Why bullets spin on ice

Also I dont understand why the slugs did not flatten upon hitting the ice. Ocean Warrior. I also cannot explain it, so far I regard Angus' explaination as the most reasonable one. Some observations: - The bullet spin is definitely clockwise. Can any of you gun nuts identify the firearm and confirm that the barrell of this model provides a clockwise spin? So there must at least 2 reflections. There are no deformations visible, as I would have expected when a projectile gets reflected by a hard surface.

So either it was not that cold, or the energy of the bullet melted the ice on the impact point enough to provide a "smooth" bouncing. Another good argument for free firearms for all, so we can all recreate this little experiment in the winter! FMJ from a pistol doesn't deform very much. I shoot into dirt berms and pull out perfect bullets all the time. The video is entirely unsurprising to me. The bullet was effectively stopped by the ice minor ricochet.

This is a conservation of momentum issue, with the momentum transferred to the ice. The spin is a conservation of angular momentum issue.

There isn't much acting on the bullet to stop the spin, so it spins. Not surprising at all. Find More Posts by gimpy Apparently when you shoot a bullet into the surface of a frozen lake, it bounces backward, bounces over the ice a little way, and keeps spinning even after it comes to rest. This is a very curious result. At first, it kind of seems to make sense. And I like it.

You see, I don't know if you knew this about me, but I'm a masochist. It's true, I can't even get off anymore unless I've been shot. SNAP -- a wild tie-in appeared! Some people say that this is impossible. How can a. I don't know the what the physics are, but the video is pretty clear and I don't see any way of faking that, which is probably why Mythbusters is going to put it to the test.