New season of Mythbusters: more gun myths!

[Floyd]

OK, so the opening episode of the Mythbusters series had a pair of gun related myths.

The first involved a scene from a film where a baby was left on a merry go round. In order to 'protect' the baby from a sniper, the hero shot at the safety bar and spun the merry go round, preventing the baby from being a stationary target.

In short, myth busted. Not even a .50 Browning could move their test platform enough to get it spinning. Hollywood epic failure.

The second myth was an extension of the shoot the gun away from the villain they did last year. This time, they focused on shooting a stationary pistol on the ground, pushing it away from the villain.

This time, they hit gold. However, they did toast a couple of pistols in the test process. Nothing quite like watching a Glock fly into pieces after being shot.  

[Recon_Ninja_985]

why.... sad  

[Floyd]

Recon_Ninja_985

why.... sad

Because they roll that way.

And ratings. They live for ratings. I love what Kari did to the merry go round at the end of the segment. Scary go round!  

[Fresnel]

Floyd

OK, so the opening episode of the Mythbusters series had a pair of gun related myths.

The first involved a scene from a film where a baby was left on a merry go round. In order to 'protect' the baby from a sniper, the hero shot at the safety bar and spun the merry go round, preventing the baby from being a stationary target.

In short, myth busted. Not even a .50 Browning could move their test platform enough to get it spinning. Hollywood epic failure.

I think that was Shoot 'Em Up, but I think a .50 could do it with properly reinforced bars. Those things carry a lot of power downrange, and even my SMLE can give a 30lb plate enough shove to move it a foot or two.

Quote:

However, they did toast a couple of pistols in the test process. Nothing quite like watching a Glock fly into pieces after being shot.

Gee, wonder how that could have possibly happened?  

[Floyd]

Fresnel

I think that was Shoot 'Em Up, but I think a .50 could do it with properly reinforced bars. Those things carry a lot of power downrange, and even my SMLE can give a 30lb plate enough shove to move it a foot or two.

The problem with my first view of this episode was I had to take a phone call, which turned into a hella long family video conference call. I didn't get to watch the full context.

What they did explain about the first round of testing was that the bearings were not designed to free wheel, making the merry go round 'safer' for play. It was fun to watch them punch holes in the safety bars with a .44 magnum.

But they learned to add a sandwich of two 1/2 inch plates and weld them onto the bars. It was even more fun to watch the first round of .50 cal testing when one of the 1/2 inch steel plates was blown off by the impact! As I recall, that shot managed to push the MGM over 8 inches with the factory bearings.

That's where I had to leave the show. You can see the post episode Q&A online at this link: http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/mythbusters-firearms-force-aftershow.html#mkcpgn=twdsc2  

[Floyd]

This article warranted a second post on just how awesome some of the stuff the folks at M5 do really is.

Seems that Jamie has been building anatomically correct wound simulator dummies for field practice for the military. And now, he's moving into light armor for our ground forces.

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_7955.shtml

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/04/05/mythbusters_explosions/  

[Floyd]

Got to give those guys at MythBusters some props for the show tonight!

They got into some major league mayhem this time. Two separate gun myths this time.

Adam and Jamie mounted a paintball gun on the hood of a car and chased another car around, blowing out the windows and painting the driver's head, trying to prove if a fixed mounted gun on a car (like Goldfinger or the latest Green Hornet movie) would be an effective weapon. It worked.

The second myth was given to the M7 team. They had to figure out how to replicate a 9mm FMJ bullet spinning like a top when shot on an ice lake. The trick was in allowing the round to bounce back from the ice impact, dropping the hot round onto the ice, where it did do what the video claimed.

They managed to repeat this spinning bullet trick 5 times in a row before a storm and sunset forced them off the frozen lake where they tested the myth.

And all this without the condescending safety crap one would expect from a show shot in California.