On right now on the discovery channel.

They just fired a 147gr 9mm into a tank and had a block of ballistics gel under 8 feet of water and it didn't penetrate.
The 12 ga 3" slug's pressure shock shattered the tank and made a nice exit wound in the gel.

They moved to a swimming pool and tried a bmg .50 :0
Once they starting firing at the water at an angle (25 degrees or so), the high velocity rounds started breaking apart within a couple feet, so it looks like the stuff in the movies is pretty realistic.
I still wouldn't want to be in the pool when the .50 round hit. That would sound kinda... um.. loud ;)

I wanted to see that episode, guess I will have to catch it in reruns or wait till the next marathon

I wanted to see that episode, guess I will have to catch it in reruns or wait till the next marathon

been a lot of work done on supercavitaion in the last years...actually, the Russians had a torpedo that used supercavitation some time back (and it scared the devil out of us). Now have in service bullets that form this supercaivtaion...use it mostly for helicopeters to destry submrerged mines.

Going to change the link...
http://www.diodon349.com/Kursk-Memorial/Warpdrive_underwater.htm

Certainly won't try to dodge ALL bullets by hiding under a few feet or water....but for anything in civilian hands, it should protect you pretty well.


Did notice on the TV program that the big slow muzzle loader was kind of set aside early...and unlike the vertical tests, they didn't trot out the 12ga. for the pool tests.

Keith wrote about shooting sharks with the .44 and watching others try with high powered rifles. He belived the bullets were just bouncing off...he could have been wrong, those bullets may have been fragmenting. In any event, even in the TV tests, the big dumb lead bullet at slow speeds seemed to do the job better.

Yeah I saw that episode as well. I was pretty shocked to see water as such an effective shield against the rounds...evn the .50-BMG!!!

Although I've been wondering...have any of you seen the scene in Lethal Weapon 4 when Mel Gibson's character takes a completely submerged AK-47 underwater and fires several automatic rounds into the bad guy? It also seems that the AK was down in the water for a *very* long time (years)...

Is the above situation possible?

Also, does it make a difference if a firearm is fired from above water into water or if a firearm is fired completely submerged without the round passing through air??

Thanks guys!

God bless,
Joshua Smith

The HK P11 (http://www.hkpro.com/peleven.htm) pistol is a 5 barreled pistol designed to be fired underwater. It uses sealed chambers and barrels, similar to the old Pepperbox pistols except the FP rotates, not the barrels, and it fires the 7.62 x 36mm dart and has an affective range of about 30 meters above water, 10-15 meters under water. Reloading is a bit slow since the barrel/chamber block has to be sent back to HK for reloading (unless the shooter has a replacement barrel block he can replace himself).

Did you notice in the show they used standard FMJ ammo which IS designed to fragment at normal velocity, not the AP stuff they said they were using. The .50 BMG round was for certain NOT AP even though that is what they said it was (it was M33 ball, 647 gr although they said it was 600 gr.). If it (or the 5.56 ort 30-06) had been a steel core AP round I think you would have seen at least the steel core penetrate the gel.

One thing the show did prove is what most of us have known all along, big and slow trumps small and fast when it comes to deep penetration in most instances.

If the 50 cal was military ammo and armor piercing, the bullets should have had a black tip.

If the 50 cal was military ammo and armor piercing, the bullets should have had a black tip.

Correct, and they didn't. There was no marking on the bullet tip at all, and if they were milsurp like they indicated that would mean more than likely M33 ball.

I read a book years ago about the UDT guys in WWII.....I think it was in the Pacific....they were swimming back out under MG fire and they would grab the bullets in their hands in flight as souvenirs as they went through the water....Don't know how deep they were, but I dont' think it was very deep at all...

I read a book years ago about the UDT guys in WWII.....I think it was in the Pacific....they were swimming back out under MG fire and they would grab the bullets in their hands in flight as souvenirs as they went through the water....Don't know how deep they were, but I dont' think it was very deep at all...

Frank,
Can you remember the name of the book by any chance? I enjoy ready history and the UDT guys from WWII had some great tales.
Thanks,
Russ

Frank,
Can you remember the name of the book by any chance? I enjoy ready history and the UDT guys from WWII had some great tales.
Thanks,
Russ

No, sorry...wish I could....it was probably 20 years ago that I read it....I remembered reading it while watching "Saving Private Ryan" with all those guys getting shot 8 or 10 feet underwater.

Well you know most bullet recovery done in labs is done in a barrel of water. It really didn't surprise me very much. I was more troubles by the lock busting tests they did. The point of impact was way too close.