Mythbusters follow-up show

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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....
 
Dang, I fell asleep before they did the underwater shooting. I wanted to see that.
 
Did they purge all the water from the barrels first, or fire rounds with air in the barrels?

Thanks for the report, sorry I missed the episode.
 
They filled the barrels with water. The shotgun w/deer slug kinda blew up the gun, but the rest (SIG 9mm, .357, M1 Garand) did fine.

The results are fascinating, but not supprising if you've seen those videos/pictures of guys shooting 1 gallon water jugs with hollow points.
 
Believe it or not, the first instance I recall seeing on underwater shooting was on the old Lloyd Bridges TV show "Sea Hunt". He was shooting a revolver underwater at a typical pistol-type target from a range of a few feet.

That would have been in the late 50s or very early 60s.
 
Planterz said:
They filled the barrels with water. The shotgun w/deer slug kinda blew up the gun, but the rest (SIG 9mm, .357, M1 Garand) did fine.

The results are fascinating, but not supprising if you've seen those videos/pictures of guys shooting 1 gallon water jugs with hollow points.

Thanks for the answers. I guess the larger cross section of the shotgun slug combined with the relatively thinner walls of the barrel (compared to a rifle) doomed the shotgun. I bet they might have seen a few bulged barrels if they left them full of air before firing.
 
mwerner said:
Believe it or not, the first instance I recall seeing on underwater shooting was on the old Lloyd Bridges TV show "Sea Hunt". He was shooting a revolver underwater at a typical pistol-type target from a range of a few feet.

That would have been in the late 50s or very early 60s.

I've seen stills of that show, but never the show itself. Wonder how shooting underwater is on the hearing if your ears are under water, too.
 
That's what I've always wondered. Like when there's explosions, or those spearguns with shotgun shells in the tip or whatnot. I'm guessing that either the water slows the explosion so the "boom" is muffled or lessened, or it'll make your eardrums explode and your ears bleed. I mean, the "bang" is rapidly expanding gas and air, so if there's less expansion, there's less sound. But sound travels through water several times faster than in air so it's louder.
 
"Mike Nelson" always wore a full neoprene diving suit, with hood, so he probably didn't have any problem.
The various underwater-warrior types, frogmen, SEALs, UDT guys...I imagine they must use some sort of ear protection.
 
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