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View Full Version : When shot at with a 50 cal rifle

STLantny
10-13-2005, 11:48 PM
Be 3-5 feet under water. You will not get hurt....it was just on mythbusters. Appearently, being 3 feet or more underwater, you are safe, even from armor piercing rounds.
juanez
10-13-2005, 11:49 PM
Hmmmm...good to know.
TheBlueMonster
10-13-2005, 11:50 PM
which is why all those movies (like Saving Private Ryan) where people get shot under water are not realistic.
But they're still pretty cool.
STLantny
10-13-2005, 11:52 PM
Ya, this fact really blew my mind, after seeing all those movies...you see this huge gun not do [censored] when it hits 2 feet of water.....it was a def wtf moment
Blarg
10-13-2005, 11:52 PM
This is kind of amazing and cool.
dblgutshot
10-13-2005, 11:53 PM
Now to invent my 3-5ft thick water shield.
Freakin
10-13-2005, 11:56 PM
There's a reason why cops use big tanks of water to fire bullets into. Didn't anyone besides me go on a tour of a police station when they were a kid?
mmbt0ne
10-13-2005, 11:58 PM
I'm racking my brain, trying to think about how you can shoot into a tank of water without shooting down. That doesn't seem like it would be too important to a cop.
STLantny
10-14-2005, 12:00 AM
[ QUOTE ]
I'm racking my brain, trying to think about how you can shoot into a tank of water without shooting down. That doesn't seem like it would be too important to a cop.

[/ QUOTE ]

aye actually, i guess i just never thought of it, but ballistic tests are done in tanks of water....
Freakin
10-14-2005, 12:01 AM
[ QUOTE ]
I'm racking my brain, trying to think about how you can shoot into a tank of water without shooting down. That doesn't seem like it would be too important to a cop.

[/ QUOTE ]

The tanks I've seen are basically long metal troughs. They fire at a shallow angle, just like Mythbusters did.

Freakin
Blarg
10-14-2005, 12:02 AM
This is very important if you are defending yourself against a basketball court full of five-year-olds.
whiskeytown
10-14-2005, 12:13 AM
Interesting...

I was told in Hunter's Safety that unless you were firing straight down, you ran a much higher risk of bullet richocet off the water - of course, that's not a .50 cal bullet we fire when hunting - most of the time - LOL

RB
TheBlueMonster
10-14-2005, 12:15 AM
[ QUOTE ]
of course, that's not a .50 cal bullet we fire when hunting - most of the time

[/ QUOTE ]
unless you're shooting a t-rex.
Peter666
10-14-2005, 12:22 AM
But if the gun is underwater and shooting at you, you will have to be much further away not to get killed or injured.
STLantny
10-14-2005, 12:24 AM
[ QUOTE ]
But if the gun is underwater and shooting at you, you will have to be much further away not to get killed or injured.

[/ QUOTE ]


Why? Because you arent breaking the surface of the water? Or is it the angle?
Blarg
10-14-2005, 12:25 AM
It's hard to picture the surface tension of water being high enough to cause a ricochet.

I mean, how far does a bullet have to go to be completely underwater? Could the tension of the water against the bullet, once it got a foot under or something, be so high that it caused the bullet to bounce back out of the water, yet the water tension on the way out be so low as to not take the rest of the energy out of the bullet? Hmm, guess there's nothing theoretically impossible about that. I wonder how often that ever really happens. Of course, even having a bullet bounce back into your head once is one time too many.
Dynasty
10-14-2005, 12:28 AM
[ QUOTE ]
which is why all those movies (like Saving Private Ryan) where people get shot under water are not realistic.


[/ QUOTE ]

Well, The Incredibles got it right. Violet was shot at underwater and didn't get hurt.
Peter666
10-14-2005, 12:30 AM
I believe it is the equalized pressure underwater. It allows the gun to shoot. You can actually shoot a gun underwater as long as the whole thing is under. But if you shoot from the surface and just stick the barrel in, it will explode.

I've seen guys shoot handguns underwater in a swimming pool. you ought to be a good 12-15 feet away not to get injured from the bullet. I would like to see what the 50 cal would do underwater. And the sound waves coming from that would be absolutely mind boggling.
lucas9000
10-14-2005, 01:16 AM
[ QUOTE ]
Be 3-5 feet under water. You will not get hurt....it was just on mythbusters. Appearently, being 3 feet or more underwater, you are safe, even from armor piercing rounds.

[/ QUOTE ]

they fired it at a precise angle to the surface of the water though.
whiskeytown
10-14-2005, 01:30 AM
this feels like a Darwin Award waiting to happen - and I make it worse cause I have a .44 - LOL

RB
smb394
10-14-2005, 07:35 AM
The key point that they made was that you are only safe if you are at an angle from the shooter. However, if you are straight down, it will take far less than a 50 cal rifle for the bullet to retain its velocity.
SCfuji
10-14-2005, 08:05 AM
is this really true? id hate to do an experiment to uh... prove the hypothesis true/false. anybody have a link?
BottlesOf
10-14-2005, 09:35 AM
[ QUOTE ]
Didn't anyone besides me go on a tour of a police station when they were a kid?

[/ QUOTE ]

Ummm.....no.
BottlesOf
10-14-2005, 09:37 AM
This doesn't seem to be an issue. If you are in the water, the shooter is not going to be directly above you unless he is hanging out of a helicopter hovering above you.

http://www.jason.org/expeditions/jason6/images/argo/11mar_tom_zannes_2.gif
samjjones
10-14-2005, 09:40 AM
THIS is a good post. Well done.