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We've all seen the cool ads for Navy Seals where they come from the ocean,
or a jungle river, with their M4's all ready to go.

If a gun has been completely submerged in water, will it fire successfully without
looking like one of the blown-up cartoon rifles, all splayed out at the end of the barrel?

The scenario in which I would want to know what happens is this:

You encounter a bad guy at the side of the road, he starts wrestling with you before you can
effect the draw of the weapon. You both fall down into a deep puddle in the bar ditch and your gun
is completely under water.

If you then are able to draw, can you fire your weapon successfully?

My gut tells me yes, but I'm not sure any followup rounds would cycle properly from a semi-auto.
Revolvers would probably fire all rounds without a problem.

SIA

Providing the barrel isn't clogged with mud, water, sticks, grass, etc., and the action is clear as well the gun should work. Those are special guns the SEALS use as dive guns with specially waterproofed ammunition.

This is actually a test that both the Glocks and the Springfield XD's are put through.

Full submersion (in mud & sand, as well as water), pulled out, and fired, multiple times.

As long as the chamber is not Open when it is submerged, or it is not fired Under water... it should be fine.

I'm pretty confident that I could put my 1911 under water, take it out, and fire.
It would sure need a cleaning afterward though!!!

surprise_i'm_armed wrote:If a gun has been completely submerged in water, will it fire successfully without
looking like one of the blown-up cartoon rifles, all splayed out at the end of the barrel?

I went swimming with a stainless snub in a SmartCarry. It was pretty near due for a full clean and relube anyway. Being in a state park, I couldn't really test it right after coming out of the water, but I found no problems after about an hour in the lake water, a shower, and another four hours before getting home to clean it. The only "extra" thing I did was to unload and shake out as much water as possible in the shower stall before reloading and wrapping it in a towel for the trip back to camp.

Then again, any significant amount of water isn't going to stay in a 2" revolver barrel, or any of the chambers very easily. The SmartCarry and swim trunks would have strained most of the twigs, moss and sand out of the water getting to the gun.

Seems to me that I also saw on some show on the History channel a new rifle, for the military, that they demonstrated this with. They burried it in a few inches of sand for a while and then plucked it out and fired it on full auto. They also did the same with it in a bucket of water. Just plucked it out, gave it one shake, and let 'er rip.

Gentlemen:

Thanks for all your responses. I had seen a video of an AK that fired well
after being submerged. Nice to know that handguns can also fire after being
submerged.

SIA

C-dub wrote:Seems to me that I also saw on some show on the History channel a new rifle, for the military, that they demonstrated this with. They burried it in a few inches of sand for a while and then plucked it out and fired it on full auto. They also did the same with it in a bucket of water. Just plucked it out, gave it one shake, and let 'er rip.

That was the HK 416 IIRC.

In theory, it should fire underwater just fine. If you scuba dive, you know it takes 33 feet of water to increase pressure by 1 atm. So you got 35,000 psi behind the typical 9mm, adding another 15psi in front of it isn't going to change much. Drag on the bullet once it leaves the muzzle is going to be much greater though due to the density of water vs. air.

Don't just try to shoot underwater or with a freshly submerged gun without it being one that was designed for such use, reasons why are in this vid. WARNING- some comments on youtube may not be deemed appropriate for children.

HK-416 vs. Colt: Colt blows up
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGwkHktkTxU

G....Glllaaaw.... Ballistic tuperware shooting underwater seems to be okay:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ectL29w_9l8

LWRC:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMZX5WO1uSk

I have a Browning BDM 9mm that was submerged during a building fire that works fine to this day. The grip wants to always rust some, but the gun works flawlessly.

KD5NRH wrote:The SmartCarry and swim trunks would have strained most of the twigs, moss and sand out of the water getting to the gun.

Good gravy!! What on earth are you swimming in? A jungle swamp? If I can get any twigs and moss all up in my shorts an' stuff, I ain't a goin' swimming in there. I'm not havin' it.

The Annoyed Man wrote:

KD5NRH wrote:The SmartCarry and swim trunks would have strained most of the twigs, moss and sand out of the water getting to the gun.

Good gravy!! What on earth are you swimming in? A jungle swamp? If I can get any twigs and moss all up in my shorts an' stuff, I ain't a goin' swimming in there. I'm not havin' it.

Lake Meridian. Yet another case of a Texas lake where they just built a dam without clearing anything.

aggie_engr:
Thanks for the awesome videos.
Did you notice the German only wore shooting glasses for the HK test, but
he put on a really heavy duty helmet since he expected the Colt to blow up?

$4500 for an HK416 - pricey.

Also, I believe the HK video had a typo in the final frame:
"Leading trough technology " probably is supposed to be "Leading
THROUGH technology."

Then again - they were testing the weapons in something approaching
a trough!

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KD5NRH:
That's one thing I've never liked about a lot of Texas lakes - old tree stumps
sticking up, ready to tear your propeller off if they are below the water level.
Supposedly all these old stumps were left because the fish like to hide in them.
Whatever.

SIA

On Guns and Ammo TV, they had a series of torture tests, they fired a 1911 in a swimming pool in one episode.