Acoustic methods for measuring bullet velocity

TL;DR

This paper presents two acoustic techniques for accurately measuring bullet velocity by analyzing sound recordings of muzzle blasts and target impacts, achieving better than 1% accuracy.

Contribution

It introduces two novel acoustic methods for precise bullet velocity measurement using simple microphone setups and sound timing analysis.

Findings

Achieved measurement accuracy of 1% or better.

Demonstrated methods with different microphone placements and distances.

Validated techniques with experimental results.

Abstract

This article describes two acoustic methods to measure bullet velocity with an accuracy of 1% or better. In one method, a microphone is placed within 0.1 m of the gun muzzle and a bullet is fired at a steel target 45 m away. The bullet's flight time is the recorded time between the muzzle blast and sound of hitting the target minus the time for the sound to return from the target to the microphone. In the other method, the microphone is placed equidistant from both the gun muzzle and the steel target 91 m away. The time of flight is the recorded time between the muzzle blast and the sound of the bullet hitting the target. In both cases, the average bullet velocity is simply the flight distance divided by the flight time.