What Would Happen If I Shot A Gun In Space?

[mcoliver]

So how do I go about getting the paperworks done to carry my gun in space? Do I need to get one for every state/country that my orbit passes in?

[Sterling White]

So how fast would I be propelled in the opposite direction of the bullet, .12 fps or 11 fps? And would I increase my speed by that amount with each shot fired?

[Jasonub]

BTDT, thats why i carry a ray gun in space

[uscbigdawg]

Holy crap. I seriously just fell over and Jennifer (the girlfriend) ran over to see if I was alright. This is the funniest thread EVER.

Of course when I was explaining it to her, the super brain said, "it wouldn't work 'cause it'd probably be frozen." Great point, but that's not why I started convulsing.

I read her Gary and AikiDale's posts and got a giggle. Women.

Thanks for the huge laugh. Still have tears in the eyes.

Rich

[mcb]

Not frozen, remember a vacuum is a very good insulator. Without air or other gases around the gun you can have no convection cooling. Your only way to gain or loose heat is through radiation. So what ever temperature the gun is when it enters the vacuum its not going to change temperature very fast in most cases. If the gun is in direct sunlight it might actually being getting hotter not cooler due to more radiation coming in then being radiated out. If you were in some shadows given enough time it would get pretty dang cool but it would take a bit of time. Once you start letting the lead fly all that heat from the friction of the bullet passing down the barrel and the waste heat of the conducted to the barrel propellant has no where to go except through radiation and that mean your going to have a hot gun for quite some time to come.

Ramblin'

mcb

[Nemo]

What if it is an open gun?

[Genghis]

What if it is an open gun?

Action/Reaction: It'd push you back from the recoil, plus start you spinning backwards from the comp. You'd have to learn to twist the gun around and shoot it upside down, and time the shot so it's in the exact opposite direction of the first shot, to counter the motion. Or redesign the gun from the ground up.

[Sterling White]

I guess that some more thought will have to be put into shooting my gun in space!

Here's what I've picked up so far....

1) unless I'm wearing a cosmo self stabilizing suit there's a notion that i could be propelled backwards with further complications if my gun has a compensator. Now I will need to worry about going backwards and getting into a spin.

2) the gun could be too hot to hold because I didn't leave it in the shade and when I do shoot it there's a potential for it to overheat.

3) oil may not work so the light weight slide glide may be the best option.

4) always shoot away from the earth or towards the earth. shooting on the same orbital trajectory could be a problem later.

The answers were too funny!

[Guy Neill]

Unless the axis of the bore was aligned with your center of gravity, it would induce a spin without the comp. Depending on what direction the bore was off the center of gravity, the comp action may help counter spin induced by the moment arm from the center of gravity.

In a weightless type environment, the sights should parallel the bore as there would be no trajectory as such.

Guy

[Genghis]

Unless the axis of the bore was aligned with your center of gravity, it would induce a spin without the comp. Depending on what direction the bore was off the center of gravity, the comp action may help counter spin induced by the moment arm from the center of gravity.

In a weightless type environment, the sights should parallel the bore as there would be no trajectory as such.

Guy

Good points. I'd bet that the spin of the bullet would impart a significant opposite spin on the shooter, too.

[bountyhunter]

Unless the axis of the bore was aligned with your center of gravity, it would induce a spin without the comp. Depending on what direction the bore was off the center of gravity, the comp action may help counter spin induced by the moment arm from the center of gravity.

In a weightless type environment, the sights should parallel the bore as there would be no trajectory as such.

Guy

Good points. I'd bet that the spin of the bullet would impart a significant opposite spin on the shooter, too.

If it's a revolver there would also be a rotational "moment" imparted back to the shooter's hand by the bullet nose striking the edge of the forcing cone slightly off axis of the bore line, unless it entered perfectly centered (almost unheard of these days).

[Ned Christiansen]

....and what about the smoke.....? Will it just hang there forever? Since there's no atmosphere to make the muzzle blast stop, does that just keep going too? If there's a solar wind from the left do I aim right?

[Patrick Sweeney]

The smoke would continually expand until its density became that of the space in that neighborhood. Solar wind deflection is minor, but over the large distances of space it adds up. If you're in a damage-control party shooting aliens off the hull of your interstellar cruiser, no need to adjust for solar wind. If you're trying to plink the nearest passing planet, your orbital calculations will make solar wind a minor variable.

[AikiDale]

What if it is an open gun?

Action/Reaction: It'd push you back from the recoil, plus start you spinning backwards from the comp. You'd have to learn to twist the gun around and shoot it upside down, and time the shot so it's in the exact opposite direction of the first shot, to counter the motion. Or redesign the gun from the ground up.

I'd think one would roll back from the gun lifting in recoil and the comp would balance that. The shooter might be inclined to yaw from the torque imparted by the rifling however, causing a DQ from breaking the 180.

[mike_pinto]

Yah, but you couldn't get DQ'd for dropping a loaded pistol.

How about the Mystery Lunar Mountain 3-Gun match next year? That's it. I'll get the website www.mlm3g.com going this week.