NOVEL NEXT Chapter 469.
Chapter 469. A Slow Day on a Farm. (2/6)
She averted her eyes away, down to my elbows her hands were still holding. She didn’t immediately release them when she realized what she was doing. Rather than let go, her hands slid from my elbows to the back of my upper arm as her shoulders unconsciously leaned in closer until they touched.
Seriously, what am I supposed to do about this girl? Why’d Rosa have to go and leave us alone together again? This is troubling.
Coldly rejecting and pushing her away now when the two of us plan to stay here for the next few days would just make things feel extremely awkward.
“Uh, Dawn, the bullets.”
“Huh? Oh, right. Sorry, I was spacing out again.”
“You really are an airhead.”
“Sorry. I won’t let that happen again.” She let go of my arm and put a bit of distance between us as she bent over and picked up six bullets from a small container on the ground to her side.
I handed the revolver back to her and she skillfully inserted the bullets one by one into the chamber. She was quite fast, her movement fluid, and her experience all but too easy to see. There was something graceful, even elegant, about the methodical movements of her fingers that worked purely off of muscle memory. In a short five seconds, she’d shut the cylinder and spun it.
She handed it back to me and I was careful to never point it at her. It wouldn’t be a joke if I accidentally shot her. Definitely not something I could laugh off, so I kept my finger away from the trigger. Somehow, handling a loaded revolver was more nerve-wracking than a pistol. There was something more intimidating about it. I suppose it was the higher caliber rounds and fear of the greater recoil it packed.
“Yuh should stand on level ground for better footing.”
“Right.”
I got off the rock, squared up on the ground, and finally took aim.
“Aim for the closest target within 100 meters. Handguns are typically accurate up to about that range. But… don’t get your expectations up and think yuh’ll hit the target from here. The effective range for a novice using a handgun is about 10 meters. For your average shooter, the effective range is about 25 meters. A good shooter, 50 meters, and a master shooter 100 meters.”
“When you say effective range you’re not talking about the maximum distance the bullet can travel, right?”
“Of course not, the effective range is essentially the range yuh’d expect someone to hit a target 80-90% of the time.”
“I see.”
I shut my left eye and lined up the iron sight with the closest target. When I felt the notch at the end of the barrel of the revolver was lined up with the bullseye I prepared to fire my first shot when I suddenly remembered gravity.
Naturally, the bullet would drop due to gravity over time. Should I try to take it into account? If I remember correctly, for one of the problems I had in physics, they provided the average speed of a bullet shot from a handgun being about 370 m/s.
But with a revolver having a higher caliber bullet, I’d expect it’d be higher though. I didn’t know by how much though. Aerodynamics of the bullet was another factor to consider when determining the trajectory and the speed.
Same with the barrel length. It affects the bullet’s velocity since the propellant burns more completely in a longer barrel. There was naturally a limit to this though. Friction. If the propellant was all used up before the bullet left the barrel, friction between the bullet and the barrel would slow the bullet down.
Anyway, all of that’s irrelevant. I have no way of accurately measuring the speed of the bullet by eye alone so using an approximation was best
How much will the bullet drop over a 100-meter distance?
The formula for the distance the bullet drops was equal to half the downward acceleration due to gravity multiplied by the time squared.
How long it takes to travel that distance would be the distance it travels, 100 meters, divided by the velocity it is traveling.
So around a little over a quarter of a second, about .27 seconds if I use 370 m/s?
To get a quick mental estimate, if I use a quarter of a second in the formula then the distance it drops is in the ballpark of a sixteenth multiplied by 9.8 divided by 2. So around 10/32, near a third of a meter, but since I’m already underestimating the time it’d likely be closer to .35 meters? Seriously? That much? Is that really correct? It feels like a lot. I guess it really is greatly dependent on the velocity of the bullet.
“Aren’t yuh going to shoot?” Dawn suddenly broke my train of thought.
“Uh, yeah, I am. I was just thinking about a few things.”
“Thinking about what?”
“I was curious about how high the targets are off the ground.”
“The bullseyes are about a meter and a half off the ground.”
“I see…”
That made things a bit difficult. If I wanted to account for the bullet drop I’d have to fire at a slightly higher angle. But that would mean I’d need to make a bunch of other tedious mental calculations. First, would be using the Pythagorean theorem to calculate the upward velocity. I’d then need to see how long it takes for gravity to slow the vertical velocity to zero to then figure out how long it takes the bullet to reach the peak of its arc.
I’d want the bullet to reach the peak of its arc around the 50 meters mark if I lower where I shoot from down to about 1.5 meters to match the bullseye. Wait a minute! Isn’t that the simplest solution itself? I just need to change the height I shoot from so I don’t need to worry about the angle I shoot from.
I turned around and looked at the large rock I’d been on top of just now. Dawn was currently seated on it and she’d been staring at my back this entire time.
“W-What is it?” Dawn asked, caught off guard when our eyes met.
“Is it fine if I shoot from a bit further up on top of the rock instead?”
“Didn’t I just tell yuh it’s better if yuh shoot from the ground?”
“I know, but I think I’m more likely to hit the target if I shoot standing on slightly elevated ground.”
“Yuh’re not gonna hit it on the first try, so stop overthinking things and just take your first shot. Hitting the target isn’t even important if it’s your first time shooting the gun. The first shot yuh fire is just to get a better understanding of the gun so yuh can adjust and correct for your second shot.”
“I just want to test something.”
“Then, how about we have a little bet about whether yuh hit the target or not? If yuh agree, yuh can shoot from on top of the rock.”
“What does the winner of this bet get?”
“Uh… I hadn’t thought of that yet. Now that I think about it, I don’t really have anything to offer that yuh’d want if yuh somehow win.”
“Well before that, what would you want if you win, Dawn?”
“I dunno.”
“Then how about if I win you have to give me a kiss?” I couldn’t help but tease her.
“Wha-”
“Just kidding.”
“Yuh said that last time too… but then Rosa… did that.” Dawn absentmindedly touched her lips before she warily checked left and right as if to reassure herself that Rosa wasn’t around and going to do what she did during our game of truth or dare last night.
“Sorry.”
“What are yuh apologizing for?”
“Rosa gets carried away a lot.”
“It’s fine… it was… fun… and I didn’t hate it or anything.”
“Well, if you’re fine with it.”
“Yeah, I don’t mind...”