Sniper shot on the moon

[jamespres2001]

So how would the bullet react? 1/6 gravity, no air= no wind. Would it travel farther and drop less. I truly don't know.

[Merc1138]

You answered your own question. As long as you had enough air in the cartridge for the powder to burn(not impossible to do, heck there are guns made specifically to use underwater with sealed ammo). Gravity makes the bullet drop, less gravity = less drop. Less air resistance = less drag to slow the bullet down. Recoil might be a ***** though.

edit: Plus considering the escape velocity of the moon is only 2.4km/s(7,800fps) compared to 11.2km/s on earth, you'd already be pushing halfway to escaping orbit of the moon with some rounds.

[monk]

Well, being that there is no oxygen in space, I'd say it wouldn't even go bang.

http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=617

[AK all day]

Only one way to find out.....

[AeroEngi]

I'm not too sure about this but if gun powder includes oxidizer then it doesn't matter if it's in space. It'll still go bang. Kinda like rocket propellants. They have their own oxidizer and that's how they work in space.

[tiechshlime]

The nitrate in gun powder is an oxidizer= no oxygen needed for burn

[missiondude]

Well, being that there is no oxygen in space, I'd say it wouldn't even go bang.

http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/que...php?number=617

Gunpowder does not get the oxygen it needs to burn from the atmosphere. It would go bang...

[jingerale]

didn't you guys see Firefly........

[Sonic_mike]

lets send Neil to space and tell him that our moon has some hot trim.

[Merc1138]

I'm not too sure about this but if gun powder includes oxidizer then it doesn't matter if it's in space. It'll still go bang. Kinda like rocket propellants. They have their own oxidizer and that's how they work in space.

Yeah, definitely possible.

http://world.guns.ru/handguns/hg/rus/spp-1m-underwater-e.html

Uses rounds sealed with air and powder, no reason it couldn't be done in a vacuum.

[xibunkrlilkidsx]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nudelman-Rikhter_NR-23

russians believed a gun could fire in space so they put it on their space stations, wouldnt be suprised if we had some on ours.


I think that we would be seeing mile shots with 223.

[troysland]

[Merc1138]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nudelman-Rikhter_NR-23

russians believed a gun could fire in space so they put it on their space stations, wouldnt be suprised if we had some on ours.


I think that we would be seeing mile shots with 223.

Well, ignoring air resistance, and assuming the surface is flat(I think a curve would actually make it go further), a projectile launched at 1 degree using the moon's gravity of 1.62m/s^2, traveling at 2700fps would go 9 miles. Lobbing it at a 5 degree angle gets you 45 miles.

http://www.calctool.org/CALC/phys/newtonian/projectile

edit: I'm sure someone is freaking out because the weight of the projectile isn't mentioned, technically it doesn't matter because the math is done pretending it's a newtonian projectile in a vacuum. Even counting the thin atmosphere( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_the_Moon ), the calculator would be more correct for a projectile on the moon that it would be on Earth.

[Vlad 11]

Well, being that there is no oxygen in space, I'd say it wouldn't even go bang.

It'll still go bang.

It would go bang...

Even if it goes 'bang', it will not really be going 'bang'...no sound in space.
No gas molecules present to propagate the sound waves

[JohnFLand]

Explosive bolts are definitely known to work on the Moon (see below); so will M2 Ball ammo.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/apollo-spacecraft6.htm