>>My shaky understanding is that if you managed to fire a bullet straight up into the air, then yes, the energy from the gunshot would bleed off and the bullet would come down at terminal velocity. But if the gun fires the bullet at an angle (almost certain) then the bullet will be coming in like a mortar round...or a bullet.<<
Only at a very low angle. Assuming people shoot almost straight up it is close enough to “straight” to start to lose energy at apogee.
Too bad Mythbusters closed shop — it would be a great one to test at different angles.
I suppose it could be modeled if my physics was better.
Prayers for the kid. Nothing like a little physics on the 4th!
Mythbusters did cover this. Here's a brief summary: link
“Too bad Mythbusters closed shop — it would be a great one to test at different angles”
They did that one. They were on a dry lake bed where they could find the fallen bullets. IIRC the ones found weren’t even deformed from impact. Don’t recall them doing different angles though, that would make bullets nearly impossible to recover