Anybody ever shot a fan?

[Lavan]

No, not at a Mets game. An electric fan while it is running. Curious on extent of bullet deflection.

A great new and unpublished "field test" for some gun rag.

[Bogie]

At the NBRSA Nationals in Midland, Texas this July (ouch!), I was firing a 10-shot group for the unlimited competition. The wind was switching, so I was down firing a shot at the sighter target, and another competitor's wind flag tail (picture a 6' piece of surveyor tape blowing in 20mph winds...) blew across the sighter. I'm guessing it was at about 80 yards. My bullet hit it. By the time it made it to the target at 100 yards, it was about 14" high, and 4" to the right, and cost me an inch penalty, since it struck outside the target box.

This was NOT with rimfire - My projectile was a 52 grain Bart's .22, and was moving out at approximately 3590 fps.

[Blackhawk]

Curious on extent of bullet deflection. Now, THERE'S something I've never been curious about...!

I am curious as to why you're curious. What do you think is going to happen when a high energy bullet hits a light, flimsy fan blade...? :D

[Lavan]

My imagination dictates that it would at least be a whole lot of FUN.

Okay, how's this?

Shoot a running FAN.....inside a ROOM.....fulla GLASSWARE!

[Ben Swenson]

I think you just wanted to ask: What happens when the Shot Hits The Fan?

[CZ Gunner]

Only with golf ball and putter on putt putt golf course. :rolleyes: (I think they called it a windmill, though.)

[Blackhawk]

Lavan: I don't think you're going to get any measurable deflection.

Cordex: That's funny! :D

[[email protected]]

Hypothetically speaking,
your average floorfan has a plastic blade these days, so if you hit the hub, your 135gr 9mm would go through the sheetmetal cover on the cage thingy into the plastic hub, which would basically explode spraying lil chunks of plastic blade over an impressively wide area, then hit the motor and deflect down spending the last of its energy going through the oscillating gear mechanism thingy.

Hypothetically speaking, of course :rolleyes: ...

[Poodleshooter]

To add to Lavan's idea: Steel bladed fan @ high RPMs, shotgun loaded with steel shot, and a room full of glassware! :)

[Nightcrawler]

I've shot the fan. It wasn't running, but it was fun anyway.

It was one of those plastic electric desk fans you can get from Wal-Mart for like ten bucks. Its fan cage was about one foot in diameter.

I blasted it with 12 gauge, 00 buck at a range of five feet.

Not suprisingly, the thing exploded, with only the cage keeping all the little bits and pieces in. :D

[SW 586]

Lavan,

While Newtonian physics can suitably describe the orbit of the planets or the energy transformations during a game of pool, quantum physics describes how electrons surround the nucleus of the atom and other subatomic actions. Thus, when one looks at your specific question, one must take the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle into consideration as one works with in the realm of quantum physics.
Here, let me explain........
One of the basic ideas behind quantum theory/physics/mechanics is the H.U.C. It states, more or less, that the more you know about one aspect of a subatomic particle, the less you can know about the other. This means the more you know about the velocity of a particle, the less you can possible know about it's position. Remember, velocity is speed and direction. This means that you can know with 90% certainty the position of a electron or whatever, but then you can only know with 10% certainty its velocity or the effect of the projectile on the fan. Or vise versa, or 50-50, or not know anything at all (the easiest). With H.U.C., a Bose-Einstein Condensate can be formed. By supercooling the atoms of the internal moving parts of the fan, they start to move very slowly. This means that you can be pretty sure that the particles have a velocity of near 0. However, considering the ambient temp of your geographical area, it is easy to see that the velocity would increase, even at rest and thus effect the proximent position of the particles. With the projectile now moving with more velocity than the internal parts of the fan, an overall imbalanced ratio may be noticed. Since you know this with a good deal of certainty, you can't know where it's position is very well and adjust accordingly, but you must also deal with the fact that the atoms become fuzzy and form one big atom called a Bose-Einstein Condensate. Thus, until you resolve the Bose-Einstein Condensate, I am afraid that your question will go unanswered.

In other words.....I don't know for sure, but I think you'd blow the crap out of the fan.

[dinosaur]

Oh, never mind.:confused: :)

[C.R.Sam]

Re SW 586s post...
Yup.

Does have real life relativity.
Possible one of many scenarios...
Hostage situation;
Shooter has view of bad guy through building exhaust fan.

I say, don't take the shot.

Sam

[Col. Mustard]

Seems like they had this problem in WWI, when somebody got the idea to mount a machine gun in front of the pilot, firing through the propeller. They shot off a few props before they decided it would be a good idea to synchronize the gun to stop firing when the prop was in the way.

[AndABeer]

Well first they tried steel plates on the prop but that didn't work out too well for the pilot sometimes. Funny thing was it was a pilot's idea. Lil' too gung ho I guess.

[C.R.Sam]

A hole or two in a prop blade usually does little damage. Blend the edges of the hole and send it out again. They do sometimes make a neat whistling sound tho.

Sycronized guns firing through the prop path USUALLY work just fine.....but things happen.

Sam......gunnery in SNJ/AT6....two hole/blade limit.

[Ed Dixon]

I find AC units less sporting but tastier.