This is a show on the Discovery channel where they attempt to prove or disprove various myths, urban legends and "old wives tales".

On last nights episode one of the projects was to examine the cartoon image of someone sticking their finger in the end of a gun barrel; causing the barrel to split like a bananna peel, leaving the finger poker unharmed and the shooter covered in smut.

They used a pump shotgun, it appeared to be a Remington 870 but I couldn't be sure. They rigged the gun to be remotely fired.

1. Ballistic gel "finger", no damage to gun

2. Ballistic wax finger, slight bulge about an inch from the muzzle.

3. Plugged the barrel by shoving it 6-8" in mud, small split 1-2" back from muzzle, blew off vent rib.

4. Welded steel plug in end of barrel, blew plug out, no further damage to gun.

In all the tests they had a ballistic gel "shooter" positioned behind the shotgun. In none of the tests did the dummy get hit by shrapnel or gas.

They followed the shotgun test with a Carcano rifle. They drove a bullet into the muzzle with a hammer and then fired it. Small split in the muzzle and no damage to the shooter.

Moral of the story.....maybe none. It was interesting to see someone actually trying to blow up a gun though.

I will point out, as they did on the show, DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME KIDS.

I saw that, it was interesting to how strong the guns were. I was surprised the welded steel plug didn't do more damage. Good to know that if something were to go wrong, the gun will take a bulk of the damage rather than the shooter.

__________________

I have found that show to be pretty interesting! Who would have thought that running your truck with the tailgate UP would be better than down? Plus: they blow stuff up!

__________________
~ Mike
Various handguns, rifles, shotguns, and archery equipment
Delta 2-in-1 Nailer/Stapler
1953 Dodge M-37 Powerwagon

As i understand the show (and I do watch it), they will try to force the myth to happen if at all possible when it doesn't happen according to the ledgend....blowing up the cement truck was pretty cool.

Will have to wrte in (email in) as I think the myth is a pretty old one. Given a thin walled damascus or laminate steel 12ga. barrel, might have gotten that blown off muzzle.

They also showed that swimming just two feet below the surface of water makes you bulletproof! At least with up to a .30-06....I didn't see what happened with the .50 BMG!

The .50 fragmented, just like the others.

Been a lot of goverment work on this...do a search under super cavitation.

Are ways to get hig vel. bullets to penetrate water well (and some very spooky stuff about missles and torpedos).

I wonder what the effect of having a true squib lodged in the barrel would be as opposed to just hammering a bullet into the muzzle, I would think a few inches from the chamber would be more detrimental than one at the muzzle because of the higher pressure, maybe it wouldn't make a difference, but who knows

__________________
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

Not because of who I am, but because of what HE's done, not because of what I've done, but because of who HE is. -Casting Crowns

Mythbusters is a sweet show i watch it all the time ,

they had one show where they shot the gas tank on a car , myth was the car would blow up. but car didnt.

""Been a lot of goverment work on this...do a search under super cavitation."

Also do a search under 'hydroballistics'. The Navy is developing a gun/projectile to detonate submerged mines.

Could have seen this disproved by the show Cops too where a brilliant nasa scientist in the making was trying to preserve evidence, as if the video tape and dozenes of witnesses weren't enough, he picked up a pump shotgun with his index finger in the bore a pen through the trigger guard. Worked fine until he attempted to carry it muzzle down and blew his own hand apart.

The welded steel plug likely blew out because I'll bet they didn't heat treat the barrel following the welding which means it crystallized on cooling making the weld extremely weak.

__________________
"Carry the battle to them. Don't let them bring it to you. Put them on the defensive and don't ever apologize for anything." ~ Harry S. Truman

Liberty is only assured as long government fears the people!