Can a bullet go through water and still injure?

Question

Let's say I am swimming underwater a couple feet and someone aims a gun at me and shoots, will it do it's thing or what?

Answer 1

I do believe so, yes.

Answer 2

It seems many of the answers on here are pretty accurate.

Water is a difficult surface to penetrate. If you watch old war footage or various documentaries, many things to not penetrate water very well when coming from the "air". Things like airplanes and cars tend to hit the surface, break apart, and sink.

The greater the surface area, the harder it is to "break through" the surface of the water (think if a person diving into the water...little surface area...compared to someone doing a belly flop...large surface area...The diver penetrates, but a belly flopper kind of floats).

There are two problems with a bullet "hitting" a person underwater.

1. Bullets can ricochet off of water. Depending on velocity, size, angle of entry, spin, and some other factors, bullets can ricochet off of the surface of the water. If a bullet ricochets, then the distance it penetrates the water is negligable (I believe the figure I saw on a study of this once showed a ricocheting bullet travels about 1 inch below the surface of the water)

2. Water is difficult to penetrate. As many people have said, Mythbusters did an episode on this and found that bullets tend to fragement and/or expend all of their energy within 3 feet. Most bullets are designed to mushroom and/or fragment when it hits soft human tissue (mostly made of water). Again, most bullets are designed to expend as much energy as possible shortly after impact to induce the maximum amount of damage.

If a person is just below the surface, then you might have a shot at injure them. The closer to perpendicular you are, the less chance of a ricochet. If a person can make it to about 3 feet, there is pretty much zero chance of injuring them. Between the surface and 3 feet...it depends a lot on the bullet type and other factors, but the deeper they get, the chances of hurting a person go down expodentially.

I hope this helps. I just saw no one has touched on the ricochet aspect, so I thought I'd bring that up.

Answer 3

Not really. as shown on the Discovery channel's "Mythbusters" show, Even a .50 caliber Browning Machinegun cartridge fragments so rapidly on impact with water that virtually no pieces capible of rendering signifigant damage will survive impact.
They tested 9mm, 30-06, and .50bmg with similar results.
The only way they were able to achieve any damage shooting through water was shooting streight down through it from above, and the damage incurred in that instance was more a function of a fault in the design of their tank than it was the effectiveness of the bullet passing through water. Further testing was done at an angle consistant with someone shooting at the water from the "shore", and the results were that even high -power bullets lose velocity/fragment so rapidly, that they are pretty much ineffective under those circumstances.

Answer 4

Depends on how deep you swim. A couple feet under will usually do the trick. Water is a harsh medium for a bullet to get thru. Some bullets (high velocity) will break apart on the surface and others will be slowed so much they lose killing power.

Answer 5

Depends, is the Jell-O set or still fluid? Are you under a layer of Jell-O through water, or actually *in* it? (When we say "under water" we're not actually *under* the water, right?) I don't remember the circumstances under test, but Mythbusters did a segement which involved firing a bullet through ballistic gelatin. The gelatin was able to stop the bullet, but required several feet. In one firing the bullet was deflected off to the side (and carried enough energy to knock the rather large block of gelatin off the platform.) I don't know the concentration difference between Jell-O and ballistics gelatin however. Also what kind of bullet is being used? Some bullets are designed to expand on impact and will likely be slowed greatly compared one that maintains its shape and pierces through. The irregular shape it reforms as may also affect its deflection. You might also want to consider the undulation of the Jell-O as you swim. Suppose the bullet is fired straight down, then breaks the surface of the Jell-O perpendicular to it. As the Jell-o undulates, it may deflect the bullet enough so it travels at an angle compared to when it broke the surface. (But is still somewhat perpendicular to the surface of the Jell-O, which is now at an angle.) In conclusion, my answer is I don't know. :( So I'll take the question at face value, the bullet apparently had the energy to go *through* the Jell-O, so it's probably still carrying enough energy to injure.

Answer 6

It would depend on the caliber, type of bullet, hardness of water (couldn't resist )Water will definitely slow a bullet very rapidly. I wouldn't want someone shooting at me two feet underwater.

Answer 7

Yes, Mythbusters proved that bullets can still be potentially lethal even underwater. Their results varied with the type of gun.

Answer 8

Yea actually even if your in water a bullet can still reach you. The force is knocked down a little bit but depending on how close the shooter is to you and what area of your body the bullet hits the affect of it can kill you.

Answer 9

Would depend on the calibur of the weapon. Everybullet will have its depth that it would still get the job done. Also you have to take in the possiblity that the bullet will stray the wrong direction due to different force diffections under the water. So yes it could injure you but it would depend on the depth angle and weapon.

Answer 10

According to test done on tv show MythBusters if your more than a few feet deep in the wateryou would be ok. The rounds they were shooting shattered almost immediately.

Answer 11

I killed 17 perch in a pond with one shot from an 8mm Mauser rifle. They floated up in an area about 8 feet wide. If you would have been there when I shot you wouldn't be asking this questin.