JBM - Bibliography - Exterior Ballistics

A New Rule for Estimating Rifling Twist An Aid to Choosing Bullets and Rifles
Don Miller, Livermore, CA, Precision Shooting, March 2005. Made available here by permission of the author and Precision Shooting. Don has asked that anyone that uses this work for commericial purposes first obtain his permission (contact information in the paper) and that he receive attribution. A related article How Good Are Simple Rules For Estimating Rifling Twist is also available (see below).

Aerodynamic Data for Spinning Projectiles,
H. P. Hitchcock, BRL Report number 620, October 1947, Ballistic Research Laboratories, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, August 1976, [800469] -- Not much useful information here, but it does give a reference for the atmospheric conditions for the standard Army Metro

The Aerodynamics of a Spinning Shell,
R. H. Fowler, E. G. Gallop, C. N. H. Lock, and H. W. Richmond, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series A., Volume 221, March 1921, pp 295. -- One of the original works on bullet stabilization

Aerodynamics of Bodies of Revolution,
N.F. Krasnov (Tr. Deane N.Morris), American Elsevier Publishing Company Inc. New York 1970. ISBN 0-444-00076-3 Library of Congress Card Number 73-116707. Highly mathematical work.

A Look at Drag Models in Old Small Arms Firing Tables,
Jochem Peelen, Books on Demand, GmbH, 22848 Norderstedt, Germany, 2006. ISBN10 3-8334-6697-9, ISBN13 978-3-8334-6697-7. A very nice book on common and uncommon drag functions. Book includes printout of computer code to model drag functions and choose drag function for a bullet. A must have for anybody interested in exterior ballistics. For availability, contact the author, Jochem Peelen.

An Alternative Form of the Modified Point-Mass Equation of Motion,
James W. Bradley, Ballistic Research Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, November 1990, BRL-MR-3875.

Applied Ballistics for Long Range Shooting
Bryan Litz, Applied Ballistics LLC, 2009. Lots of good information here including accurate measurements of G7 BCs for a number of long range bullets and a ballistics software CD.

Ballistic of the Future,
J. M. J. Kooy and J. W. H. Uytenbogaart, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc. New York, 1946. Very nice treatment of Runge-Kutta methods (up to second order coupled systems) and other numerical integration schemes.

Body Alone Aerodynamics of Guided and Unguided Projectiles at Subsonic, Transonic and Supersonic Mach Numbers,
Frank G. Moore, Naval Weapons Laboratory, Dahlgren, Virginia, November 1972, [AD-754 098]

The Effect of Wind on Flat-Fire Trajectories,
Robert L. McCoy, BRL Report Number 1900, Ballistic Research Laboratories, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, August 1976, [ADB012872] -- Derivation of the wind (time delay) formula.

Equations of Motion for a Modified Point Mass Trajectory,
R. F. Lieske, M. L. Reiter, Ballistic Research Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, March 1966, Report No. 1314.

Estimation of the Static Aerodynamic Characteristics of Ordnance Projectiles at Supersonic Speeds,
Robert L. McCoy, Ballistic Research Laboratories, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, November 1973, [AD-771 148] -- Interesting work on modeling the aerodynamic coefficients of bullets

Everyday Ballistics,
Charles S. Cummings, 2nd, Stackpole & Heck, Inc., New York 1950. -- Very basic ballistics book. Answers many of the more common questions. Check your local library. I know the University of California has a few copies at various locations.

Exterior Ballistics,
McShane, Kelley and Reno, Univeristy of Denver Press, 1953. -- Hard to find a copy for sale, but most university libraries that I have checked have copies. Treatment is at the calculus level.

Exterior Ballistics of Small Arms Projectiles,
E. D. Lowry, Research Dept., Winchester-Western Division, Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation, May 4, 1965. -- Has some useful formulas and values for various drag functions as a function of velocity.

Handbook for Shooters & Reloaders,
volumes I and II, P. O. Ackley, Plaza Publishing, 1848 West 2300 South, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1962. -- Check your local gun shop -- it's still in print. A wealth of information on wildcat reloading.

Hatcher's Notebook,
Julian S. Hatcher, Major General, USA, retired, Stackpole Books, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Second printing, 1966. -- Articles on many different subjects -- some interesting formulas. It is still in print and available directly from Stackpole. There is an errata available.

How do bullets fly?,
An online work by Ruprecht Nennstiel, the author of EBV4. From the abstract: "This document attempts to explain the basics of the complicated subject of bullet motion through the atmosphere without using neither formulas nor mathematical derivations, but expecting familiarity with the way of physical thinking."

How Good Are Simple Rules For Estimating Rifling Twist
Don Miller, Livermore, CA, Precision Shooting, June 2009. Made available here with permission of the author and Precision Shooting. This article is a followup to Don's earlier article A New Rule for Estimating Rifling Twist An Aid to Choosing Bullets and Rifles (see above).

Magnus Characteristics of Arbitrary Rotating Bodies,
I. D. Jacobson, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Advisory Group for Aerospace Research and Development, AGARDograph number 171, 1973. -- Hard to find. Compares some different approaches to calculating magnus coefficients.

Mathematics for Exterior Ballistics,
Gilbert Ames Bliss, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, New York, 1944. -- A little more mathematical than most. It has a derivation of the Siacci methods and the differential equations of motion.

"Mc Drag" - A Computer Program for Estimating the Drag Coefficients of Projectiles,
Robert L. McCoy, Technical Report ARBRL-TR-02293, February 1981, [ADA098110] -- More on estimating the drag coefficient for boattail and flat base projectiles. Includes a code listing and sample runs.

Methods for Computing Drag Coefficients from Ballistic Range Data Using the APL System,
M. Cloutier, Centre de Recherches Pour la Defense, Defence Research Establishment, Valcartier, September 1972, [DRFV-TN-2027/72] -- Methods for calculating drag coefficients from range data.

Methods in Exterior Ballistics,
Forest Ray Moulton, Dover Publications, Inc., New York, New York, 1962. -- More calculus on trajectories. Quite a bit on rotating projectiles.

Modern Exterior Ballistics,
The Launch and Flight Dynamics of Symmetric Projectiles, Robert L. McCoy, Schiffer Publishing, Ltd., 77 Lower Valley Road, Atglen, PA 19310. (610) 593-1777. Last time I checked, it was $95.00. A number Bob McCoy's friends have checked the book and compiled a list of corrections. Don Miller was kind enough to compile them into a single document and provide a copy for posting here (thanks Don!). (I have converted it to a PDF).

The Modified Point Mass Trajectory Model,
NATO Army Armaments Group, STANAG 4355 (Edition 2) on the Modified Point Mass Trajectory Model. Document AC/225-D/1319.

Modified Point Mass Trajectory Simulation for Base-Burn Projectiles,
R. F. Lieske, J. E. Danberg, Ballistic Research Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, March 1992, [AD-A248 292]

Sierra Rifle Reloading Manual,
3rd Edition, Sierra Bullets, L.P., 1989.

Sierra Rifle Reloading Manual,
4th Edition, Sierra Bullets, L.P., 1995.

A Six-Degree-of-Freedom Digital Computer Program for Trajectory Simulation,
Louis D. Duncan and Bernard F. Engebos, Atmospheric Sciences Laboratory, White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, October 1967, [AD664116] -- A computer program based on the equations in the next citation.

Six Degree of Freedom Digital Simulation Model for Unguided Fin-Stabilized Rockets,
Louis D. Duncan and Ronald J. Ensey, US Army Electronics Research & Development Activity, White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, November 1964, [ADA452106] -- General derivation of the equations of motion for a spinning (along three axes) projectile.

"SPINNER" - A Computer Program for Predicting the Aerodynamic Coeficients of Spin Stabilized Projectiles,
Robert H. Whyte, General Electric Company, August 1969, Obtained from GE. -- Polynomial approximations for the aerodynamic coefficients.

SPIN-73 An Updated Version of the Spinnner Computer Program,
Robert H. Whyte, Picatinny Arsenal, Dover, New Jersey, November 1973, [AD915628] -- Just as it says, an updated version using higher order polynomials. WARNING: The copies obtained from DTIC, NTIS and Picatinny have copy errors in them. Not all of the coefficients are available!

Test and Evaluation of the Tactical Missile,
Edited by Emil J. Eichblatt Jr. Progress in Astronautics and Aeronautics Martin Summerfield Series Editor-in-chief Volume 119

Understanding Ballistics,
Robert A Rinker, Mulberry House Publishing Company, PO Box 575, Corydon, IN, 47112, ISBN: 0-9645598-0-3, 1995.

Use of the Magnus Force in the Modified Point Mass Trajectory Model,
Robert F. Lieske, Ballistic Research Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, October 1990, [AD-A228 194]