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Boater Boater is offline
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First recorded activity by BoatBanter: Oct 2008
Posts: 1,666
Default Bullets bouncing offa water

Frogwatch wrote:
On Nov 16, 12:40 pm, Boater wrote:
Frogwatch wrote:
In my thread about target shooting on the water, someone mentioned
bullets bouncing back and had a vid of this happening when a .5 cal
bounced from a steel plate.
First, some easy to remember physics: Light things do not transfer
energy to heavy things well, that is why the bullet bounced back from
the steel plate. Heavy things do transfer energy to light things well
which is why sand absorbs energy from a bullet so well.
Although a bullet will bounce at a shallow angle from water or sand, I
doubt it is possible for a 180 degree bounce to happen. OK, it is
"possible" but it is probably more likely you will get hit by a
meteorite twice.

Have one of your relatives call us from the ER when you manage to shoot
yourself. Here's a hint: make sure the hole in the barrel is pointed
away from you. I mention that because you seem to have extraordinary
problems with ordinary objects.


OK. here is how you could get a 180 degree bounce from water. You
need a very large breaking wave and I do mean large as the angle for
reflection is less than 20 degrees meaning you need 9 reflections from
the braking part to get your 180 degrees



You know what? I play around with handguns quite a bit at the range, and
before I start shooting, I spend a few minutes thinking over gun safety
and looking around to make sure I've done everything possible to
minimize the possibility of an accident.

You seem to approach life's dangers from an opposite point of view. If
it is foolhardy, risky, and it presents a possibility of serious injury
or death, you're all for it. You would last maybe five minutes at the
outdoor gun range I frequent before the range officer would ban you for
life.