Glocks fire underwater?

Should anybody here be tempted to shoot their G-17 underwater, please make certain that the bore is filled with water, and that there are no trapped air spaces anywhere in the gun. Do NOT use hollowpoint ammo [it will expand in the bore], and above all...

Do Not Fire With Your Head Underwater!

If you do, your eardrums will meet each other somewhere in the middle of your head, and your eyeballs are likely to feel like they took a momentary excursion to your sinus cavities. All the above discussion regarding the incompressibility of water will be brought into sharp focus when you instantly become aware of how many very compressible "air pockets" the human body has.

All in all, it's just a pretty dumb thing to do.

...and don't ask how I know...;) :D
 
http://glock.missouri.edu/glock/glock2.shtml

There's some photos of someone shooting a Glock underwater.

I've heard of people who have gone deaf after shooting underwater, and I've also heard of people who shoot underwater all the time with no special protection and get by fine. I don't plan on shooting underwater, but if I did, I would be wearing some sort of protection :)
 
http://www.gunvideo.com/ used to have a whole video tape of shooting underwater. When I saw it on their web page they had a short video clip you could download.
This guy has got some very good tapes. I bought; The One Mile Shot with G.David Tubb, and Ultimate Advanced Revolver with Jerry Miculek
 
Laymans definition of compressed h20

Hey all,
I have read this thread and thought I would explain it as it was explained to me. CR Sam..please let me know if I am wrong, k ?

We all know scuba divers get the "bends"..right? Nitrogen poisoning..forced into the blood stream by increased atmosphiric
pressure (that is water compressing) Every fathom (approx 33 ft)
The water becomes more pressurized..for the lack of a better term. The deeper you go the more it is such. Expanential curve.
Water can be compressed to a point or no divers would get bends! If it is not compressable how can this happen? huh?

I have also heard from Hydraulic Engineers that water in its base
form is not compressable, it is the other elements that make up a portion of H2O...oxygen molecules, algae, mineral etc..that compress at a very slight rate. Liquids at their base form shouldnt be compressable.....that is what I have learned....and I could be wrong. Any feedback....? Shoot well
 
I have only the vaguest of knowlege in the matter but when we were taught the theory of fire pump operation, one of the factors involved is that water can not be compressed. I would have to get out the books to remember all the details, I learned it for the promotional exam and it promtly migrated to the furthest reaches of my brain.
 
A lot of guns will fire under water, but as noted, they are not very useful.

Our swim coach explained swim strokes using various formulas from physics. The one salient bit of information that I recall is that water was considered 1000 times more dense than air at sea level. I have no idea what that was based on, but it would match some of the descriptions above about poor bullet performance under water.

To ut83, water does not become more pressurized with depth. Since water does not compress, it is not that which is pressurized. It does exert pressure on objects, but that is a factor of weight/gravity/volume.

Something else to note in regard to bullets under water. Scuba divers have had "bang sticks" for years that are a short stick with a 12 ga. round n the tip. The bang stick was used as a defensive tool against sharks. You simply thrust the tip into the shark and that causes the 12 ga. round to fire. As it is a contact wound event, shot and gasses go into the shark. The gross result was that the shark was injured or killed, but the net result was that its blood and flailing action attracted other sharks.
 
I saw a show on TV a while ago about trained dolphins (secretly trained by the military) to eliminate human divers by pressing a cone attached to their nose into the human. The cone is loaded with a .45 FMJ.
Has anyone ever heard of this?
 
Nuther stab.
"compressability: the change in volume per unit of volume of a liquid caused by a unit change in pressure at constant temperature "

From. http://www.workover.co.uk/og/c.htm

I have some compressability tables for assorted liquids somewhere but haven found em.....yet. Seems to me that pure water is compressable by about one percent. Significant to some. Since the speed of sound in water is around 5,000fps, or 3,000 miles per hour.......a minor density change would make SONAR distance measuring accuracy difficult without correction for the water encountered. Compressability is also taken into consideration when calculating capacity of deep storage.

Sam.
 
I can't possibly imagine a handgun firing underwater. The water in the barrel would effectively form a liquid plug. If the bullet was attempting to slowly exit the barrel (but it isn't) it might exit. Or if the barrel was kept free of water the bullet would exit the barrel. However, the water obstruction would slow/stop the bullet enough to create tremendous pressure and certain failure.

I don't believe it and chock this up to so much internet misinformation. However, if you do believe this you probably also believe that the water will cushion a jump from the Golden Gate bridge.:rolleyes:
 
If an 8" harpoon-like projectile with a bullet-like charge to set it off be inserted into the barrel, making any type of 4-5" gun a launch platform only, i think the problem of hydrostatic resistance could be negated. There would be little or no drag at all at the tip end of the harpoon, and it will have sufficient momentum to travel a significant distance and cause damage. The downside is that this is only a one shot affair, and the diver must bring along many of these modified bullet-charged harpoons. It also follows that extensive study on the pressure build-up at the barrel must be considred in the design of the weapon system, so as not to damage the gun.

But in the absence of any product designed specifically to be fired underwater, I think that it is best not to try that at all.

:cool:

Remain safe,

New_comer
 
Runner, the reason I made my first post was to provide a means of verification that guns can in fact be fired underwater. Go to that website and order a video tape demonstrating it. Note; video tape is not internet misinformation.
 
Runner and all other skeptics,
I have personally fired Glock 9mm's and 1911 45acps underwater.
And.....in a bit of showmanship, both a full-auto uzi and a full-auto MAC10/9mm underwater.......with tracer ammo!
The Glocks, a 17 and a 19, both exhibited light primer strikes about 50% of the time but fed and ejected just fine.
The 45acp 1911's ran flawless.
The Uzi would run 6-12 rd. bursts if the gun was held with the ejection port facing down, then would catch an empty.
The MAC did no better than 2 or 3rd bursts until a light hit or failure to eject.
The tracer ammo was observed to travel approx. 10-15ft until sinking to the bottom......still burning!
Words to the wise.....I would NOT try this with a 40SW or any other high-intensity round. In all cases, great care was taken to insure the barrel and slide/receiver were full of water.
I was in the water chest deep, with the guns fully submerged.
My head was above the water. Significant pressure was felt in my chest and thighs. I suspect it would be VERY hard on your ears if your head was submerged.
Expended cases were recovered and examined for signs of excess pressure. None were found.
Maritime spring cups are available for the Glocks to correct the light strikes problem.
Years ago the long defunct 'Gung-Ho' magazine rigged a .357 revolver to fire in a medium sized, plexiglass tank. The 38 Special rounds produced a sizeable geyser of water but the .357 rounds destroyed the tank. The revo was not damaged.
What does this prove? Well not a darn thing of relevance other than some of us get our kicks in odd ways!

Chuck
CHEAP-FAST-GOOD
Pick any two.
 
Hey Chuck, good info!!

I was wondering, I know all the theory behing the "air pockets" in the barrel, but don't you think a SMG firing full auto is going to have gas pockets in its barrel after the first shot? Even if cycle time increases a bit you'll still have only about 1/10 second to fill the barrel with water, if the barrel is pointing upwards.
The 9x19 is a high intensity round, piezo chamber pressure is 33'000 psi, the same as 40S&W, the only difference would be the amount of chamber support, depending on which gun you use.
 
Shooting underwater in the open ocean and shooting underwater in a swimming pool are two different things. In the ocean it will be uncomfortable on the ears. In a pool, with nearby concrete sides to reflect the sound waves right back at you, it will result in ruptured eardrums and possible unconsciousness. This is why Glock only officially sells Maritime Spring Cups (which work on any Glock BTW) to the military, although some do find their way onto the civilian marketplace. Imagine the lawsuit potential for somebody capping off a Glock in their pool, using "Glock-made-and-approved underwater firing modifications" and being rendered unconscious and suffering permanent hearing loss, or drowning.

Know of someone who found out the hard way with a bang stick, had to be hauled out of the pool by friends...
 
Tamara,

Some of the people I have read about using Glocks or bangsticks underwater have used them in underwater cave to stun fish, without permanent hearing damage.
 
Admittedly...

...my "statistical sample" consists of one alcohol-fueled individual.

As you point out, YMMindeedV. ;)
 
Water does compress. So do solids. Anything will compress. Some things like water will compress VERY little. I'm sure a lot of people can quote stolen jr high science books saying otherwise, but look on the cover...was it printed after 1970? Any kid in school now will tell you water can be compressed - very little. I have a completed set of encyclopedias from 1942. At that time there were only 7 planets - and Neptune (the 7th) was only a big math equasion and a large blur. But now we know otherwise.

If water couldn't compress we wouldn't have sigularity black holes, we'd have large pools of water with infinate mass. Sounds like a poorly written science fiction show on WB.

And who said solids don't compress? Why do they make the GED so easy?
 
I was scuba diving with my dad in Cozumel. He tried a bang stick
with a shot gun shell activator (unsure of guage)...I felt the
percussion but no permanent damage ...the poor fish he tried it
on was another story. I will email him and tell him...his bang stick has been rendered obsolete....

I am finding this thread very interesting...I have learned alot.
None of which is useful in the world I live in, but interesting none
the less. Shoot well
 
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