best rifle for the moon

I don't think a pre existing oxide layer would disappear just because it's in the vacuum of outer space and the powder gasses would probably still lay down a film of fouling that would form a barrier.
Then again, they could shoot paper patched bullets, problem solved.
 
Another problem. Guns are made of metal. Normally, metal has thin coating of oxidation on it. That keeps it from rusting. The oxygen in the atmosphere does it. In space, with no air, metal won't have that layer. And since the heat or cold would wreak havoc on lubrication, I'd bet you'd have a lot of metal-metal contact.
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Read down to the end of the cited article:

Update: While this effect is real, it probably isn't an issue for NASA. If you brought a metal tool with you into space, it'd retain the protective oxidation layer it had on Earth, and you wouldn't have any problems unless you went to a lot of trouble to remove it.
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I suspect that by the time they start refining and machining metal on the moon, they'll coat or oxidize the metal to keep it from cold welding itself.
 
How about a "long banded sling shot"? No need to use up space and weight capacity in the spacecraft, plenty of moon rocks for ammo..... I'll bet you could get some seriously long range flat trajectories to boot!
 
I dont think shooting a gun on the moon is a good Idea.
Just a couple guys jumping around on it the way they did got it far enough out of orbit to cause Global warming.:eek:
 
I don't think a pre existing oxide layer would disappear just because it's in the vacuum of outer space and the powder gasses would probably still lay down a film of fouling that would form a barrier.
Then again, they could shoot paper patched bullets, problem solved.
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I suspect that by the time they start refining and machining metal on the moon, they'll coat or oxidize the metal to keep it from cold welding itself.
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I don't think a pre-existing oxide layer will last very long once the metal parts start rubbing together. The bullets wouldn't be the only problem - any moving parts of the gun could suffer from this. Still, if all the right parts were coated with something that will last it might work.
 
I am not a expert on the moon or its specifics but if it having even a slight gravitational pull would cause any bullet at any point to pull down due to the gravity. so orbiting the moon although possible is not likely (thus taking out the equation of friendly fire from your own gun). The perfect weapon is one that is reliable and controllable in all rates of fire. Although the AK is reliable it looses in the controllable factor and if you fired one in Full auto you know what I mean. SO the weapon I suggest is the BAR it is reliable and controllable in full auto. Now whether or not you can stand sure footed firing in full auto is another story.
 
I know the gun would keep its layer of oxidation from earth. But in space, gun lube isn't going to last long. I suspect it won't be long before you have metal rubbing on metal, and wearing off of that coat of oxidation. I imagine a gun in space would also have to be polished to a high shine, otherwise it might get too hot to hold from solar radiation. Black absorbs radiant energy.
 
I suspect it won't be long before you have metal rubbing on metal, and wearing off of that coat of oxidation.
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How much of a gun has to be metal though? The barrel, the breech block. Anything else? I don't think those parts have to touch, especially if there's no breech locking (i.e. blowback design). The cartridge of course could be coated in wax, just like they used to be for the earliest auto loaders.
 
I would say just a 22LR for a three of reasons.

The first being the lack of need for stopping power. On earth to kill someone you need to damage their internals. On the moon however people would be wearing space suits due to the fact that the moon is a vacuum. All you would need to do is poke a tiny hole in their suit and all the air would come rushing out and their blood would boil. I suppose bullet proof space suites might be an issue and in that case something like a .223 may be necessary.

Secondly the moon only has 1/6 of the gravity so therefore managing recoil would be harder.

Finally, effective range would not be much of a consideration. On the moon there is no atmosphere so a bullet would not slow down. Also taking into account the 1/6 gravity a 22 would travel much farther than we could shoot without loosing much energy.
 
I know the gun would keep its layer of oxidation from earth. But in space, gun lube isn't going to last long. I suspect it won't be long before you have metal rubbing on metal, and wearing off of that coat of oxidation. I imagine a gun in space would also have to be polished to a high shine, otherwise it might get too hot to hold from solar radiation. Black absorbs radiant energy.
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Self-Lubricating Duracoat
 
Although the AK is reliable it looses in the controllable factor and if you fired one in Full auto you know what I mean.
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Not all AK's are created equal. An AK-74, for instance, with it's low recoil round coupled with the fact the AK-74 muzzle brake is very effective gives you a very controllable gun.
 
The best rifle to shoot the moon.

Gerald Bull chose a pair of 16" battleship cannons joined end to end to loft payloads into space. The High Altitude Research Project (HARP) set up on a Barbados island was able to loft payloads to 215,000 feet.

If anyone were to be able to shoot the moon, aside from a drunk standing on a street corner, Gerald Bull would have been that man. Unfortunately, he scared too many people in too many nations and was assassinated in 1990. PBS Frontline did a bio on Gerald Bull in 1991 but the video has fallen off of their website.

SOURCE

In the fall of 1961 Bull visited Murphy and Trudeau at Aberdeen and was able to interest them in the idea using guns to loft missile components for re-entry research, a task that was otherwise very expensive and time-consuming aboard rockets. They arranged funding for the work under Project HARP (for High Altitude Research Program, not to be confused with HAARP). The US Navy supplied a surplus 16-inch battleship gun, and a contract from the Office of Naval Research paid for the gun to be re-bored into a 16.4-inch smooth bore. The entire contract, excluding shipping, was only $2,000.[15]

The performance of the gun was so great that the Highwater site was too small to support it. McGill had long been running a meteorological station on Barbados and had close connections with the new Democratic Labour Party (DLP), and suggested that it would make an ideal location for the gun to be set up. Bull met with Prime Minister Errol Barrow who became an enthusiastic supporter of HARP, and arranged for a firing site in Foul Bay, on the south-west corner of the island near the Seawell Airport. The guns arrived in early 1962 but could not be put ashore at the site and had to be offloaded 7 miles (11 km) down the coast, and then transported overland via a purpose-built railway that employed hundreds of locals. As the project continued, this figure grew to over 300 permanently employed with the project, and it became a major reason for Barrow's continued support.[16] Bull encouraged the locals to use the project as a stepping-stone to a science or engineering degree of their own, and his efforts were widely lauded in the press.

In January 1962 the first test shot was carried out, firing an empty sabot. The test was completely successful, so a further two similar firings were abandoned and the second firing was made with a dart-like finned projectile named Martlet (after the mythical bird without feet on the McGill University crest). These tests demonstrated several problems, including poor shot-to-shot performance of the decades-old gunpowder, and the fact that the projectile left the barrel so quickly that the powder didn't have time to burn completely. New charges using modern powder were soon supplied, and by November 1962 the 150-kilogram Martlets were being fired at over 10,000 ft/s (3,048 m/s) (6,818 mph) and reaching altitudes of 215,000 ft (66,000 m).

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If anyone were to be able to shoot the moon, aside from a drunk standing on a street corner, Gerald Bull would have been that man. Unfortunately, he scared too many people in too many nations and was assassinated in 1990. PBS Frontline did a bio on Gerald Bull in 1991 but the video has fallen off of their website.
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Unfortunately, the velocities he achieved are nowhere close to the velocities needed to put something in earth orbit or to reach the moon. Low earth orbit speed is about 5 miles per second, earth escape velocity is about 7 miles per second, and even if you could attain those velocities, the projectile would still have to get through the earth's atmosphere without somehow burning up.

One of the biggest problems with achieving hyper velocities is the fact that gunpowder has mass and has to accelerate its own gasses along with the projectile. If only we could develop an explosive that somehow turned into pure helium after it burned, possible velocities would go up by an order of magnitude.

When you reach the velocities of a 22-250 or a .220 swift, the powder charge begins to outweigh the bullet and uses more energy to accelerate its own gasses than it delivers to the bullet. The .22 Eargesplitten Loudenboomer used powder charges that approximately doubled the bullet's mass.

A good analogy is making a horse drawn wagon go faster by hitching more horses to it. Two horses might be able to pull that wagon substantially faster than one horse can, four horsed might go slightly faster, but even 1000 horses pulling that wagon will not make that wagon go 100 mph, the speed will be limited to the speed that the slowest horse in the team could run if it wasn't pulling anything.
 
because you dont wanna be stranded on the moon without hope of rescue, without being too morbid...thats what you would need a pistol for.
 
There must be experiments with guns fired in vacuum chambers. I was confused with this thread but seem to understand now.

Any gun will fire in space, right? The question is which would be best for

Recoil?
Continued use? heat, lube, oxidation...
Collateral damage? Bullet coming back around the other side of the moon:)
Type of powder to use
Purpose? Aliens or Communists...

The obvious answer is the M41A. "The M41A Pulse Rifle is the standard issue for all United States Colonial Marines. It fires a 10mm Explosive Tipped Caseless Light Armour Piercing round. The M41 uses electronic pulse action to fire, controlled directly from the trigger. The internal mechanism, including the rotating breech, is mounted on free-floating rails within a carbon-fiber jacket. This assembly is recoil dampened to reduce the effects of muzzle climb during burst and full automatic fire. "
 
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