TV Fact or Fiction

[Crash]

In a TV show I saw the other night a guy fired a Walther P38 and was killed because somebody had removed the "safety catch," which caused the firing pin to shoot out the back of the gun and hit him in the forehead. I'm no gunsmith and certainly not an expert on P38s, but I wonder if this is possible?

Crash

[Pawpaw]

No.

[crazy2medic]

That is right up there with the movie "wanted" where they curve a bullet in flight, just too silly to be watchable!

[bblhd672]

In a TV cartoon the other night a pistol barrel was curved back toward the character holding it and the bullet hit him in the face. Is this possible?

[Soccerdad1995]

In a TV cartoon the other night a pistol barrel was curved back toward the character holding it and the bullet hit him in the face. Is this possible?

If the barrel was long enough, or the projectile small enough, you could probably design a working gun the did this. I'm thinking a BB gun would be pretty easy to manufacture along these lines.

I wouldn't want to be the one testing it though.

[CoffeeNut]

In a TV cartoon the other night a pistol barrel was curved back toward the character holding it and the bullet hit him in the face. Is this possible?

If the barrel was long enough, or the projectile small enough, you could probably design a working gun the did this. I'm thinking a BB gun would be pretty easy to manufacture along these lines.

I wouldn't want to be the one testing it though.

The Germans toyed with the idea for tank crews in WWII. It apparently worked but it wore barrels out like crazy and just wasn't effective. That said you could definitely curve a barrel around for self-inflicted stupidity especially with today's metallurgy.

[Syntyr]

In a TV cartoon the other night a pistol barrel was curved back toward the character holding it and the bullet hit him in the face. Is this possible?

If the barrel was long enough, or the projectile small enough, you could probably design a working gun the did this. I'm thinking a BB gun would be pretty easy to manufacture along these lines.

I wouldn't want to be the one testing it though.

90 degree curved barrel

180 curved shot

[RossA]

I'm pretty sure that there was a curved barrel attachment for the M3 Grease Gun in WWII that allowed tankers to stay inside the tank, stick the barrel straight up out of the hatch, and spray rounds at a 90 degree angle to hit infantry boarding the tank. Never saw one in real life, only pictures long ago.

[Jusme]

Things I've seen on TV:

Bullets causing sparks when they strike anything
Police being able to determine, whether a gunshot victim was shot with a 9mm or a 38 just by looking at the wounds
7 rounds fired from a double barrel shotgun without reloading
Unlimited full auto rounds fired from a single magazine in an AR 15
People able to dodge bullets
Bullets causing gas tanks to explode
Shotguns, with traditional shot shells, killing someone two hundred yards away
People being blown backwards several yards when shot. (the distance increases with caliber I believe)

I'm no expert on the P38, but TV doesn't have the best track record when it comes to believability regarding firearms. JMHO

[loktite]

People being blown backwards several yards when shot. (the distance increases with caliber I believe)

the 2008 Rambo has a great example of this when School Boy snipes 2 people on road and they each fly back like 5-7 yards from one side of the road to opposite ditch

[OneGun]

That is right up there with the movie "wanted" where they curve a bullet in flight, just too silly to be watchable!

Didn't DARPA develop a bullet that can change direction in Flight? I thought it was called something like EXACT or EXACTO.

While I do not like movie magic, I thought the DARPA came up with a bullet guidance system in 50 cal.

[oljames3]

That is right up there with the movie "wanted" where they curve a bullet in flight, just too silly to be watchable!

Didn't DARPA develop a bullet that can change direction in Flight? I thought it was called something like EXACT or EXACTO.

While I do not like movie magic, I thought the DARPA came up with a bullet guidance system in 50 cal.

Don't know about the M2. However, the US Army's M109A6, 155mm howitzer has a round called Excalibur that flies to the target guided by GPS. We can aim at a point over 4 miles to the left or right (from the gun's perspective) of the target and Excalibur can fly to the target. And then there is Copperhead that follows a laser designator to the target. And, yes, we do call them bullets.

[SewTexas]

In a TV cartoon the other night a pistol barrel was curved back toward the character holding it and the bullet hit him in the face. Is this possible?

If the barrel was long enough, or the projectile small enough, you could probably design a working gun the did this. I'm thinking a BB gun would be pretty easy to manufacture along these lines.

I wouldn't want to be the one testing it though.

90 degree curved barrel

180 curved shot

those mythbuster clips are cool! I've got to show my husband tonight.

[OneGun]

At the lunch table yesterday, one of my colleagues talked about some new martial art called "gunfu". Anyone heard of it?

[RSX11]

[quote}At the lunch table yesterday, one of my colleagues talked about some new martial art called "gunfu". Anyone heard of it?[/quote]

Dunno if that's what he was talking about, but there was a satirical article about self defense in "The National Lampoon" in the mid 70s that discussed the ancient Occidental martial art of Gun Fu, where the great velocity and light weight of a small pellet is used to defeat your opponent. It was pretty funny.