Lab Notes and Everything

I believe it was P. J. O'Rourke who once said "I believe in that which can be proven by reason and experiment, and I want to see your logic and your lab notes." It's a phrase that has served me well in professional practice as an engineer. It also applies to a whole host of things gun-related. The topic of guns and ballistics is the probably the source of more bullshit than anything I'm personally familiar with.

Spend time on any gun-related internet forum or just go hang out in a gun store. You'll hear more ridiculous crap than I can even remember. So it's always good to see people doing actual testing to see what happens as opposed to listening to the random nonsense spouted by armchair commandos the world over. These guys decided to figure out what effect barrel length had on velocity with a variety of pistol rounds. They also kept meticulous track of the data and have everything available on the website. Trust a physics geek to run a decent experiment. It may not be the final word on the subject, but it's a damn good first take.

I'll also throw a link out for the Box of Truth. Less rigorous than the previous website, but vastly informative nonetheless. Plus, it's always fun to see stuff get blown up.