text:
Why you DON'T want to break the sound barrier
by B.B. Pelletier
This report has been done in bits and pieces many times over the years, but I'm putting it together today because of a surge of new airgunners coming online. Many of them are older firearm shooters, but many others are younger shooters with no real background in the shooting sports. We're seeing an upturn of fundamental questions in our social networks and through customer service representatives that tell us that this topic needs to be emphasized once again.
What's wrong with the sound barrier?
The sound barrier is a lot more familiar to people of my generation, because it was being talked about and always in the news when I was a youngster in the 1950s. Young folks don't think much about it these days because supersonic flight is a foregone conclusion; but back in the 1940s, it hadn't yet been achieved by a manned aircraft in level flight. A couple pilots inadvertently broke the barrier in dives from high altitude during World War II when they were testing certain fighter aircraft, and one of them was Cass S. Hough, the grandson of the founder of Daisy and later a president of the firm himself. At the time, he was trying to solve a control surface problem with the twin-engined P38 Lightning fighter, so he took one to over 40,000 feet, nosed it over into a steep dive and might have become the first man to ever break the barrier in an airplane. I say "might" because almost every air force of that period has a similar story. There's a plaque in England that commemorates that flight in 1943, but I'm sure there must be other plaques in other countries, as well.
Before I hear from all the engineers (except the aeronautical engineers) that a prop-driven plane cannot go supersonic because the propeller has to break the sound barrier long before the aircraft does, it is possible — when gravity assists the aircraft — for a prop-driven plane to go supersonic. It's not a good thing. As Hough discovered, the subsonic control surfaces no longer work right at supersonic speeds, but it can be done. As a result of Hough's flight, the P38 received a special "dive flap" control to help free the controls when the speed got too high.
The problem with the sound barrier is what happens as you approach it and then pass through. In short, a pressure wave of air builds in front of whatever is moving that fast. Normally, this pressure would then flow around the surfaces of the aircraft and be left behind — but at transonic speed, the air compresses and develops eddies and currents that play havoc with the control surfaces of the aircraft. The surfaces that work well up to a certain subsonic speed start to act odd when they reach the transonic speed, which is about Mach 0.9, or nine-tenths of the speed of sound in the conditions of the moment.
One bad effect of reaching the sound barrier is a buffeting that causes the entire aircraft (or pellet) to vibrate. Aeronautical engineers had to learn to design aircraft for supersonic flight while maintaining the ability to fly at subsonic speeds as well.
Now, let's talk about pellets
Pellets don't have adjustable control surfaces. They are what they are, so they like to fly at certain speeds, and in all cases with standard diabolo pellets (wasp-waisted with a hollow tail) that speed is subsonic. In fact, even the transonic region is bad since it's the place where the buffeting starts.
Why we don't want 1,000 f.p.s.
This is why we do not want to shoot pellets at 1,000 f.p.s. Because 1,000 f.p.s. is always in the transonic region.
How fast is the sound barrier?
The answer is: it depends. Things that change the speed of sound are the elevation above sea level, the ambient temperature and humidity. Elevation is subtle, because it also influences the air temperature. Temperature of the air is the most influential factor that affects the speed of sound, and I've learned that where I live the barrier can exist anywhere from about 1,060 f.p.s. and above. The usual speed of sound is given as about 1,125 f.p.s. when all conditions are "normal."
You know the pellet has exceeded the sound barrier when you hear a sustained crack with the shot that cannot be attributed to the muzzle blast. Silenced firearms dramatically show off this sustained crack because the bullet is quiet at the muzzle and then returns an indistinct sound like distant thunder as it goes downrange.
But, it isn't the sound that airgunners should be concerned with. It's the accuracy, or rather the lack of it that is caused by the buffeting mentioned earlier.
How pellets are stabilized
Pellets are stabilized both by spin and drag. Since they are hollow, they are light for their length, so the spin can be slower than for solid conical bullets. That's why solid pellets are usually a failure.
But pellets are also stabilized by high drag, just like darts. The wide hollow skirt creates a low-pressure area behind the pellet that drags on them as they fly forward. It keeps the point oriented forward and stabilizes the projectile in flight.
At subsonic velocities, pellets are usually stabilized pretty well; when they get up into the transonic region, they'll flutter in flight, just like those older airplanes did. And, those flutters translate into larger groups. Knowledgeable airgunners like to keep their velocities under 900 f.p.s. for safety's sake.
One additional reason to stay below the transonic region
I was chatting with Mac about this; and we've both observed that in spring guns, the faster they shoot the twitchier they are as far as hold sensitivity. That has nothing to do with the sound barrier — it's just a fact of life for spring guns. Throw in the breakbarrel design that's also very hold sensitive and you have a real recipe for disaster. Yet when you look at all the magnum airguns that are being sold on the basis of velocity, the majority of them are breakbarrels.
So, we have a bad situation in which the most inexperienced shooters are drawn to the very airguns that are the most difficult to shoot on the basis of two things — the advertised velocity and the low cost! It's like a church that decides to hold its meetings in the piano bar of a casino.
I'm on what, I guess, is a lifelong crusade to spread the word about airgunning so people don't come in the wrong doors and find things amiss. I want to give each new shooter the same chance I had to discover the shooting sports on the very best terms. If they could just see a fraction of what I see, I know that many of them would be intrigued enough to stay and grow our hobby.
Airgunning can be fun and very satisfying if you do it the right way. The right way is to shoot enjoyable guns that hit their targets more often than not. Hyper-velocity airguns are the antithesis of that. They are the .338 Lapua Magnums whose owners have each fired one box of ammo before giving up on the beast.
116 Responses to "Why you DON'T want to break the sound barrier"
Hey B.B.
I've heard that if you take an airplane that's NOT designed for supersonic speeds, & you put it in a nose dive to achieve breaking the sound barrier, that when you do, the flight controls will reverse.
Have you heard of this?
Yeah I've heard that too and I'm not sure where I've heard it but it might have been in the book, "The Right Stuff", talking about Yaeger's tries at it?
I don't know about whether they will reverse or not, but they will go wonky in other ways. BB calls it freezing, which is an adequate term. In truth, they simply stop working for the most part because the airflow over the wing completely changes as you leave subsonic flight on your way to supersonic. Designs that work well in the subsonic region are sub-optimal for flying in transonic and supersonic regions.
The real problem for an airplane not designed for subsonic flight is that the pressure spikes caused as the bow or shock wave passes across the aircraft (i.e. the transonic region) to establish itself behind the aircraft (i.e. the supersonic boom) is that the airframe itself isn't designed to handle the often enormous and erratic pressures that result. Many of the early and inadvertent planes that passed through the transonic region simply disintegrated in mid-flight. Even planes designed for these effects could come apart in flight as well. In fact, that is exactly what happened to Geoffrey de Havilland, Jr, son of the founder of de Havilland aircraft in Britain when testing one of the early British attempts to break the sound barrier in level flight.
As the D.H.108 approached Mach 0.9, its structure began to fail sending the plane out of control. The aircraft broke up and its debris rained down upon Egypt Bay.
The control reversal idea came from a British movie about breaking the sound barrier. No one had ever done it for sure and survived, so they needed a gimmick to explain how the fictional British pilot was able to do it and survive.
All the pilots who had done it accidentally or come close reported problems with the controls. So some bright director came up with the idea that maybe the controls reversed when you got that fast.
At the time the movie came out Yeager was within days of doing it for real, or had already done it.
His success was kept top secret for a long time because we wanted to be the only country that could build supersonic planes.
So, as a result, the silly movie became everybody's idea of how it was done. A few years later, someone, maybe the president, asked Yeager at a function honoring him if it was true that the controls reversed when you went supersonic.
He said flatly, "anybody who reverses the controls at the sound barrier is dead."
If I remember right, the movie name was "Breaking the Sound Barrier"
I was close. Here is a link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sound_Barrier
All very interesting info guys.
Thanks for clarifying that. I've been flying R/C planes on & off for over 20 years, & it didn't sound possible to me, but of course none of my R/C's ever went Mach 1. I do have an F-15 that was clocked with a radar gun at 137 mph though. I mostly enjoy doing aerobatics. My F-15 doesn't allow for much of that, but it does fly & feel like the real plane, & those 137 mph passes inverted at 6″ above the runway are a real crowd pleaser. I'm in the process of selling all my gas/nitro etc., R/C's & going all electric. Vegas has grown so much that to get to a field where I can fly my gas planes, if you don't plan to make a day out of it, it's just not worth the time. Electric has advanced so much now, that you can still have some pretty fast & powerful planes, get some decent flight times out of them. Also they're a lot less work & a lot less to carry. With electric, if I want to go fly for just an hour or two, I can just go to the park or even a big parking lot, & still have a lot of fun.
Speaking of… Hey B.B. have you had a chance to fly that helicopter yet?
BB this reminds me of Federal's Gold Medal .22 program, I mean the real stuff with the indented base. It edges into the transonic, and I don't think anyone actually took it to the Olympics, although the .22 silhouette guys liked it for its knock down power coupled with decent accuracy for what they were doing.
Correct me if I am wrong but I think it is important to note that pellets that leave the barrel at super sonic speeds slow down to sub sonic speeds at normal target ranges. If the pellet were to stay well above the speed of sound during its entire flight to the target, as bullets do, it would not get buffeted. This is how I explain this problem to people who don't know much about airguns but I could be missing something.
You're on to something when you say "If the pellet were to stay well above the speed of sound during its entire flight to the target, as bullets do, it would not get buffeted."
However, it's all pretty meaningless when it comes to air guns. Here's what I mean – That "buffeting in the transonic range" does all sorts of weird stuff, including increase the rate at which projectile velocity is lost. Wind drift, for example, is a function of the rate of velocity loss and it gets worse in the transonic range.
What most people don't realize is how wide that range is. Grab any decent ballistics calculator and check the wind drift for a particular bullet (range, wind speed, choice of bullet don't matter; just keep them the same), plotting out the results for every 50 feet per second increase from, say, 800 to 2500 feet per second.
Wind drift will dip to a low point between 850 and 900 feet per second. Then the buffeting starts to kick in. Wind drift actually gets worse and worse the faster you go until (I'm going from memory, here, so forgive me if I'm a bit off) about 1500 fps. Then the drift slowly gets better as the muzzle velocity increases.
You have to get up to about 2300 feet per second to get wind drift numbers that are back down where they were at 875 feet per second. Everything in between is worse.
What that means is that for a projectile to completely outrun the transonic buffeting that negatively impacts wind drift (and accuracy, too!), it has to stay above about 2300 feet per second all the way to the target.
Totally off-topic for one paragraph – If you read on long-range rifle forums, you'll often hear people comment on how things seem to go to hell at a ridiculous rate between 900 and 1000 yards, far worse than the whole muzzle-to-900 range. Sometime they talk about how things fall apart at 800. No matter what number is in their head, it's a result of the bullet slowing into that serious transonic buffeting that starts at 2300. It's very difficult for some long range shooters to get this into their heads. They are accustomed to bullets that stay, at most ranges, well above 2500 fps. At those high speeds, wind drift and time of flight appear to track perfectly; they do, because all that transonic buffeting has been left behind. To solve the problems with "wind drift going nutso-bad in the last 100 yards", you have to beat it into their heads that drift doesn't *actually* track time of flight; it tracks with the rate of velocity loss.
No air gun that I know is launching any projectiles above 2300 fps.
So while you're on to something, I just wanted to point out that the definition of "well above the speed of sound", a range where transonic buffeting becomes a non-issue, is way higher than most people realize and way higher than might be applicable to anything normally discussed in this venue.
While there are plenty of good reasons to want higher velocities (e.g. better terminal performance when shooting something that breathes), my general rule is that for best accuracy and minimized wind drift, I keep muzzle velocities between 850 and 900 FPS.
Ben in TX
PS – Yes, I'm an air gun noob and most of the above was learned in long range rifle and pistol silhouette shooting, so anyone should feel free to flame me at will. However, the oddities of bullet flight in the transonic range is a subject that has fascinated me and that I've studied extensively for the last 3 decades or so, so I couldn't resist posting an observation or two. Hope I didn't offend anybody. I know how irritated people can get when some nonmember of the established community jumps in and starts pontificating so I figured I might as well apologize in advance.
No one gets flamed here, if you're wrong you'll probably be corrected but never flamed.
Welcome to the blog.
Wow what a terrific explanation. No worries about being a noob. I don't often post but have been following this blog for years. I had no idea the transonic range was that wide for our purposes. I assumed that a pellet traveling a 100fps or so above the sound barrier would be out of harms way. Not so it seems. I was trying to point out on the blog that pellets don't maintain these speeds for long because they are light and are high drag and thus slow down quickly through the transitional range when they leave the barrel at super sonic speeds. I now realize that even when they leave the barrel they are still in the zone where buffeting is greater.
Your response is just the kind that keeps me interested in this blog. I can learn something almost every day from the knowledge and intelligence of other posters. Thanks again!
Mark N
Hi BB and Edith… i have a question about the podcast…
i've been waiting for new podcast since may, but so far there're arent any new ones… hope the podcast wont be abandoned since i'm a BIG fan of the show…
Thanks alot Tom and Edith..
I have an off topic question regarding the Bronco.
I also hang around the Canadian Airgun Forum and have noticed a lot of new guys coming in recently and for most the 1000fps magnum springers are out of the question since they don't have a firearm permit (which are a pain to get here) so we have to keep it around the 500fps mark which is just where the Bronco is, the law says that to be considered a firearm :
"These are air guns with both a high muzzle velocity (greater than 152.4 meters or 500 feet per second) AND a high muzzle energy (greater than 5.7 joules or 4.2 foot-pounds)"
if I'm not wrong the Bronco is very close to this, how hard would it be to bring it down a tiny little bit to met our regulation?
Pretty much everything that's affordable in that category is detuned Phantom and quest rifles from Crosman and the IZH-60/61 which a lot of people don't seem to like very much.
There's always rifles like a slightly detuned HW30S and Diana 240 but we're far from newbie pricing here.
The Bronco is such a great rifle and a perfect first rifle.
The easiest way to slow a spring gun down is to smear a bunch of JM heavy tar on the spring.
Or get one with less power to start:
or buy one of the many de-tuned rifles I see on-line at Canadian dealers.
It is hard to believe that in a Country with such wide open spaces they limit airgun power the way they do, makes the 12 ft lb limit in the UK seem blistering. Very sad.
Do they actually check airguns for power? So many variables on a springer, if so pull the breach seal out.
It wouldn't be for me! I already have a Bronco, illegally, but if you guys don't tell I won't either and since I'm not doing any criminal activities the chances of the police showing on my door step to take away an airgun that's half a foot pound over the limit is quite small and the Bronco is well worth the risk!
I just think that it would be an awesome rifle to have available here.
Most of the detuned Crosman and Gamo's available here have the horrible trigger that can be replaced by the GRT III.
Don't get me wrong we have awesome detuned rifles but not many are of this quality in that price range.
I guess I missed that part.
So if you want to be legal for less, then go to the Air rifle Headquarters site and order heavy tar. Smear it through the cocking slot with a screw driver.It wont take too much, she will shoot smoother and a tad slower.
J-F…just a caution.
In my job I deal with the RCMP. They do check these forums on occasion. I wouldn't mention to often that you have an illegal gun.
Like I said it's barely illegal, I'm busting the limit by a mere 8 ounces according to the one BB tested several months ago and it's the only gun over the limit I own, I haven't fiddled with the Alecto valve to gain more power as so many people do or things like that on any of my airguns, I sure hope our good RCMP officers have more important things to work on than busting thru my door for a rifle that "could potentially" be illegal… For all we know I could have one that got a tea spoon more lube and it could be a bit slower… I haven't chronied it.
With the right pellet pretty much any rifle could be made illegal.
J-F, you'd think the Mounties would have better things to do…but sometimes for a 'make work' project they will have someone spend a shift just going through the more popular firearms (and this inlcudes airgun) blogs that are known to be of interest to Canadians.
Well you had me worried so I got the rifle, pellets and chrony out.
I tried 4 pellets (Gamo's match, H&N, Crosman premier and some RWS HyperMax), only the HyperMax went over the 500fps limit, at 582.7 average to be exact but at 5.2gr it gives me 3.9 foot-pounds so it's under the 4.2 foot-pounds making it… L-E-G-A-L
The closest to the limit were the gamos at 493.6 fps.
So come on PA, ship away! We need this great rifle here.
Uh… If I interpret the quote, it is NOT take the lowest…
Velocity over 500fps
Energy over whatever
is illegal.
You found a combination that exceeded 500fps. The energy clause basically means you can't use an airgun to lob 4 pounder cannon balls at 475 fps (heck, 50fps would probably be too much… Yep… 5ft-lbs, 28000gr => 8.9fps)
I think a rolling bowling ball probably exceeds those legal limits…
The law thankfully isn't THAT dumb (altough it's already pretty stupid), to be considered a firearm it has to be over 500 fps AND 4.2 foot pounds.
They probably made this when super light weight pellets started coming left and right as it was only 500fps before.
I once tried some old pellets that came with a Marksman 1010 pistol, it was a very small BB with a plastic skirt, I put one in my IZH-60 and it went 700 fps it also felt like I dry fired the rifle so I didn't repeat it with another one.
Don't you love gun control. Calling an air gun a firearm is idiotic.
When I finished reading todays article it reminded me of many discussions in the past involving Herb and rocket scientist Jane. I'm already seeing comments from veterans dissecting details and it's fascinating.
I get the impression that the primary purpose of this article is to educate a potential air gun buyer about the possible/probable pitfalls of velocity in air guns.
Maybe a potential airgun buyer will read this article and realize that using velocity figures printed on the box is not the ideal primary criteria for your purchase. I hope so. Unfortunately, I doubt it. I've witnessed too many buyers at big box stores comparing their limited choices and end up choosing the one that has the highest velocity number printed on the box in their price range. I've talked to many of my neighbors at my place in the mountains that bought air guns for plinking and/or pest elimination and made their air gun purchase using the same criteria. The word is out that I'm an air gun addict so when they have problems with their guns they come to me. Usually the problem is that the gun is no longer accurate. Loose screws, broken scopes, broken scope mounts and/or poorly adjusted triggers are common on these cheap springers. These opportunities allow me to delve deeper into their airgun experience and with rare exception the owners of these "no longer accurate airguns" only tried one pellet (from the tin they bought next to the airgun at the big box store) and never had heard about the artillery hold.
Pyramyd Air does a better job than any other air gun retailer about trying to inform their potential buyers about air guns. I stumbled across a "new" article on PA's site the other day titled, "Which air gun is right for me?" The article is actually a reprint from Airgun Illustrated copyright 2002. When you consider that one could write a book titled, "Which air gun is right for me?" this one page article does a good job. Links to the discontinued Webley Patriot and discontinued Gamo 1250 Hunter are odd. In my opinion, this article raises more questions in a potential air gun buyer that it answers which I think is a good thing.
I think it would greatly benefit PA and this blog if at the bottom of all the articles on the PA site it would say something like, "If you have any questions about air guns please ask it on our daily BLOG. Any and all air gun questions are welcome every day." BLOG would be a hyper link.
I think it is a bit of a catch 22, those that go to Wally World for an air rifle are no doubt doing little research or they would not be there in the first place.
Awhile back PA had asked me to answer e-mails they would forward on what airgun to purchase. Evidently, they already get many inquires from the "contact us" feature already and expressed some difficulty in being able to respond.
I think the reality is less than a dozen canned responses would work fine -which could be put in the form of a new article. But then most need to learn for themselves anyway, seems they will go out and buy an RWS 52 even if they are told otherwise. : )
Canned responses are better than no response.
I'm a fan of the blog since the mass of airgunners here respresent a wealth of information and the dialog beats canned responses. I also know that no matter how many newbies get directed here by whatever method and no matter what or how many questions they have they will be treated with respect and patience.
Hope all is well with you.
Many moons ago before I owned a PCP and years before I bought one I had inquired to several dealers for input with my criteria and the reply from PA suggested a multi-pump Sheridan – plus took a few days to receive. I had even told them I had a budget of about a grand. Sounds like they have made great strides if they have live chat now along with folks that know the products.
Little trivia – did you know that when I first started to post the staff at PA thought I was an alter ego of Tom's?
At the end of the day "canned" can work okay. I use it with my buyers all the time, unique as people believe their situation to be that is rarely the case. Of course I feign interest, take notes, and never let them know that I have memorized a script for nearly ever occasion.
As far as the Marauder, the sale had little to do with the rifle. Simply some unfortunate news that corresponded to the morning after its arrival. I will expand at some latter date.
Best regards,
Quick fact: the slide on a 1911 moves at about mach 2 according to Stephen Hunter!
Edith, I'm glad to see that our photo winner was not smoking a street light after all.
Victor, I was in competitive rowing for awhile and a coxswain at an elite level said that the ones who succeed have the biggest egos. Why else would they put themselves through that misery? Maybe that's why I didn't last in that sport. Would you say the same is true of elite shooters? The principle would seem to apply to any competitive endeavor.
AlanL, yes Zaitsev was real, but if his German antagonist was not real that would undercut the sniper duel although not Zaitsev's other exploits. By the way, I believe that Zaitsev's tally of ~250 was well below that of Lyudmila Pavlichenko. And here's another couple of anecdotes to enlarge out understanding of the Eastern Front. A German veteran reports that he was ordered to escort a captured Russian commissar to a prison camp and certain death, but in the middle of the forest, he told the guy to start running. The Russian kept looking back expecting to be shot, and the German said, "Don't be afraid. I'm not a murderer. I'm a human being." (!)
And for sheer guts on the Eastern Front you cannot beat this other anecdote (this was all on a YouTube documentary). After three days, a German soldier went to his ordnance officer, turned in his weapons and said that he wasn't going to take part in "this war." (!) Can you imagine the look on the face of the ordnance officer!? The soldier's stated reason: "I was brought up to have respect for people." And he did not end up participating in that war….
I'm sure that ego plays a role in many cases in shooting, but I don't think it's the same as in rowing, as this one person described. Shooting is not a sport that puts one through "misery". Shooting, for me at least, is about overcoming oneself, usually mentally. It's much more subtle than that. For me, this is similar to how I never looked at my guns as weapons. I saw my guns more as instruments. Also, the best shooters that I personally knew were in fact extremely humble, and never bragged. Different from every other sport that I know, winners in shooting NEVER get in others faces, nor do they jump around, demonstrating how proud they are for winning. We were taught to maintain our respect for our fellow competitors, win or lose. True sportsmanship was our culture, and many parents found that to be a very attractive thing, after experience Little League (according to some). Oh, there were times when I really wanted to jump up and down, but I knew that it was wrong, based on how I was taught.
Karate in our particular dojo was tortuous, but we didn't tolerate it out of ego. We subjected ourselves to unimaginable pain because we knew that it mattered. The harder we worked, the less likely we were to get hurt, and the better our bodies performed. Incidentally, you grew up in Hawaii, so you were exposed to some very good dojo's. We found that the most competitive dojo's were from Japan and Hawaii.
Anytime you want to be a winner, the ego plays a role, but it's more important to do things out of love. The best that I personally knew truly loved what they did, and that made it much less painful. I shoot purely out of love for the sport, and it never matters that I beat anyone again. BTW, I've kept a small fraction of all the medals and trophies that I've ever won, and no one will ever see any of them if they walked into my house.
Well, that was fun.
A magnitude 6 earthquake just rolled through northern Virginia. Surprised hell out of me. And it went on for what felt like the best part of a minute, so not to be sneezed at. I expect some after shocks too.
But we're fine in my family.
Good to know that you're family is fine. Injuries in the US are relatively rare, provided you don't panic, or are extremely unlucky. Just apply common sense. If inside, stay away from windows (especially children) and objects that can fall off shelves or walls, and don't turn on electrical appliances and switches until you know that gas lines are still intact (i.e., not leaking). I'm sure you know the drill.
In any case, assume it ain't over, so be extra careful for the rest of the week or so.
I do know the drill. I experienced the San Fernando Valley quake in February, 1971 where many were killed. That was much bigger and was really frightening, coming as an 'alarm clock' at about 6:00 AM. This was a completely different experience. So far, no aftershocks big enough to feel. And USGS hasn't reported any either.
Hey all you Discovery and TKO LDC lovers. Check this out:
It has been a long time since I posted anything here. But I read almost very blog and it is still great.
How fast is the sound barrier?
The answer is: it depends. Things that change the speed of sound are the elevation above sea level, the ambient temperature and humidity. Elevation is subtle, because it also influences the air temperature.
To really put that into perspective… At operational altitude, the U2 has only something like a 40-60knot window. Too fast and the wings will be ripped off from the shockwave, too slow, and the wings will stall in the thin air.
Imagine trying to drive a car whose engine will self-destruct at 5500RPM, but doesn't have enough torque/power to prevent stalling when running below 4500RPM (granted, it will probably have the transmission from a long-haul tractor/trailer rig to get enough gears to permit some control of speed within that window)
Oh, BTW… Seems to be a spammer hitting older threads… Signature seems to have variants of "electronic lock" and "security"
Here's something amazing and crazy from recent gov't testing.They are working on an unmanned aircraft that flies in low orbit,put there in a piggy back ride with a booster rocket.It has not survived a full test after 2 tries……but the last one destructed over the Pacific(as designed,for safety) only after logging data for 139 seconds.Here's the crazy part…..it was travvelling at between 17 and 22
times the speed of sound!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Someone with more time and desire can calculate the exact numbers,but that is in excess of 13,000 MPH.
The way I understand it, those little robot planes are supposed to be able to cruise around at high altitude for long periods of time and then if needed, dive in (maybe jettisoning their wings?) at *very* high speed to strike a target, using sheer kinetic energy to destroy it.
The Space Shuttle came in at an astounding speed too.
Thanks,Flobert…..I left that part out.My typing finger gets tired! The reported velocities just blew my mind.I guess the "program" is the Cold War part Deux.That explains why so much money can be blown to smithereens.
The US is really a military with a country, rather than a country with a military. I think WWI was when our military got a taste of nearly endless money, and it's just built up more since then.
If it has so much, it isn't trickling down to the contractors…
{4.5 weeks to layoff}
Ouch, dude.
Supposedly there's a contract to build a bunch of circuit boards, perhaps program them, floating around out there with my name on it, but I'm not holding my breath. This economy is great for experiencing firsthand the graininess of Nature.
Have you got your CV up to date and getting those applications spread around? Is Monster dot com any good these days?
I had a motorcycle come in today, it's pretty rough. I think if I have sense I'll sell it and convert the $ into a gun – air or firearm to be decided.
Been looking at resume guide books… And may have to pay someone to convert to a "functional/skills" format. I don't think my two-page, one-employer, chronological is going to do it for anything except another defense contractor. (22 years of which is: I can't go into more details that that}
I also don't intend to hang in the SF Bay area hoping to find a position before severance and unemployment run out; Michigan may be trash for jobs, but it's also cheaper, and the rest of the family is there. My concept is to spend most of October working resume and boxing up the porcelain figures and books, rent a 26ft U-Haul (Hoping my stuff will fit — they rate it for a 4 bedroom capability, but they base that on maybe four beds, a desk, kitchen table, a few cabinets… I've already got 80 cubic feet of boxed books in storage [a stack 10 feet long, 2 feet wide, 4+ feet high] not to mention the 7 bookcases that don't collapse). Drive to MI, unload (somewhere), fly back, clean apartment, drive Jeep to MI… With luck I'll be there around Thanksgiving with everything (depends on the timing of a dental implant — if the surgeon okays it at the Oct 15 check-up, I should have the crown placed early November).
You're just doing what everyone is doing; moving to where you have some sort of tribe, whether it's family or not.
I suggest the site Survivalblog for good reading for these times.
Less than one day…
Why, when it's been done <G>
Between about 40k and 85k there appears to be a minimal change in speed-of-sound with altitude.
We know that there's a huge market for MACHO air-rifles that shoot 1000+fps, but we also know that few actually achieve those velocities with "real world ammo". Even if they advertise 1200 fps, we know that we'll really get closer to 900 fps with decent ammo.
Maybe this article can be the start of a better campaign, where instead of boasting unrealistic high-end velocities that push the sound barrier, air-gun manufacturers and retailers will boast more realistic (lower) velocities with high-end, super accurate, ammo.
If we hunt or plink for fun, then we do want a gun that is harder hitting at, say, 50+ yards, but we want that gun to be accurate too. I'm happy with any ACCURATE air-rifle that can fire at 900 fps. I love the fact that I can reliably hit a 7″ metal plate at 100 yards with my Gamo Hunter Extreme, and my Crosman Titan, both in .22 caliber.
Given the discussion, shouldn't that be MACH1 ?
LOL! Very funny! MACH1 versus MACHO.
Anyone have any experience with hand pumps ? Are any of the pumps more reliable, or better working than the Benjamin pump ? Do they all have grease exposed when the pump handle is accidentally raised a bit during transport, etc ? If so, do any of them have a way to lock the handle down during transport ?
Thanks. Do you think the Axsor is any better than the Benjamin pump ?
Also, what happens when the air gets bled on dusty ground ? Does dirt get in the grease, and that grit grind the pump internals "if" it gets used before the dirty grease is replaced by new grease ?
Wow… Look what I started. lol
Talking about all these magnum airguns that don't achieve their advertised velocities,
I'm still waiting for someone to actually come out with one that does it with a lead pellet
(maybe .22 cal 14.3 gr. or so) & see them name it;
"The Mach 1 Airgun"
With what Kevin said about witnessing "too many buyers at big box stores comparing their limited choices and end up choosing the one that has the highest velocity number printed on the box in their price range" I'm betting the gun may be a hit not only because it actually does it, but even more so just because of it's name! LOL AGAIN!
HEY… I might be on to something here. he-he
B.B. You might want to pass that on to Joshua so he can be the first & corner that market.
All joking aside, I actually like that name. You could call it;
"The REAL – Mach 1 Airgun – "
What do ya think?
I have been a shooter and reloader since a teenager I'm 65 now an ol geezer. I recently purchased a ruger break barrel advertised at1000fps. Very dissapointed with accuracy. Thought about rifling ,twist in barrel.speed,shape of pellets. tried about 10 different 0nes to get 1 moa. at 20 yards. didn't happen. Discovered after looking at wood targets that many of the pellets hit sideways, some polimer tips hit target 180 degtees.,hit the target backwards skirt first. Thanks for writing about this it makes sense to me. I somehow felt the speed of the pellet must have an adverse effect on accuracy. So I broke out my old Benjamin pump up and these pellets of light weight shot fine. Did find heaverier pellets shot better in the ruger but still terrible according to my expectations. Could babble forever I guess butenough. I agree stay under 1000 fps. or change rifling or desigh of pellets. thanks for listening.
What a great article. I had heard some of this information about staying subsonic with pellets before, but this article explained it really, really well. Thanks very much for taking the time to compile this.
The main reason pellets are not accurate in high velocity guns is that most are deformed into a pointed barrel before they leave the muzzle. You can achieve supersonic velocities, but the "bloom" of air behind the pellet as it leaves the muzzle makes quite a bang. The pellet itself produces only a snapping noise due to its small size. Longer pellets with solid cores deform less, retain more of their design shape and are therefore more accurate. It is not so much a function of speed as it is the loss of the designed aerodynamic shape. I have an extensive article with photos of recovered pellets from the 1200 to 1650 fps air rifles. You can achieve the speeds with light alloy pellets, but the due tend to tumble fairly quickly. Anything above 800-900 fps has enough pressure in the barrel behind the pellet to deform the skirt and waist. My RWS 48/52 is accurate to 100 yards with the right pellets. My GAMO Hunter Extremes are also accurate with the right pellet and hold.
The article helped me understand what happens to airplanes and projectiles at, or near the speed of sound.
I was introduced to the sound of supersonic bullets, when taking my turn in the target pit at a high power rifle match, several years ago. The bullets sounded like fire crackers, as the passed objects.
In my youth, shooting .22 rifle competitions, I quickly discovered that subsonic rounds shot tighter groups. I have no doubt that air gun pellets also have better accuracy in the subsonic range.
OK, now I'm officially confused. You guys are the experts but I thought I had made supersonic work within my 'guidelines'…real world testing and hunting. My example in this case is a BAM B-51 PCP in .177, modified with a tensioned barrel. Now I had heard about the sound barrier and yet wanted more power for shooting feral animals inside city limits. So using information I got on the Yellow forum/Chinese Air Rifles I tried helium which gives higher velocities.
Yes, I found lighter pellets that had good accuracy became terrible groupers at higher velocities. But the rifle had always shot better with heavier pellets anyway and with Kodiac Heavys was a one hole (1/4″) rifle at 35 yards, tending to open up to 5/8″ at fifty. I wanted the best 'kill' power at fifty, my criteria being able to shoot through four antifreeze jugs full of water at 50 yards [that's 8 layers of that tough plastic and over 14" of water] which in my experience if a bullet will do that it will have sufficient lethality for a coyote or medium dog. I modified the rifle by opening up the port and adding in a throttle screw and changed the hammer spring and was shooting at 1050FPS. And yes, lost accuracy. But I thought that if I got the pellet ABOVE the speed of sound long enough that the pellet traveled 50 yards before dropping below the sound barrier and tumbling it would work. And that is what I think I have achieved. The pellets shot with He crony at 1220 and at first were tumbling before 50 yards. Thinking that this was because they slowed down too fast, I modified/streamlined the pellets by using 'hot glue' and a home made 'sized die' to fill in the wasp waist on the pellets to make a smooth sided cylindrical pellet (learning that the pellets have to be pre-heated and the die has to have PAM nonstick and all sorts of little tricks). In the process, the hollow base becomes filled to become a flat base. And these pellets DO group acceptably well up to 50 yards, then somewhere just beyond, tumble and open up groups (showing sideways on the target at 65 yards but I did not try to see exactly what range it happened). I still get 1/2″ average groups and sometimes LESS with this setup. My point is that it IS possible to get supersonic USEFULLY (increased power within a 'normal' range) with a with a little extra work.
What about the issue of heavy pellets being bad for spring gun springs and seals?
(Hypothetically) I can't see how the pellet weight could affect the spring itself — at most the back-pressure is slowing the spring action at the end of the stroke and buffering the piston shock. Piston seal? Maybe if the same back-pressure is strong enough to cause blow-by of the piston.
A super-light/under-sized pellet could potentially be worse — since it will develop lower peak pressure. The reductio ad absurdum argument is: no pellet… No back-pressure piston/seal slams into the end of the cylinder at full speed, spring probably goes into oscillations (the middle of the spring has been moving forward at half the rate of the front part — now the front comes to a sudden absolute stop… middle will overshoot, bounce back, repeat until dampened out). On the other side — weld the bore closed about half an inch in… the only escape for the pressure build up will be to leak past the piston seal, and whatever seal surrounds the loading port. Unless such leakage physically rips the seals all I see is perhaps increased wear (piston seal, especially if it expands against the cylinder bore). Spring should be fine since it comes to a nice slow stop.
Heavy pellets should produce a higher peak pressure, and less overall acceleration of the pellet; when the effective muzzle energy becomes less as the mass is increased, one has probably reached the desirable limit on pellet weight — there has been too much velocity reduction to maintain equivalent energy. My NRA 1000 (Gamo Shadow) .177 seems to be a fairly firm 13ft-lb class using pellets from 6.9 to 8.3gr (12.4-14.0ft-lb, though not in that correlation). Hit a 9.2gr pellet and above, and it struggles to do 10.5ft-lb. My RWS Mod54 .22 is nicely 19+ft-lbs with 14.0 to 18.2gr pellets (18.1-20.4ft-lbs) but drops to <15ft-lb when the pellets are in the 20+gr range.
I disagree with this hypothesis. Have you ever fired a .220 Swift firearm? That rifle has one of the highest muzzle velocities of any firearm, yet is quite accurate if well made and fired with quality boat tail bullets.
The F-14 Tomcat can easily exceed Mach two in stable level flight. One of the key features to designing such an aircraft is elevating the rear control surfaces out of the shock wave from the front surfaces. That was the key problem with WW-II era aircraft. Indeed, the F-14 is one of the fastest aircraft ever made short of the SR-71 Blackbird.
A key purpose of the skirt of the pellet is not to stabilize it in flight, it's to form it to the rifling so it has enough spin to stabilize it. Perhaps the problems you saw are from having a pellet that is too nose heavy. In that case aerodynamic forces are going to cause it to want to swap ends like a badly designed sports car. And there aren't many supersonic sports cars.
I'm a longtime rifle competitor…highpower, long range and smallbore. Some 10M air, mostly for cross-training. I'm a longtime recreational airgun shooter, but new to this new high velocity air stuff. I thought I'd comment and correct on some of the stuff I know about.
a) Federal 22lr ammo – the dimpled base was used in their highest grade ammo. The dimpled base was actually used by the Russians much earlier in their Olymp ammo. The Federal ammo was supposed to be subsonic, but some found it went supersonic, so they produced an "A" lot and a "B" lot. It was used to win Olympic Gold (Meili) and Silver (Foth).
b) The 338 Lapua "might" have been used at Perry for the LR Championships, but I doubt it, since brakes are not allowed. It was definitely not used to win Wimbledon.
c) The 900 to 1000 yard line is not some magical distance where bullets go transonic and lose accuracy. This applies to a specific situation; The 168 Sierra out of a 308 Winchester goes transonic at about that range and loses stability. However it's related to bullet design. Bob McCoy spent some time describing the reasons why in his book Modern Exterior Ballistics if you're so inclined. The old military 173 M1 projectile does not have that problem. The more current 175 Sierra was based on the 173M1 and makes it to 1000 at 308 velocities just fine (that was one of the design parameters. Improving the BC of course is one approach. Improving the velocity would be another (ie. using a 300WM will keep the 168 supersonic and stable at 1K). Doing both with less recoil is where it's at for prone shooters these days with the 6.5-284, and 6mmXC.
d) The 220 Swift is a case study in many things such as improved barrel steel, bullet integrity, but the boat tail wasn't an essential to making it work. A well constructed flat base shoots just as well if not better at shorter ranges (inside 300yards).
Too many of the major brands have above 900 fps. No good low cost back-stops and moving targets available and too much bullet drift with wind.
The air resistance is highest at the speed of sound and people wrote that it was impossible to break the speed of sound — that why they erroneously call it the sound barrier. The pellet or bullet loses speed the most around that region and will cause lots of drift with the wind.
Thanks for the welcome.
It's funny how reading through the posts, I see more than a few parallels between my powder gun experience and what ya'll are experiencing with high velocity airguns. Pellet skirt distortion from high pressures = bullet "slump" from excessive pressures.
So here's where I get to ask about things I don't know so much about…
Reading through the comments, it sounds like the current pellet designs ie diablo are not cutting it for high velocity airguns. Has any of these manufacturers made recommendations on appropriate pellets for their guns? I would think that they would have the most to gain by the use of appropriate projectiles.
Question for Dennis Brooks: Aside from light weight, what did the successful pellets look like?
My powder gun experience tells me, using the wrong bullets for the application leads to miserable failures. One example that comes to mind is the standard 55gr 223 bullets being used beyond 300yds. It took going to heavy weight VLD designs to make the M16 competitive to 600yds and beyond. Might these high velocity airguns benefit from a similar redesign of the projectile? I remember when Crosman made first made their Premier with a less hollow skirt to limit distortion from the then state of the art high pressure guns.
And a final question; Target 22LR ammo leaves the muzzle just shy of mach1 and can be exquisitely accurate (<.5 moa at 50yds and < 3/4moa at 100yds). Is there anything to be learned from 22LR projectile design that can be applied to high velocity air rifle pellets?
This is a strange theory, as most firearms break the sound barrier, and accuracy in maintained. Why would an airgun be any different?! Unless the pellets shape has something to do with it, in that case I would blame pellet design.
Most firearms stay ABOVE the speed of sound within their usable shooting distance.
Airguns that break Mach 1 aren't fast enough to keep the pellet above that speed until it reaches the target.
Remember — the projectile doesn't "break the barrier" after leaving the muzzle; it goes supersonic while still stabilized by the barrel, and as long as it stays supersonic it is "outrunning" its own wake. Let it slow down, and its wake comes up and slaps it in the tail.
Come up with an air gun that can launch a medium weight pellet (without deforming it) at 2500fps, and it may still have supersonic velocity at 25-35 yards, and be accurate. What we have now are rifles advertised to launch at 1200-1400fps, but the pellets drop to subsonic before going 10 yards and get slapped all over…
You are not wrong about the wake, but you miss one point. Air is compressible. So as the pellet is accelerated above the speed of sound in the barrel, it compresses a plug of air in front pellet which is expelled from the muzzle before the pellet exits the barrel. The muzzle blast immediately slows, but the pellet traveling faster than sound passes through this turbulence.
I used the example of 22LR match ammo specifically because they run just shy of supersonic at the muzzle. If the transonic zone is considered to extend down to mach 0.8, the 22LR spends a good amount of time transonic. In spite of it's velocity in the transonic zone, the 22lr bullets are somehow able to remain stable and accurate, hence my question about taking design cues from 22lr bullet design.
Just got done reading your article, and found it rather interesting. The only thing I'm finding myself at odds with, is that I own a break barrel pellet rifle. It's a Crosman Fury, using 4×32 scope a zeroed in at about 14 yards, though I have made longer shots.
There are three types of ammo I used with it, now only one. Lead was the first, then I decided to test two ammo types, Crosman's special alloy rounds which fired at 1,375 FPS Muzzle Velocity and Gamo's gold PBA rounds at 1,250 FPS MV. It was even said on the package that it had a 90% weight retention.
Crosman's lighter weight alloy rounds never landed in the same spot twice with the same sight picture.
However, the heavier Gamo gold PBA rounds almost landed atop of each other with the same sight picture, and now I swear by those rounds in particular.
Could the weight retention have something to do with the PBA rounds being able to maintain the speed and accuracy I've noted with them?


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Interesting survey results:
"They started with two nationwide surveys that interviewed a total of more than 3,000 Americans about their beliefs, experiences and interests.
When the scientists broke down the results, they found that people who are moderately religious are most likely to believe in the paranormal. This could be because they are open enough to believe in the unknown, but not so rigid in their religious beliefs to reject mysterious experiences altogether.
The numbers also showed that different types of paranormal entities appeal to different demographics. Women, for instance, are most likely to believe they live in haunted houses. College graduates are most likely to have out-of-body experiences. Unmarried white men are most likely to believe in UFOs.
Bigfoot hunters were perhaps the most surprising group, Bader said. They defied all stereotypes of paranormal pursuers who wear flowing clothes and commune with spirits."
http://news.discovery.com/human/paran...October 29, 2010 at 12:39 p.m.
"The foundation of superstition is ignorance, the superstructure is faith and the dome is a vain hope. Superstition is the child of ignorance, and the mother of misery." Robert Green IngersollOctober 29, 2010 at 11:58 a.m.
How about if the Roadrunner is in a parking lot, and when you come back out the Roadrunner is admiring the view from the front seat of your truck? True story.
That has to be extra good luck!October 28, 2010 at 10:05 p.m.
whenever a black bird is just making its wierd noise up in the tree close by it means somebody is going to die-----but if it does it less than 3 times and flies away it means its trying to locate the right area. when a roadrunner is crossing the road in front of you it means good luck is coming but if it pauses before it crosses it means its not for you. my favorite---when you start scratching on you palm all of sudden it means money is on its way--99.99 percent of the time it has work for me---October 28, 2010 at 4:28 p.m.
Well, I turn around when I see a black cat cross the road...I don't walk under ladders and I don't open or let my kids open an umbrella in the house. That's how I was raised so I would rather not take any chances. lolOctober 28, 2010 at 1:28 p.m.

subset: commoncrawl


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Despite the unsatisfactory ending to the season, the 2012-2013 season was a pretty solid one for your Brooklyn Nets. They were a playoff team for the first time since 2007, developed a solid fanbase in Brooklyn, and look to be a consistent playoff contender for years to come. But as we all know, the Nets didn't get that far as they lost to the Chicago Bulls in seven games. Of course, the Bulls didn't get that far either as they got picked off by the eventual champion Miami Heat in five games. For the Heat, this was their second straight championship and there have been talks of the Heat becoming a dynasty. Of course, there is no hard and fast definition of what a "dynasty" is, so let's see what interpretations of dynasties are out there. First up, Tom Ziller of Sactown Royalty and the mothership speaking about dynasties with relation to the Heat:
But the other piece of this equation is that actually achieving dynastic status is really, really hard. So much can go wrong. Like, whatever happened in the 2011 Finals, or Dwyane Wade's current injury. The San Antonio Spurs know this as well as anyone: despite a crazy run of excellence, they've never won back-to-back titles. Injuries, theLakers and sundry other things have tripped them up in every repeat attempt. If you consider the definition of a sports dynasty as something like "protracted hegemony," then the Spurs have never really had one. (I subscribe to the common belief that three titles in a row is rare enough and awe-inspiring enough to be a dynasty.)
And here's Vincent Smith writing about dynasties for NBA.com in 2009:
A dynasty is a team that wins, at least, three titles with a cast that features, at least, three recurring principal characters (three players or two players and a coach). And if the three titles are spread out, the team has to remain a "power" during the non-title years.
Whatever definition you subscribe to, we can all agree that the Heat are the best team in the sport and they are the team the Nets will have to go through in order to achieve the big boss' goal of a championship by 2015. So can they do it? Let's explore this question and ponder the chances the Nets have of slaying the beast.
One of the ways teams such as Indiana and Chicago have been able to pester Miami over the past three years is through superior glass work. One "problem" Miami has had since LeBron and Bosh came to town has been their lack of a prototypical big man. And by prototypical, I mean the type of big that gobbles up rebounds, can block shots, and make life difficult on elite big men such as Tim Duncan and Roy Hibbert. Basically, a big in the mold of Tyson Chandler. Miami doesn't have a big like Chandler, and that's created a little difficulty for them. The Heat were in the bottom third in team defensive rebounding, and it almost cost them the Conference Finals vs. Indiana (they were outrebounded in every game but Game 7). One of the (few) benefits Reggie Evans gave the Nets was his doggedness on the offensive glass. Evans was the leading offensive rebounder in the league in 2012-2013 and has been one of the better ones over the years. Of course, Evans is no longer here, and along the way, this happened:
Let me look at his numbers real quick -- he had no offensive rebounds, so we did our number on him
Being a great offensive rebounding team isn't a guarantee of success or predictor of failure if you're not prolific at it (just look at the Heat), but it certainly helps. Blatche was one of the better rebounders on the offensive glass, and should continue to contribute on that end. Even if the Nets aren't dominant on the O-glass, their retooled offense should more than make up for it. If I had to guess, I would think that the offense would run through Brook Lopez in the low post. This was his most active year on offense (career high usage rate), and he had one of his more efficient seasons. He had success against Miami as he shot 57 percent, but those games were all blowouts on the wrong side so you can't put too much stock into that.With Gerald Wallace and Evans out of the picture, Williams, Johnson, Lopez, etc. should have much more space on offense to operate. This space should lead to better looks on offense, and more importantly for players like Bojan Bogdanovic and Joe Johnson, cleaner looks behind the three point line.
When they're on, Miami is absolutely relentless on defense. Their sharp rotations and pressure lead to them forcing a ton of turnovers. Miami was fourth overall in forcing turnovers, and as a result, they had the third most points off turnovers in the league. When they played Miami, the Nets weren't able to avoid committing turnover problems against the Heat, as they committed more turnovers than they normally did. And as you would expect, they got blown out each time for their troubles.
With the (slight) exception of Deron Williams, the (expected) major players on the Nets didn't have many turnover issues last season. The role Jason Kidd will designate for them matters a lot, and I would expect the offense to primarily run through Lopez and Williams. I expect to see a decline in usage for Johnson and Pierce, and Kevin Garnett doesn't need the offense run through him to contribute. Those three have shown good ball control skills throughout their careers, and that should continue during the Brooklyn experience.
Although the rotations are shortened come playoff time, it never hurts to have depth, especially as you slog through the regular season. Even though the narrative around the Heat is that they're three superstars (these days, just one) and not much else, that actually isn't true. Going by Win Shares, Miami had ten players who were league average and better during the 2012-2013 campaign. Of course, leading the charge for the Champions was LeBron James. As they stand now, the Nets have their Furious Five (Williams, Johnson, Pierce, Garnett, and Lopez), plus Andray Blatche and Jason Terry. As the 2012-2013 Lakers adventure showed us, just having big names isn't a guarantee of success. It's great to have elite players at the top, but if their isn't anything to back them up (especially if those elite players are older), you're in deep trouble. And I have some questions about Blatche and Terry, but that's for another post at another time.
This isn't measurable, but a little bit of luck goes a long way. Sometimes you get unexpected production from unexpected sources, players who are known for their superlative play inexplicably go cold over a seven game series, and injuries pop up at inopportune times.
Can they get past Miami?
I don't see how the Nets can. When they're healthy, Miami has the two best players on the court (and even if Wade isn't at 100 percent, LeBron is more than capable of picking up the slack). They have more depth than they're sometimes given more credit for, and their defense is rock solid. As for the Nets, even with the upgrades, I don't see them as being enough to get by Miami. Miami best three players are/will more than likely continue to be more productive than the Nets' best three, have succeeded playing against a variety of styles and opponents, and, excluding Wade, have been more durable over the past couple of years. The Heat have better three point shooters, better team defense, and if they were to face the Nets in the playoffs, will more than likely have the home court advantage. Of course, I haven't discussed Indiana, Chicago, and New York, and those three teams compare favorably to the new look Nets and have a very good chance of beating the Nets.


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Video: Christina Aguilera – 'You Lost Me'
Christina Aguilera sees the light at the end of the tunnel in the dark video for "You Lost Me," the Sia-penned ballad from her latest album Bionic. The pop star keeps it simple, letting her powerful voice shine in the Anthony Mandler-directed clip.
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How to Achieve Success, Grow Your Business and Get Paid to Party
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This book provides a road map for securing more events and becoming the highest paid DJ in your market. It is an essential reference manual jam-packed with practical tools, expert tips and cost-effective methods for achieving dramatic results.
Topics Covered Include How to: Create and Implement a Marketing Plan; Convert Prospects into Loyal Clients; Generate Free Publicity; Make Important Strategic Alliances; Maximize Your Profits and much, much more.
"Forget those self-help books full of cod psychology written by dubiously qualified Californians. Any self-respecting DJ should lay their hands on The DJ Sales and Marketing Handbook." – DJ Times Magazine
"Although I am not a DJ, I purchased The DJ Sales & Marketing Handbook to help me in marketing my photo booth rental business. The book contains real-life specific marketing advice to any business serving the special events industry like how to break in to the Bar Mitzvah Market, when to advertise for different event types, what to do after completing an event, how to deal professionally with complaints, etc. A must read to create a successful business."
- H. Khirala
This book is for DJs who:
- want to learn various approaches to effective sales techniques
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- And Lots more….
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Get your autographed copy of The DJ Sales & Marketing Handbook for only $24.95


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Home » Curtis Axel » Fan
Curtis Axel
Real Name
Joseph Hennig
Date of Birth
October 1, 1979
Place of Birth
Reports are surfacing that WWE will be throwing a last minute fatal four way match together at Summerslam 2014, where Cody Rhodes, Goldust, Jimmy Uso, Jey Uso, Luke Harper, Erick Rowan, Curtis Axel and Ryback will all be vying for the tag titles. Management does not view this division to be a priority at this time, even though fan interest has grown.
August 7, 2014
The relationship between Hulk Hogan and WWE has been further extended, as the former world heavyweight champion is now going to be involved in a movie for the company. WWE Studios is producing Celebrity Death Pool, featuring Ken Jeong from the Hangover series and David Hasselhoff. Hogan has a small role in the movie, but the company is expected to promote him heavily to draw in their fan base.
August 21, 2014
The belief within the industry is that Evan Bourne is hoping to make a return to WWE some day. He recently did a shoot interview, but the video was rather tame. He did not reveal too many secrets, and he did not show a ton of animosity towards the company. If Bourne can show that he can stay sober and injury free, then WWE might be willing to give him another chance since he did have a little bit of a fan base.
August 15, 2014
It looks like Randy Orton still has a bit of the acting bug. The WWE star informed his fan through Twitter that he was working on a deal to star in another movie. Orton also revealed that they were in the early stages, so he cannot provide much details at the moment. Once the film starts production, it is expected that the former world heavyweight champion will miss some television time for WWE.
August 6, 2014
Got some bad news if you're a fan of the Colt Cabana podcast. The former WWE star revealed that his web server has been hacked by malicious bots. He is having trouble finding help to resolve the issue, which started a couple of days ago. Cabana recently landed a pretty big guest when legendary commentator Jim Ross agreed to do an interview for his show.
July 27, 2014
Rumors are floating around right now that WWE officials have banned Antonio Cesaro from utilizing his giant swing move. The belief is that the company does not want him to accumulate more fan support because the move has proven to be massively popular. Management is said to be holding off on his face turn and big push because they want to focus on Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns first.
July 26, 2014
For those that missed Monday Night Raw, WWE did a story where Stephanie McMahon was arrested during the show because she assaulted Brie Bella, who happened to be sitting in the front row as a fan. The segment generated a huge ovation from the audience, and it was a major topic of discussion online. This is designed to lead to a big match between Stephanie and Brie at Summerslam 2014.
July 22, 2014
A black eye usually is not something to be proud of. It is, however, when you're a lifelong wrestling fan being punched by one of the greatest performers that the industry has ever seen. Bray Wyatt received a black eye during a big live event at Madison Square Garden in New York City over the weeken due to an errant punch by Ric Flair. Reports are stating that the incident happened because Flair forgot that he was wearing his hall of fame ring. There is said to be no backstage heat between the two due to the injury.
July 14, 2014
With his career in MMA coming to a close soon, Rashad Evans wants to make the jump from UFC to WWE. Rumors are floating around right now that he has already contacted WWE to gauge their interest in signing him. Vince McMahon is not a huge fan of MMA, but he does know that UFC fighters have name value. Triple H is reportedly said to be interested in bringing Evans on board.
July 10, 2014
If you're a fan of John Morrison, now is a good time to head on over to the Amazon website because Hercules Reborn, which the former WWE performer stars in, is being released and shipped today. Interestingly enough, the website credits Morrison as the director as well as the star. However, that might simply be a typo because Nick Lyon sat in the director's chair for the film.
July 8, 2014
If you're a big fan of Chris Jericho, then you probably should not blink. Rumors floating around is that he will be leaving WWE very soon. Some are even saying that he only came back to work with Bray Wyatt and help him get over some more before joining the main event scene. Speculations are that he will be gone before the year is over and that WWE paid him a hefty sum to come back.
July 6, 2014
Rumors are floating around that one of the reasons why TNA brought back the six sided ring, under the guise of fan voting, was because they wanted to beat Jeff Jarrett to the punch. Talks within the industry have Jarrett utilizing the unique ring when his new promotion, Global Force Wrestling, starts up. No word yet on whether or not Jarrett still plans on using the six sided ring now that TNA has brought it back.
July 4, 2014
A terminally ill fan with cancer had a dream of seeing Chris Jericho performing with Fozzy before he passed away. The former WWE star reached out and made that happen. Jericho even took it a step further by setting up a fund to help the fan with medical bills. Donations are also being accepted so that the ten year old daughter of the fan will have some money after he passes away.
June 30, 2014
When news initially broke out that Jeff Jarrett was starting a new wrestling promotion, all fingers pointed to Toby Keith as his financial backer. The country music singer is a big fan of wrestling and good friend of Jarrett. However, reports are surfacing now that Keith is not involved with Global Force Wrestling. There are rumors that the financial backer is someone that Jarrett knows through his NASCAR connections.
June 29, 2014
During his latest podcast interview, Steve Austin interviewed Vince Russo, and the topic of Austin's early stint in WWE came up. Both revealed to fans that Vince McMahon was not a huge fan of Austin at the time. He also did not want Austin to talk whatsoever because McMahon felt that his microphone skills were not up to par. Russo, however, pushed to give Austin an opportunity to speak, and the legendary push ensued.
June 28, 2014
While management might not be a big fan of Adam Rose, he does have a supporter in Batista. At the Comic Con event in Philadelphia over the weekend, Batista told the fans, who were there to hear him speak about the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy movie, that Rose was someone in WWE that people should keep an eye on. That show of support is unlikely to have an effect on management, though.
June 24, 2014
A bit of a buzz was created for Cryme Tyme over the weekend, thanks to an interview on TMZ, where Shad Gaspard and JTG informed the fans that they are now teaming up again on the independent wrestling circuit. Gaspard decided to fan the flames even further when he posted on Twitter that the duo should contact Dixie Carter about perhaps signing a contract with TNA.
June 23, 2014
After announcing his retirement from UFC, Chael Sonnen posted a quote on his Twitter account that stated, "Bad times don't last, but bad guys do." The comment caught the attention of Scott Hall, who proceeded to criticize Sonnen for stealing the line that he made while being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. This appears to be a misunderstanding as Sonnen is a big fan of wrestling and has used several quotes over the years.
June 22, 2014
There's some potentially bad news if you're a big fan of Daniel Bryan, as rumors are now surfacing that he might not be healthy enough to make a return at Summerslam 2014 as previously predicted. WWE wants to be very careful with his situation, as something negative could trigger a big storm with the mainstream media. Bryan is featured heavily on Total Divas and is one of the more known stars now in the industry.
June 19, 2014
If you're a big fan of Cryme Tyme, then get on the phone with the independent wrestling promotion to ask them to book the former WWE tag team. Now that JTG has been given a release by the company, he has decided to reunite with Shad Gaspard, so that the two of them can be booked as a unit on the indies circuit. Combined, they have much more name value, so they can command a higher contract from promoters.
June 19, 2014
In quite the shrewd marketing move, Chris Jericho has signed up Drew McIntyre for an interview. Fan interest in this particular episode of his podcast should be higher than usual since McIntyre was recently given a release from WWE. Jericho teased that the former Chosen One will break his silence during the segment. There is actually a good chance that McIntyre will vent on bring used poorly by the company.
June 17, 2014
Since Ryback is on the shelf for a couple of weeks, it will be interesting to see what WWE does with Curtis Axel. There were already plans being discussed a couple of weeks ago to split up the tag team, so it should come as no surprise if management opted to use the injury as an excuse to accelerate those plans. WWE no longer believes that Axel is worthy of being a top level guy, but they do believe he can still be a useful member of the roster.
August 27, 2014
Since management wasn't completely sure what to do with them upon their returns, WWE has seemingly decided to put Big Show and Mark Henry into a tag team. The duo demolished Curtis Axel and Ryback on Smackdown. The belief is that Show and Henry could be placed into a big tag team match on a pay per view against Luke Harper and Erick Rowan.
August 11, 2014
Rumors are floating around that WWE is going to be splitting up Curtis Axel and Ryback very soon. Since neither guy has a ton of momentum right now, it does not appear that the move is being done to give them a push. WWE views Axel as just a guy on the roster nowadays, and Ryback has been in the doghouse with management for quite some time now.
July 23, 2014
On Monday Night Raw this week, Xavier Woods, who is only used sporadically on television by WWE, made a surprising appearance after a tag team match featuring Curtis Axel, Ryback, Kofi Kingston and Big E Langston. He cut a quick promo about how Kingston and Langston cannot get very far in WWE by being nice guys. This is the start of the long rumored stable, which has already been compared to the Nation of Domination by fans online.
July 22, 2014
Some more names have been added to the upcoming WWE Intercontinental Championship battle royal. Big E, Curtis Axel, Dolph Ziggler, Rob Van Dam and Ryback are now in the match at WWE Battleground 2014. They join Kofi Kingston, Damien Sandow, Great Khali and Antonio Cesaro. As of right now, the company is favoring the idea of giving the title to Cesaro.
July 2, 2014
In a match that was slightly held in higher regards than a filler match, Goldust and Cody Rhodes, who worked under his Stardust gimmick again, defeated Curtis Axel, who was sporting a ridiculous looking singlet, and Ryback. The match was designed to highlight the Stardust character. Since there was a little bit of action after the match, there is a chance that WWE could be continuing this feud.
June 29, 2014
In a rather interesting move, Curtis Axel worked as a baby face during a live event in Pennsylvania over the weekend. It was during a match against Alexander Rusev, where Axel explained to the audience that while they may not like him, they have something in common because they all love America. Rumors have it that this was simply a one time thing because they needed someone to work against Rusev that evening. Axel is not expected to do a full face turn anytime soon.
June 16, 2014
In a match designed by WWE to accelerate the split between the brothers, Curtis Axel and Ryback defeated Cody Rhodes and Goldust in the second match of Payback 2014. Ryback picked up the pin fall victory for his team after delivering the Shell Shock to Rhodes. Afterwards, Rhodes told Goldust that he needs to find a better tag team partner for himself.
June 1, 2014
A rather interesting move took place on Monday Night Raw, as Sheamus captured the WWE United States Heavyweight Championship by winning a battle royal. The move was designed to take the belt off of Dean Ambrose, which would increase the friction between the Shield and Triple H. Final five guys in the ring were Ambrose, Sheamus, Jack Swagger, Curtis Axel and Ryback.
May 5, 2014
Earlier in the week, it was reported that Curtis Axel and Ryback would be receiving a shot at Jimmy Uso, Jey Uso and the WWE Tag Team Championship at Extreme Rules 2014, management has decided to put the match on the next episode of Monday Night Raw instead. A rematch at the pay per view is a possibility still.
April 27, 2014
As is usually the case with every pay per view, you can expect WWE to do last minute additions to the Extreme Rules 2014 match card. Jimmy Uso, Jey Uso, Curtis Axel and Ryback are expected to get the seventh match on the card. If WWE needs another filler match, then Emma, Santino Marella, Layla El and Fandango are the top candidates for that spot.
April 27, 2014
With the X-Men star making a return appearance next week, WWE has been hinting that Hugh Jackman is going to be knocking out one of the wrestlers. The company set up a poll to see which performer the fans wanted to see in the roll. Damien Sandow, JBL, Wade Barrett, Randy Orton, Batista, Ryback, Curtis Axel, Zeb Colter, Fandango and Jack Swagger were all included, but Triple H and Paul Heyman are currently in the lead.
April 25, 2014
While it has yet to be officially confirmed, you can expect to see Curtis Axel and Ryback challenging Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso for the WWE tag team championship at Extreme Rules 2014. The seeds for the match was placed when the former Paul Heyman duo attacked the Usos after they defeated Cody Rhodes and Goldust on Monday Night Raw last week.
April 25, 2014
Despite working a segment that is building towards a feud for the tag team championship, Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso were removed from the Hulu version of Monday Night Raw this week. The brother tandem defeated Cody Rhodes and Goldust before setting up their program with Curtis Axel and Ryback. WWE still intends to continue the story line.
April 23, 2014
For fans who take interest in the traveling schedules of professional wrestlers, it has been revealed that Heath Slater is now traveling with Curtis Axel in between live events. Many were under the assumption that Slater was traveling with Jinder Mahal and Drew McIntyre, while Axel was believed to have been on the road with Ryback.
April 23, 2014
Since he has managed to behave himself rather well since being put into the dog house, there are talks that Ryback could be on the receiving end of a push from WWE in the near future. There are rumors that he and Curtis Axel could be going their separate ways soon, and it looks like Ryback will be the beneficiary of that breakup. He should be moved back into the mid card scene by the summer.
April 22, 2014
A picture of Curtis Axel and NFL star Ben Roethlisberger backstage at Royal Rumble 2014. Many have noted the physical resemblance between the WWE star and the Pittsburgh Steelers starting quarterback.
April 18, 2014
A video of Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns working a handicap match against Alberto Del Rio, Alexander Rusev, Wade Barrett, Curtis Axel, Drew McIntyre, Fandango, Heath Slater, Jack Swagger, Jinder Mahal, Titus ONeil and Ryback on Monday Night Raw.
April 17, 2014
In an action filled Wrestlemania 30 kickoff match, Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso retained the WWE tag team championship by defeating Diego, Fernando, Curtis Axel, Ryback, Jack Swagger and Antonio Cesaro in a fatal four way elimination tag team bout. Afterwards, Cesaro did a face turn after Swagger attempted to attack him for being pinned.
April 6, 2014
Rumor has it that there are several people backstage in WWE that are disappointed with how Antonio Cesaro is being utilized at Wrestlemania 30. Instead of being given a big singles match on the pay per view, he is working a kickoff match with Jack Swagger. It also features Jimmy Usu, Jey Uso, Fernando, Diego, Ryback and Curtis Axel.
April 4, 2014