Last night the boys had a show that followed up viewer questions and complaints about some of their previous eps.
One was in regard to the "splitting an arrow" segment, where they reproduced a "period" arrow such as might have been used by the legendary Mr. Hood, and tried to split that.
Didn't have much luck, though they finally got a pro archer to split one about 1/3 the way down.
They noticed that the arrows oscillated back and forth in flight, and thought that was why they were not getting a clean split. Surprised they didn't find an authority that could have told them this. It's pretty common knowledge that arrows come off the bow oscillating back and forth, and only gradually stabilize in flight. It's long been observed that arrows fired at long range tend to penetrate game more deeply than at close range, due to this very fact.
Also the rationale behind the arrow's "spine" qualities.
Going back to the firing guns into water episode, they got viewer mail wondering about firing weapons IN water.
They set up a test tank and some ballistic gel to see what would happen.
I had seen some stuff on this many years ago; the NRA did some tests with a Springfield rifle.
They fired a Glock 9mm with FMJ bullets first. The bullet stopped totally in less than six feet of water, but penetrated 4" of ballistic gel 2 feet from the muzzle. The weapon fired reliably, but would not feed properly; the cases would stovepipe.
A .357 mag. revolver did even better, penetrating 5" of gel at 2 feet from the muzzle. Again, they used an FMJ bullet. Dunno if soft-points would break up from the water pressure.
The M1 Garand fired reliably as well, but did not reach the ballistic gel at 6 feet. Again, good penetration close up.
Finally, they tried a 12-guage shotgun, which blew up. Rather badly, too.
Interesting. If you plan to haul along your Glock while scuba diving, better wait till that shark gets real close....
One was in regard to the "splitting an arrow" segment, where they reproduced a "period" arrow such as might have been used by the legendary Mr. Hood, and tried to split that.
Didn't have much luck, though they finally got a pro archer to split one about 1/3 the way down.
They noticed that the arrows oscillated back and forth in flight, and thought that was why they were not getting a clean split. Surprised they didn't find an authority that could have told them this. It's pretty common knowledge that arrows come off the bow oscillating back and forth, and only gradually stabilize in flight. It's long been observed that arrows fired at long range tend to penetrate game more deeply than at close range, due to this very fact.
Also the rationale behind the arrow's "spine" qualities.
Going back to the firing guns into water episode, they got viewer mail wondering about firing weapons IN water.
They set up a test tank and some ballistic gel to see what would happen.
I had seen some stuff on this many years ago; the NRA did some tests with a Springfield rifle.
They fired a Glock 9mm with FMJ bullets first. The bullet stopped totally in less than six feet of water, but penetrated 4" of ballistic gel 2 feet from the muzzle. The weapon fired reliably, but would not feed properly; the cases would stovepipe.
A .357 mag. revolver did even better, penetrating 5" of gel at 2 feet from the muzzle. Again, they used an FMJ bullet. Dunno if soft-points would break up from the water pressure.
The M1 Garand fired reliably as well, but did not reach the ballistic gel at 6 feet. Again, good penetration close up.
Finally, they tried a 12-guage shotgun, which blew up. Rather badly, too.
Interesting. If you plan to haul along your Glock while scuba diving, better wait till that shark gets real close....