What's the difference in me shooting squirrels out of the tree tops around the house or shooting in the air..?

..to celebrate the 4th of July (Independence Day)? I use the same low base, 12 gauge with #8 shot. I usually have a more angled trajectory when shooting squirrels, which according to the armchair munnitions experts on here, is more dangerous than shooting straight up. Funny we all hunt in the woods together and even my 85 y/o father can never remember being hurt by falling shot. They feel like rain drops to me.What's the difference in me shooting squirrels out of the tree tops around the house or shooting in the air..?
I would agree with your assessment of the hazards, or lack thereof, of falling shot. However, I can't agree with you shooting a rifle of any kind in a populated area, though.What's the difference in me shooting squirrels out of the tree tops around the house or shooting in the air..?
The straighter up you shoot *any* projectile weapon, the safer it is to folks on the ground around you. The projectile will go upwards, bleeding off velocity to counter gravity as it goes, til it reaches a point where it literally stops in mid air and it'll then fall back to Earth. Once it loses all its velocity going up, all it will have behind it is acceleration due to gravity coming back down....and acceleration due to gravity in the real world is *always* going to be a fraction of the force it had going up.





You can think of a bullet being fired upward as being akin to your GI Joe you had as a kid. You wrapped the handerkerchief parachute around him and threw him upward as far as he could go....and the parachute opened and he floated back down to the ground much slower than he went up. The parachute gave him drag which slowed his descent. Bullets are the same. They fall back to Earth at a much slower speed than they went up due to drag from the air.





In a vacuum, a bullet fired straight up would fall back to Earth at virtually the same speed it went up. It would hit the ground at your feet with almost the same speed it left the muzzle because there would be zero drag.





A bullet fired from a completely horizontal barrel would have 100% of the speed/power of the gunpowder behind it as it hit its target. A bullet fired at a 45 degree upward angle would have exactly half the speed/power of the gunpowder behind it and half lost due to overcoming gravity. A bullet fired straight up would lose *all* its speed/power it got from the gunpowder and all it would have would be acceleration due to gravity.





A projectile fired straight up is thus always going to be safer....moving slower....than one that was fired at any sort of an angle. The one fired at an angle will still have some of the speed/power from the gunpowder pushing it. The lower the angle, the more speed and thus more danger.
Shotguns and rifled firearms are two different things. Most Skeet and Trap ranges allow for a 400 yard/meter drop zone; while only allowing for #7 shot and smaller to be used. The 22lr bullet has a danger zone of 1 mile and centerfire cartridges only extend that range. I noticed that you stated that your father had never been ';hurt'; by falling shot. If he has ever been dove hunting in a large corn field with hunters all around, I'll wager that he has been hit by shot. The fact that it did not hit him in the eye is just luck or the fact that he was smart enough to wear glasses. Shooting a squirrel in the woods with a shotgun is a whole lot safer than being stupid and discharging a firearm in a skyward direction in a residential area for so called celebration purposes.
squirrels stop bullets!





okay, just kidding, misses happen, and some folks use shotguns.





#1 the nature of it being more open drastically reduces the chances of an accident happening. Often times it is in urban areas where gunfire at newyears or weddings or whatever can cause problems.





#2 having a purpose. Everything in life has some risk to it. One must balance risk and reward. If you have to shoot upward in a relatively unpopulated aera using a projectile like a 12 guage using 8s or a .22 the risk is low, and you are doing it for a purpse. However, when your soul purpose is amusement, then even a small risk is too much.





Look at it this way. You know how to make a fire right? you have no problem making a fire to cook up some fish or to warm your campsight. Fire is risky, but the risk is small, and you have a purpose to it.





Now, what if you went hunting with your daughter's new boyfriend, and about every half hour, he would stop, make a fire, watch it for about 5 minutes then stamp it out. When you ask why he says ';because fire looks cool';





obviously there the risk is probably outweighing the potential benifit.





Also, the law. You can't expect the law to be written to cover all contingencies. While I wouldn't get upset if a neighbor a quarter mile away was shooting upwards in celebration (not really different than him busting clays on his property) I'd be upset if the guy across the alleyway in the city was burning off 30 round mags from his AK straight up in the air.








and for the record, when I was growing up on the farm, we found some .22 cal holes in the top of one grainbin, and that was in a hugely wide open area.





Ask yourself this, if you found out a neighbor came home to find his car windshield cracked by a .22 bullet, and you had been in the vicinity shooting squirrels in trees that day, would you feel bad? feel obligated to confess and replace it?





Is it all right to inflict minor property damage just so you can make some noise?