water shots and effectiveness

[charlie]

Mythbusters tested bullet effectiveness when fired inrto water. The 9 mm pistol penetrated gel 6ft under pretty effectively. I'm sure it was a jacketed round. I don't think a hollowpoint would be as lethel after a few feet. The 6 ft of water must not have slowed it down too much as it penetrated pretty far into the gel.

A rifle round shattered the glass wall of the tank.

Apparrently, you have to be deeper than the movies would have you believe to avoid harm.

[Tactical_Texan_CHL]

I saw that. It's actually a fairly old episode. The testing they did with the weapons directly perpendicular to the water were fairly unrealistic, so they re-designed the tests for the bullets to impact the water at a more realistic shooting angle. If I remember correctly most of the bullets fragmented severely, even the .50 they used. But, Like you said, the handgun rounds did ok, even the shotgun slug did pretty well.

That being said... I love Mythbusters. They probably have one of the coolest jobs ever. But, I think it's more entertainment value than a true representation of a good ballistic test. Just my opinion though.

I'm pretty sure it was the shotgun slug that shattered the wall of the tank, and they almost killed themselves with that one!

[Keith B]

You will find supersonic lightweight loads are the ones that do worse in water than sub-sonic heavier slugs. As a kid, I used to shoot a lot of .22LR into the pond at an overpopulation of turtles that would eat the fish. I can tell you a turtle a few inches under is not going to get taken out due to the water slowing the bullet down tremendously, but a shotgun slug will do the job even under a foot or so.

[Tactical_Texan_CHL]

We used to shoot turtles too! That was alot of fun. Boy, the EPA would sure have a fit about that one!

[KBCraig]

In a recent episode about shooting propane tanks, Kari (who already sets my heart aflutter) displayed some mighty fine shooting. It's hard to judge distances on TV, but shooting a pistol from a rest, from at least 20 yards, she put two rounds dead center horizontally, no more than an inch apart.

They're all cool with guns (as geeks tend to be), but she seems to be the most proficient.

[WildBill]

I used to shoot a lot at an overpopulation of turtles.

Overpopulation of turtles? According to who? You or the turtles?

[Keith B]

I used to shoot a lot at an overpopulation of turtles.

Overpopulation of turtles? According to who? You or the turtles?

According to our catfish which were getting eaten.

[jimlongley]

My first experience with bouncing a projectile off water, beyond skipping stones that is, was firing at a snapping turtle that had been "terrorizing" our little section of the creek.

I missed it but when I canoed over to that bank of the creek to make sure I found that my bullet had hit the bank about two inches above the water level. I was initially mystified because I was sure my shot had caused a splash.

A reconstruction seems to be that I hit the water immediately adjacent to its neck and the bullet skipped up and hit the bank where I found it.

Years later I was firing five inch guns at floating targets at a range in excess of 5000 yards, and scored six hits for five shots. The reason? I skipped a sixty pound five inch projectile off the water and managed to get two splashes within the hit scoring area.

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Also while in the Navy we used to shoot at sharks and other such things in the water near the ship and we knew that we couldn't score hits with the .30 caliber guns (BAR, Garand) on them if they were more than a few inches below the surface, but we could hit them with the Thompson and M1 Carbine, at deeper depths. Strictly empirical, nothing scientific, but we were pretty sure that a couple of feet of water would protect us to some extent.

[9mmGuy]

I'm pretty sure it was the shotgun slug that shattered the wall of the tank, and they almost killed themselves with that one!

they have gotten a lot more strict on safety as the seasons pass. i have all the firearms related episodes on DVR. i liked the James Bond one they did with the propane tank and the bullet deflecting magnet watch, very nice 1911 used in that clip!!