Bullet ricksha

Question
How far can a 9mm 124gr bullet travel if fired from a 4" Barrel handgun. At approximately 1200fps

Answer
Bill,

The average 9mm jacketed round in 124 gr. will only be traveling at around 1120 fps on average.  Some might be a little faster or slower depending on the manufacturer.  At 1120 fps, the average 9mm bullet will travel about 2400 yards before impacting the ground.  At impact, the bullet will be traveling around 350 fps.  Hollow points can reduce the distance traveled by as much as 10%.  If it is actually doing 1200 fps, you can probably bump the max distance to around 2550 yards.

In reality, it would never travel this far as it would hit something first.  We are talking about 1.3 to 1.4 miles of travel here.  That's one of the reasons that from a safety perspective, you want to insure that you are firing into a safe backstop.

If you are interested in the math behind this, you can actually calculate this value for any round.  The formula looks like this:

Muzzle Velocity times Ballistic Coefficient equals Max Range  (MV*BC=MR)  

Ballistic Coefficient is a pretty complex calculation that deals with a lot of bullet factors, including diameter, bullet weight, length, drag coefficient, etc.  You'll need to visit the ammunition manufacturer's website to get the BC for most ammo.  It is a lot easier than calculating it...

Hope this helps you out...

Doug