5 Ridiculous Gun Myths (thanks to the movies)

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  • Kilroy

    Ultimate Member
    Jul 27, 2011
    3,069
    The one I hate is when a bad guy takes a hostage and is behind them with a gun to their head. This stops the good guys cold. If I was 15 feet away from a hostage taker, I'd put one between his eyes. Hell, I'm pretty confident I could do a head shot at 15 yards. Highly trained spec-ops movie guys can't though?
     

    smores

    Creepy-Ass Cracker
    Feb 27, 2007
    13,493
    Falls Church
    Actually bullets don't travel more than 3-5 feet under water. Also you in hollywood you can shoot someone in the knees with double barrel shotguns and take out everything but the bone(once apon a time in Mexico). Also pistols have unlimited max effective ranges and grenades are light as a featuer and make explosions the size of air dropped ordinance. For one, you are not throwing a grenade further than 50 yards and thats if you are a freaking pitcher who can zing soft balls out at 120 mph. And two, if they made an explosion as big as they do in the movies it would be impossible to throw one far enough away to not kill yourself. And to be fair, on the military grade vests they are tested at the distance that the bullet they are attmpting to stop reaches it's maximum velocity. Incase you didn't know that's not point blank range.

    Yeah that always got me. I have only seen a few live grenades go off, but I remember a little black cloud and seeing a small shockwave of dust/debris as the shrapnel spread out. No flames at all. Now a Claymore, had a little bit of fire but MUCH more damage of course.

    Also, grenade launchers in movies do the same thing and explode on impact. Now I'm not an expert and have limited experience with 40mm grenades but I thought they had some kind of timer on them... and if you happened to shoot the wall in front of you the timers don't get activated until they travel a certain distance... so shooting a door from 10 ft away doesn't result in a fiery explosion leaving a 20-foot hole to walk through, right?
     

    jrumann59

    DILLIGAF
    MDS Supporter
    Feb 17, 2011
    14,024
    Grneade launchers do use a timed fuse like mortars do, it isn't long, just long enough that you don't frag yourself if you shoot at something too close.
     

    Huckleberry

    No One of Consequence
    MDS Supporter
    Oct 19, 2007
    23,313
    Severn & Lewes
    Grneade launchers do use a timed fuse like mortars do, it isn't long, just long enough that you don't frag yourself if you shoot at something too close.

    M79/M203's 40mm arm from rotational spin and centrifugal force on the internal firing pin for the charge.

    Needs about 8' of flight for an round to arm.

    Got to qual on M79 Blooper before they were phased out entirely for the 203.
     

    the Javid

    Part time baby killer
    Mar 20, 2012
    199
    Bowie
    I had an M203 attached to my M-4 which was always in my turret while I was an uparmored humvee gunner.
     

    Nubz

    Yankee Trash
    Mar 16, 2012
    181
    according to cracked.com bullets are made of copper not lead like we believed for years and years LOL
     

    mikec

    Ultimate Member
    Dec 1, 2007
    11,453
    Off I-83
    according to cracked.com bullets are made of copper not lead like we believed for years and years LOL

    Talk to Barnes. They make 100% copper bullets. There are a few companies using them for self defense loads. Cor-Bon, Stan Chen's ASYM brand and Wilson Combat are several. Expensive but good bullets.
     

    beafly.cakes

    Active Member
    Actually bullets don't travel more than 3-5 feet under water. Also you in hollywood you can shoot someone in the knees with double barrel shotguns and take out everything but the bone(once apon a time in Mexico). Also pistols have unlimited max effective ranges and grenades are light as a featuer and make explosions the size of air dropped ordinance. For one, you are not throwing a grenade further than 50 yards and thats if you are a freaking pitcher who can zing soft balls out at 120 mph. And two, if they made an explosion as big as they do in the movies it would be impossible to throw one far enough away to not kill yourself. And to be fair, on the military grade vests they are tested at the distance that the bullet they are attmpting to stop reaches it's maximum velocity. Incase you didn't know that's not point blank range.

    Ok, you lost me on the last one... You're saying that bullets speed up down-range? Or is that the hollywood myth?

    Granted it's been 10 years since I took a college physics class, but I'm pretty sure bullets exiting the barrel of a firearm are at maximum velocity and can only slow down due to friction with the medium they are traveling through.
     

    the Javid

    Part time baby killer
    Mar 20, 2012
    199
    Bowie
    Which sounds like it would have more friction a bullet gringing it's way down a steel tube that is slightly smaller than the bullet or a bullet traveling throught air? It does start to decrease in speed obviously but if I remember correctly my friend said a 30-06 starts to slow down after either 15 feet or 15 meters.
     

    beafly.cakes

    Active Member
    You're of course correct that friction on the bullet is higher in the barrel than while traveling through air.

    While the bullet is in the barrel, it's being pushed by expanding gasses. This force is much larger than friction from the barrel. Thus the round is accelerating the entire time it is in the barrel.

    Once it exits the barrel it is no longer being pushed by the expanding gasses it stops accelerating. Thus, it is at it's maximum velocity when it exits the barrell or at point blank range.

    Then it is only being acted upon by the friction of the air it is traveling through and imediately starts to slow down.

    It slows down the fastest early in it's flight path because it's velocity is the highest (friction = coeficient of friction * velocity^2). Until it starts to tumble I assume, which would change it's coefficient of friction and may have a dramatic effect on it I dont' know, or it reaches it's terminal velocity.

    This is obviously pretty simple analysis, and we're negating a number of variables (wind, gravity, pressure, etc.)
     

    the Javid

    Part time baby killer
    Mar 20, 2012
    199
    Bowie
    Look I'm not the expert but this guy does all these tests at APG for the military he is able to explain it a lot better that me and he's like a god damn encyclopedia for firearms. He does it for a living. Unless you can boast the same claim, I'm gonna go with what he said.
     

    bbrown

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Oct 10, 2009
    3,032
    MD
    For a subsonic bullet, when the bullet exits the barrel it's still being pushed by the hot expanding gas exiting the barrel right behind it. At some point, after exiting the barrel, the acceleration from the expanding gas behind the bullet becomes smaller than the deceleration caused by the friction of the air in front of the bullet. So I would expect that the maximum velocity would be achieved somewhere in front of the barrel.

    The formation of a shock front from a supersonic bullet as it exits the barrel affects the above analysis, but in what way(s) I don't know.

    Bryan
     

    Fishguy

    Ultimate Member
    Jun 30, 2009
    5,080
    Montgomery County
    The one I hate is when a bad guy takes a hostage and is behind them with a gun to their head. This stops the good guys cold. If I was 15 feet away from a hostage taker, I'd put one between his eyes. Hell, I'm pretty confident I could do a head shot at 15 yards. Highly trained spec-ops movie guys can't though?

    Furthermore, the bad guy with the hostage always says "drop your gun or the hostage dies" when the good guy has the BG and hostage covered. The good guy always drops his gun. Why?

    I'm not a cop, but it seems if you were in that position, dropping your gun would be the last thing you want to do. If you drop your gun, what is keeping the bad guy from killing the hostage and the good guy? If you keep your gun trained on the bad guy, then the hostage is the only thing keeping him alive, so he is not going to shoot the hostage as that would mean sudden death for the BG, no?
     

    Fishguy

    Ultimate Member
    Jun 30, 2009
    5,080
    Montgomery County
    Myth #8 (or 7 I forgot what myth we are on now)

    Thanks to movies, tv shows and the nightly news, most folks use the term "point blank range" to describe a target right at the end of the muzzle of a gun.
     

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