Finding projectiles downrange

[Flying_Salt]

Build a big bolt in the middle of your ammo, then get a cheep metal detecter, have it with your spotter who is standing down range in a suite of armer, then shoot spotter will hear it hit and know the genral area pin point it with the detecter, waaalaaaa. Now doesn't that sound easy?

and if you hear a CLANG! then you know you've hit your spotter.

[WOW!!]

why not tye some some fishin line to your ammo? I have done that before and it works good. But the alarm sounds good.

[sandman]

he would need 1000+ feet of fishing line, that would create alot of drag

[Recruit]

Build a big bolt in the middle of your ammo, then get a cheep metal detecter, have it with your spotter who is standing down range in a suite of armer, then shoot spotter will hear it hit and know the genral area pin point it with the detecter, waaalaaaa. Now doesn't that sound easy?

and if you hear a CLANG! then you know you've hit your spotter.

got point there Salt.

Kenny_McCormic has the best so far it seem cheap and easy to locate

What about my balloon idea who could miss a neon colored balloon (unless you are like color blind) floating in the air?

[sandman]

it would throw off the results
to float it would have to be filled with helium, thus making the projectile lighter

[joannaardway]

Kenny McCormic probably has got the best idea. Sound will be the best locator of this.

110 dB (or more if you want) is not quiet by any means - you'll hear that from a huge distance. That's what personal alarms are meant to do - alert everyone nearby.

I'd still recommend an accurate range prediction to cut down on searching even more.

[sandman]

math is your friend

[kablooie]

You could attach one of those super strong, super small rare earth magnets to your projectile, and, assuming you know the general location of impact, you could just pass a much larger bar magnet systematically over the area. If all goes well the projectile would stick to the larger magnet. I imagine this could be useful for areas with tall grass. A weed-wacker would work too.

[paaiyan]

Or you could paint it with glow in the dark paint and look for it at night.

Math prolly won't work sandman, it is your friend, but in this case useless. you'd have to know the precise muzzle velocity, weight, air resistance of the object, angle of fire. To many variables for a tater cannon.

[BIKER180360]

you could get some of that orange spray paint that they paint lines on grass with and that would make it more visible if you see the general direction that it goes in.

[frankrede]

Adding alot of these ideas make the ammo even more expensive and will add to the loss if you still lose it, or your mechanism fails.

[sjog]

Shoot over a large body of water and google it. That is what I do.
Get a good splash from a GB.I can see the splash at over 400 yds

[pyrogeek]

Maybe a projectile that shoots a bright tail or something up after landing?
http://i10.tinypic.com/2jc7wis.jpg
Shouldn't be too hard, and should be pretty easy to see. I'm not sure how much this would cost to make though, since I don't use iron fittings over 1/4inch very often.

[paaiyan]

Well, that's a very expensive piece of ammo. Not to mention heavy. And it's not guaranteed to land on that tip so the nail may not pierce the 12-gram.

[pyrogeek]

If you make the end heavier than the part with the 12 gram, it will land right. Or, since we know that toast always lands butter side down...just put a piece of buttered toast on the end, butter side out.
And if you find it, it will only cost maybe $.50 a shot, or less depending on how much you buy your CO2 cartridges for. To build it, we are only really talking about a couple end caps, a nipple, a bushing and a peice of pipe less than 4 inches long. Unless you get raped on fittings, I couldn't imagine it costing over $5 to build, and there isn't any machining to do except drilling a hole in one end cap.
You know what, I'm going to build one of these to fire out of my big cannon. To heck with what any of you say, I'm going to try it.