The Science of Small Arms Ballistics

This very unique and very different book is a comprehensive study of the science of small arm ballistics—from interior and exterior ballistics to terminal ballistics. The science of small arms ballistics is seriously underdeveloped and underappreciated. The volume provides a complete grasp of the entire subject. It fills a legitimate need for a book that covers the entire science of small arm ballistics.

The Science of Small Arms Ballistics serves as a manual for both members of academia and members of the recreational shooting community throughout the world. Though it contains extensive mathematical formulas (58 of them), the book demonstrates the relationships between the physical variables and their real-world engineering applications. The author defines the science of ballistics by breaking it down into its major and logical categories and then explaining the basic patterns and relationships in a way the reader can understand and use toward the solution of problems, either to design ammunition for a particular gun or a gun for any particular ammunition.

Through extensive research, the author has worked out relationships in the science of small arms ballistics mathematically and puts forth and explains new theories on small arms ballistics, such the field-effect and the field-effect over trajectory and time, along with new theories in interior, exterior, and terminal ballistics. This includes a scientific study of time, evolving from the study of the field-effect theory in exterior ballistics. Each equation, which describes a mathematical relationship, such as transfer of energy, will have an engineering application for the shooter with a design problem. Some equations, such as the calculation of bullet length with a given muzzle velocity and rate of twist, represent manipulations of those equations, such as the rate of twist and bullet spin. Some other equations represent a set of mathematical instructions to resolve a technical problem, such as the computation of trajectory or depth of penetration of living tissue in real-time.

An exhaustive example is included to help the reader in the proper way to reload ammunition for a particular gun and its rate of twist, along with the formulas to calculate the ballistic parameters for this purpose, including several computer programs to calculate and predict these parameters.

This revolutionary work, written by an acknowledged pioneer in the field, will be a rich resource for anyone interested in the engineering and theory of small arms ballistics.

Alvah Buckmore, Jr., was a United States Army veteran during the time of the Vietnam War. When he came home to his parents in late 1974, after getting hurt very badly, he urinated with blood thick as tomato juice and weighed only 108 pounds. The Veterans Administration immediately took steps to nurse him back to health as an outpatient patient, and within four years, he had fully recovered from the weight loss and several infections. As part of his method of recovery, he went on a program of hunting, fishing, hiking, mountain climbing, target practice, reloading ammunition, and worked on a systematic study of the science of small arm ballistics. He is a self-taught genuine expert on small arms ballistics with national and international recognition as a pioneer on this subject. He taught himself advanced mathematics and developed the skills and tools to work out the mathematical relationships of physical phenomena, starting off with the Theory of Transfer of Energy, Theory of Penetration, Field-Effect, and the Effect of Field-Effect over Trajectory and Time. Among several other new theories in interior, exterior and terminal ballistics, he finally had enough material to write out an entirely original book on the science of small arm ballistics, working over a period of more than 20 years. He has also written and published on electronic radio communications and human sexuality.