and suggestions. Hopefully I'll be >able to report back that I got some really cool shots. > >Tom Reese > > >
