Shotgun!

 The Thrifty Rocketeer blog continues...


It's been about a quarter of a year since our last club launch, and several rockets had flown out of the field to be snagged high in tall trees.

After several months, two of the larger, more colorful chutes have been spotted, but so far, we have not found anyone with a drone to attempt to lift them out of the trees.

Recently, someone suggested using a shotgun.


Now, I have heard of using a bow and arrow with a string to fire into a tree and loop over an offending branch, making an arc to either pull up a stronger rope, or just pull down the limb and free the rocket.

However, the use of a shotgun for this purpose escaped me.

The person who suggested it said he has a shotgun and would be willing to fire AT THE BRANCH, severing it and allowing the rocket to drop down to the ground.




Now, I don't own a gun, so I can't speak to how good one's aim must be...nor how much shotgun shells go for...or what happens to the spent buckshot, once it clear and flies past the tree.  how far do they usually soar?  Do the pellets become a risk?  I would think that the parabola of the arc going up would accelerate the shot coming down, so that it's traveling just as fast when it impacts the ground as when it left the shotgun.










Or do I mis-understand the terminal velocity of shotgun pellets?



I would think anyone with a shotgun might be able to draw a bead on the branch, but the whole idea is not to damage the rocket nor the chute, but severe the branch.  Several shots might be necessary.

Has anyone tried this before?  How effective a recovery technique is this?  Should we do this before the spring growth starts to sprout leaves once again?


The Thrifty Rocketeer wants to know. 

Comments

  1. Not a UFO nutMarch 17, 2022 at 1:13 PM

    Never tried that.You would probably be right about the incoming velocity if you tried this on the moon. :) Air Drag slows them down a lot. I tried a quick google, did not see anything on the actual terminal velocity, but found this:
    https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/questions/24315/how-likely-are-you-to-be-injured-by-falling-shot-from-a-game-shoot

    ReplyDelete

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