July 22, 2005
I recently rediscovered MythBusters on the Discovery Channel. These guys are basically the TV version of Snopes.
One of their recent experiments was the idea that if you dive just a few feet underwater you can survive being shot at. They rigged up a device at a local pool and started taking target practice.
A Civil War-era rifle managed to penetrate ballistics gel at a distance of three feet. Beyond that, the bullet wandered too far to hit its target. It was the most lethal gun fired.
Afterwards they brought out a .223 (I don't think they said who it was built by) and an M1 Garand rifle. Both rounds shattered upon entry into the pool; a piece of the M1 round's jacket managed to generate a flesh wound at a distance of three feet. As a capper they brought out a giant .50-caliber and let fly with a round that could qualify as an ICBM. It suffered a similar fate, not even scratching the ballistics gel as it completely shattered upon entering the water.
It turns out that the metal, even on a full-metal-jacket round, can't handle the deceleration from supersonic and just disintegrate. Smaller, subsonic rounds like those fired from a handgun or a shotgun are actually more lethal since the rounds/shot aren't stressed as much.
Now I want to play some Counter Strike to see if there are any levels that take that into account. I'd love to see an AWP completely nullified by an overgrown ditch.
