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That is what is not being understood. Recoil is the "equal and opposite" force resulting from the movement of the bullet in the opposite direction. It doesn't depend on the slide hitting or bottoming out on anything.
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That is 100% correct and I have not said anything that contradicts those statements. RECOIL doesn't require that there be any hitting/bottom out.
The problem is that one can not equate muzzle rise and recoil. They are not the same thing. Muzzle rise is an
effect of recoil under certain circumstances, namely "recoil force being applied above the point of resistance".
The recoil begins as soon as the bullet moves--that is an immutable law of physics. Recoil takes the form of force applied to the breechface which is part of the slide. The force is applied along the axis of the bore--perpendicular to the breechface. The slide moves in the direction that the force is applied (straight back) because there is initially nothing to prevent it from moving straight back.
What we're talking about is muzzle rise, not just recoil. THAT is why it makes a difference when the slide hits something. Until the slide is somehow prevented from moving straight backwards, there is no muzzle rise. The recoil just moves the slide straight back since the recoil force was applied straight back and there is no significant force acting on the slide to change its direction or to cause it to torque upward.
That is another immutable law of physics. An object in motion stays in motion and continues along a straight path until something acts on it to slow it or change its direction.
Straight back motion of the slide does not cause muzzle rise.
BUT, when the slide hits the frame, the frame rotates upwards due to the fact that the force of the slide impact is applied to the frame above the shooter's hand. THAT is when muzzle rise occurs in a semi-auto.
Since that happens LONG after the bullet has left the barrel, there is no need for the sights and the boreline to be offset to account for muzzle rise as there is in a revolver. That is exactly what we should expect since the diagrams created from the 3 autopistols show that there is clearly no compensation in the sights for muzzle rise. In other words, the diagrams show exactly what the physics tell us should be true.
In a revolver, the recoil is also applied straight back into the breechface. However, as soon as the breechface begins to move, the gun is IMMEDIATELY affected by the shooter's hand. There is no slide, and the breechface, instead of being attached to a movable part, is fixed to the frame of the gun. The frame of the gun is being held in place by the shooter's hand. Since that obstruction is below the bore, the gun torques upward and the muzzle rises. So, in a revolver, muzzle rise begins at the same time that the recoil force begins moving the gun.
In an autopistol, muzzle rise begins when the slide/breechface can no longer move straight back--when it hits the frame--long after the bullet has exited. Then the shooter's hand obstructs the motion of the frame--the gun torques upward and the muzzle rises.
It's not really possible to argue that there IS significant muzzle flip in a locked-breech autopistol before the bullet leaves the bore given the diagrams provided which clearly show that there is no sight compensation for muzzle rise in any of the 3 different locked breech autopistols tested.
If there were muzzle rise before bullet exit, the bores would have to be angled down with respect to the sights, just as the revolver bore is. In fact, they are actually angled slightly UPWARD. That's not easy to see in the Caracal diagram, but it is plainly visible in the other two diagrams.
That alone provides hard evidence that there is clearly something very different going on in an autopistol.
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The amount of muzzle rise before bullet exit depends on the caliber, bullet mass, barrel time, and other factors, but it is there if the barrel is above the center of gravity of the gun.
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That's only true if muzzle rise begins with the bullet still in the bore. As I've explained, and as the diagrams show, significant muzzle rise in a locked breech autopistol does not occur until well after the bullet leaves the bore.
Here's a cleaned up version of the diagram with all 4 handguns on the same page.
