Experimental investigation of the impact of chamber pressure on projectile range

In this study, the factors affecting the range of weapon systems, focusing on internal barrel ballistics, and the effect of internal barrel pressure on range were investigated. In the light of these researches, the bullet of a weapon system, which is the same in every shot, includes changing the initial action pressure in a controlled manner and what kind of results this change will lead to. The work was carried out experimentally using live ammunition. For the experimental study, a shooting test setup was designed and manufactured, and the experimental results were examined by shooting with a real gun and bullet. The experimental data obtained from the study revealed a clear increase in bullet muzzle velocity when the initial bullet movement was delayed in the firearm system. The experiments were conducted in three groups: in the first group, five shots were fired without applying any torsional force to the cartridges, resulting in a muzzle velocity of 387.2 m/s on average; in the second group, cartridges were subjected to 30 Nm of torque, with an average muzzle velocity of 395.2 m/s over five shots; finally, in the third group, cartridges were subjected to 60 Nm of torque, yielding an average muzzle velocity of 406 m/s over five shots. Accordingly, it was demonstrated that by delaying the initial movement of the bullet through a controlled delay system, approximately a 5% variation in bullet muzzle velocities could be achieved with the same gunpowder charge, as shown in the experimental setup. It is evident that the higher the bullet muzzle velocity, the longer the range of the shot. This study was supported by the Firat University Scientific Research Project (FÜBAP) under the reference number MF.16.46.