Freaking Mythbusters

[Teks]

Okay, I'm in tradeschool, learning to become a gunsmith. I'm an apprentice of John Christianson in Payson Arizona, and have studied firearms since I was a freshman in highschool. I like to think I know a thing or two about guns.

Mythbusters, as you all know, is a show where they take myths and put them to the test. I always liked this show until they started to do gun myths. They are usually wrong when it comes to determining if a gun myth is true or not, which makes me wonder just how many other myths are wrong? I'm going to pull a few examples.

1: Guns can NOT blow locks off of doors or render them un-lockable

Simply not true. Police and military forces use this technique all the time, and several soldiers in Iraq carry shotguns with slugs specifically for this purpose. Several ammunition manufacturers even sell slugs known as "Lock Busters". A 3 inch long 12 gauge slug can travel 1700 FPS. I'm pretty sure that can decimate a lock.

2: You are 100% safe from bullets when underwater.

Half true. If you recall, in this episode they tested this myth by taking guns of several calibers to a pool, and began firing them into a chamber in the water. The fundamental flaw in this myth is that the guns are fired only 2 feet or so from the water. If the gun is that close to the water, you are safe. However, if you were unfortunate enough to participate in the D-Day invasion, you will know this myth is not true. The MG42 that the Germans used during that day fires the oh so special 7.92x57 Mauser round at 2500 FPS. Since the weapons were fired at downward angles, several hundred yards away from the beach, the bullets were able to slow down just enough that the bullets were able to penetrate the water before shattering, and were able to kill American GIs.

3: You can NOT shoot through a scope of another rifle.

Myth should be PLAUSIBLE. Mythbusters did not take several things into account, such as temperature, scope manufacturer, scope temp, windage, height above sea level, calibers, strength of bullet recipient, and angle of the shot being fired. These are all conditions that needed to be met in order to test this myth properly. Instead, they put two rifles some distance between each other, and lined them up, and shot them. Gun lovers everywhere cringed. Shooting through a scope is not a terribly uncommon occurrence and has happened more than once.


Those are plain, out right wrong ones. Several other gun myths have inconsistencies within them, but it would take up quite a bit of space to write them. They have done one or two myths that I approve of.
Such as testing to see if bullets curve (Even if it was stupidly dangerous which it didn't need to be.) Or when they had proven the shooting an oil drum or gas drum won't make it explode. And I LOVE the myth where they prove that you cannot be knocked back by a bullet, and the one where they prove that you cannot make a car explode by shooting it. Those are very common misconceptions that I'm glad they addressed.

/end rant

Phew. Needed to get all of that off my chest

[Geek King]

So go post this info to their site. They do pay attention to it, and will revisit a myth if they get enough new info to look at. And if it goes boom at some point.

[ArcticChicken]

Dude, the Mythbusters admit they don't nearly meet the qualifications for scientific rigor.

Any time some one says to me"Well, the Mythbusters...." I take it with a grain of salt. If the Mythbusters bust something, and I can't spot anything wrong with the way they tested it, I'll put it on my list as less likely, but I won't truly count it as busted until I receive more definitive proof. I watch the show for the pretty explosions.

Like Geek King said, if enough people complain that a myth was poorly done, they'll revisit it in a later show.

[lordlundar]

Ahem. You might want to check out the episodes again.

1) They did say that yes, certain guns could easily obliterate any lock, but a 9mm isn't one of them, and it's not the safest thing to do with any old gun like in the movies.

2) Doesn't invalidate their test. They mentioned that subsonic weapons would survive. Considering the rounds were being fired from cliffs, it most likely put them just under the auto shatter range. (besides, the storming soldiers weren't exactly operating like navy seals. They had to stay mostly above the water to keep their weapons able to fire)

3) They did a revisit and declared that while it has happened, it's more of a case of luck than skill and to date, no person has ever been able to do it every time, on command. (same as the arrow splitting myth, possible, but the circumstances has to be exact.)

[Andara Bledin]

I'm pretty certain that if you shot a mostly empty gasoline drum, and it penetrated the side and sparked at all, you'd actually get quite a nice explosion. Oil, probably not. Full of gas, no chance. But full of gas vapor? Yeah, that'd go boom.

^-.-^

[RayvenQ]

1. While there are specialised arms and ammunition for that, they weren't part of the myth, the myth was that with a regular handgun (or submachine gun or whatever) would our plucky hero actually be able to blow out a lock (then again, what must be in the ammunition of the hero to send the baddies flying surely would be able to bust open a measly lock )

2. Again, not the myth, th emyth was, would a person or group, standing at relatively close range (on the side of a riverbank, on a boat etc) not a long distance away.

3. As it's been said, they revisited and declared it possible, but nigh impossible. And they lined them up, to take out as much of the variables as possible, to see if, even in the best circumstances, it'd be possible.

Andara, yeah they tried that too, they even tried tracer rounds and that didn't do it, hell, on a slightly different myth, they tried incendiary rounds on a propane tank and that didn't do it.

[the_std]

Andara, yeah they tried that too, they even tried tracer rounds and that didn't do it, hell, on a slightly different myth, they tried incendiary rounds on a propane tank and that didn't do it.

Uh, yes it did. Managed to catch that one last night. Incendiary rounds made the biggest ka-friggin'-boom out of all of them. Also, they used a mini-gun. But they had to go to some special secret place, because both the gun and the rounds are illegal in California.

[RayvenQ]

Yeah you're right, wasn't sure whether it was the tracers or the incendiaries that failed, but i think part of the reson that they got it to light was the sheer amount of rounds the minigun can send downrange.

[Mr Slugger]

I think that's some of the problems with Mythbusters is that people look beyond the actual myth. Yes there are lock busting guns, you can fire a bullet under water, set a gas tank of fire, probably can shoot in a circle around you and fall through the floor. However not with the guns that the myth involves.

And in the case of shooting through the scope. I think there's definitely cases of 1 in a million shots. They just weren't able to recreate the 1 in a million shot.

[RayvenQ]

Actually they did eventually manage to recreate it, though they went back and used period scopes and ammunition (Well, GI Armor Piercing rounds) and they did it at a distance too (Adam wanted to try it at point blank but Jamie wanted to do it at a distance, I think)

Also don't forget, they also rate not just on it being possible, but also on how likely it'd happen, that's why even when they nailed it, it was a plausible rather than confirmed (i think) because of how much of a one off it was.

It's also notable that the only myth to get all 3 ratings at once, was also a firearms myth (bullets fired up)

[Misanthropical]

My oldest son is a huge Mythbusters fan and swears what they say is gospel truth. I just roll my eyes when he starts a conversation with me by saying "Well, Mythbusters say..."

Don't tell him they are wrong on occasion, his world might be shattered!

[RayvenQ]

I see mythbusters like I do wikipedia, at best a guide but otherwise entertaining.

[JoitheArtist]

I think the main value of Mythbusters is in getting people interested in not taking "general wisdom" for granted. "Oh everyone says this? How about we test it?" It's a good basic intro to the scientific method, even if they aren't as rigorous as they could be.

[Evil Queen]

1: Guns can NOT blow locks off of doors or render them un-lockable

Simply not true. Police and military forces use this technique all the time, and several soldiers in Iraq carry shotguns with slugs specifically for this purpose. Several ammunition manufacturers even sell slugs known as "Lock Busters". A 3 inch long 12 gauge slug can travel 1700 FPS. I'm pretty sure that can decimate a lock.

Clearly, you weren't paying attention to this episode. I just watched it a couple weeks ago. You CAN NOT shoot the door open in the same manner that McGyver did and that is what they were testing. Hell, you wanna use a cannon to shoot the lock off doors? Be my guest. But they were testing it on a specific gun.

Also, they never said you were 100% safe fron guns underwater. Just that you were relatively safe. Most guns, with the exception of the ones with the smaller bullets, will disintegrate either on impact or shortly thereafter.

Rewatch the episodes and pay attention.

[RayvenQ]

Clearly, you weren't paying attention to this episode. I just watched it a couple weeks ago. You CAN NOT shoot the door open in the same manner that McGyver did and that is what they were testing. Hell, you wanna use a cannon to shoot the lock off doors? Be my guest. But they were testing it on a specific gun.

Also, they never said you were 100% safe fron guns underwater. Just that you were relatively safe. Most guns, with the exception of the ones with the smaller bullets, will disintegrate either on impact or shortly thereafter.

Rewatch the episodes and pay attention.

Actually, it was Kurt Russel in Big Trouble in Little China using a Tec-9 (I think)
(I take not of small details way too easily )
They actually tested a few weapons, a 9mm Pistol (Or MP5, one of those) A .357 Magnum, a 30-06 Rifle and a Shotgun (with slug)

And the Shotgun and the 30-06 I think actually did work.

Don't forget, the myths are often in context, so like i said earlier, the bullet proof water thing wasn't is water bullet proof 100% of the time, but in the circumstances presented in the myth, which in that case was would it protect you much if the people shooting at you were relatively close by.