Re: Spindrift Calculation??
With reluctance, I'll try may hand at this.
I've been an occasional visitor to these pages and have been tempted to post a few times, but avoided it because of the intense pissing contests that always seem to ensue when any technical information is presented.
After recognizing some text taken from my website earlier in this thread, I decided to jump in and see what happens.
Since this is my first post on this forum, I'll briefly introduce myself:
Name: Bryan Litz
Age: 29
Occupation: Aerospace Engineering (specifically air-to-air missile design)
Secondary occupation: I run a part time consulting business called Applied Ballistics, LLC. Primary jobs are designing bullets, writing ballistics software, and external ballistics testing. Don't bother searching for a website for Applied Ballistics, LLC, I haven't made one.
My personal (shooting) website is:
http://bryanlitz.bravehost.com/
Shooting related activities: I'm very active in NRA long range target shooting. Highlights this year include winning the Midwest Palma match in Lodi, WI and winning the Palma individual match at the Long Range Nationals at Camp Perry Ohio.
Family: I've got a wife, two step kids, a 5 month old baby, and a black lab.
Here is my understanding of spin drift, first from an engineers perspective, and then from a shooters perspective.
The engineers explanation:
Spin drift, also known as gyroscopic drift, is an aerodynamic effect that's caused by the bullet's axis of rotation lagging behind the velocity vector as the round rotates thru the arc on a long range trajectory. Right hand twist barrels will result in a slight nose right orientation, and vise versa. The following variables affect the magnitude of spin drift:
Bullet length: Longer bullets have more spin drift because they produce more lateral 'lift' for a given yaw angle.
Spin rate: faster spin rates will produce more spin drift because the nose ends up pointing farther to the side.
range, tof, trajectory height: spin drift increases with all of these variables.
There is another kind of drift related to the spin of the earth, known as Coreolis drift. Coreolis drift can be up, down, left or right. Unlike spin drift, Coreolis drift is not an aerodynamic affect. It's a result of flying from one point to another across the surface of a spinning sphere (earth). The direction of coreolis drift depends on your location on the sphere, and the azimuth your shooting. The magnitude of the drift depends on the location, azimuth, and time of flight.
The two kinds of drift (spin drift and coreolis drift) are not related. Similar to gravity drop and wind drift, they're two separate effects that have to be taken into account individually, and quantified with their own respective variables.
Spin drift from a shooters perspective:
First of all, for any application where 'sighters' are allowed like most styles of target shooting, the effects are irrelevant because the spin drift is exactly the same for each shot. Once the sights are zeroed for a particular range, it's a non-issue. However, given the title of this website, there are applications where sighter shots are not allowed. In tactical situations where the first shot has to be accurate, all of the variables have to be accounted for before taking the first shot (unlike target shooting where you can 'dial out' the bias).
When you get down to it, it's very hard to isolate the effect of spin drift in the field. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that spin drift is worth 1 MOA at 1000 yards. Just Given the uncertainty in the crosswind, spin drift already is approaching 'insignificant'. Also consider how level the scope has to be, and how perfectly vertical it has to track in order to justify worrying about such a small lateral deflection. Given all these real world variables, it's no wonder there's such a diverse opinion about the effects of spin drift. Everyone sees the effects thru a different convoluted set of other dominant variables.
So should tactical shooters worry about spin drift? Even given the above considerations, I think it's still wise to apply corrections for effects that are present. You're improving your chances that the shot will be more centered than if you don't account for the real effect, even if you miss for another reason. It's poor planning to ignore real effects, and just 'hope' they all cancel each other out in the end.
As far as how to calculate spin drift...
It's not easy. The only free resource I know of is the online JBM code referenced earlier. Given the complexity of spin drift, it should be no surprise that the list of inputs is long, and they're not all easy to get. For example, the axial and transverse MOI's, ogive radius, etc. I've not personally verified the spin drift outputs of the JBM code, however, I can vouch for some of the other JBM products; they're solid. I'm confident that if all the right inputs are entered, it will give you as good an answer as anything else. Obviously, if you guess on half the inputs; garbage in - garbage out.
These are my thoughts on the subject. I'm always open to criticism but I'm not going to engage in any pissing contests here. The facts I've presented on spin drift and coreolis drift are pretty basic, text book stuff. The interpretation of the facts, and how they can be applied is the interesting part that some debate can be expected.
Take care,
-Bryan