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I've been in a fistfight, but nothing serious.

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I've been in a life-or-death fight.

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I've never been in a fight.

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I am MaximumZero, and I got in three fights this morning before breakfast.

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Total Members Voted: 0

Voting closed: April 02, 2017, 08:55:24 am

[Antioch]

Bullets actually fly surprisingly slow when ignited without a barrel.

The bullet is basically the strongest part of a cartridge when fired outside of a gun, so the brass casing just bursts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ad9e0mO8Q4

[Erkki]

Have the 22LR prices in US come down already? Standard velocity bulk/medium quality is 6½ to 10 euro cents here or at lowest 7 usd-cents a piece. I've seen Winchester's American Eagle brand even cheaper but the customer reviews are so poor that I've avoided it.

Just wondering if I can expect prices to come down a bit here too before I buy them in bulk for the summer.

[Parsely]

Reading the Wikipedia page on "Molotov Cocktails", the first historical example (of bottles of petrol being used as firebombs) it cites is the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), but the idea of an incendiary projectile is so old that I was sure there were earlier examples. Lo and behold: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A9troleuses People were conceiving of others throwing bottles of petrol into windows to burn down buildings in 1871.

Are there even earlier examples of glass bottles full of petrol being used as fire bombs?

[Neonivek]

Interesting...

So from what I see in television a common way to fire a bullet is to put it on a skillet.

However, the ignition temperature of a bullet SEEMS to be higher in MOST cases (except Smokeless... but even that has... issues) then what the frying pan will typically produce.

Can you make a bullet go off by heating it in a frying pan?

[Jopax]

They can go off by being thrown into a fire. No reason a gas fire couldn't accomplish the same even if there's a piece of metal in between, it's made for conducting heat efficently after all.

[Kot]

The casings are also quite conductive, which is also why caseless ammunition isin't that great - with no casing there to take in heat and then get ejected, caseless makes overheating a serious problem.

[Aseaheru]

 Well, in addition to the whole "propellant cracking, having to design a gun thats intended to be dead simple to eject unfired rounds if you want to clear an action and thus defeating much of the purpose of getting rid of cases, sealing the chambers, how fragile the things are in general..."

[Parsely]

Can you make a bullet go off by heating it in a frying pan?

Yes.

[Akura]

Reading the Wikipedia page on "Molotov Cocktails", the first historical example (of bottles of petrol being used as firebombs) it cites is the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), but the idea of an incendiary projectile is so old that I was sure there were earlier examples. Lo and behold: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A9troleuses People were conceiving of others throwing bottles of petrol into windows to burn down buildings in 1871.

Are there even earlier examples of glass bottles full of petrol being used as fire bombs?

Probably not glass, as glass was fairly expensive and probably not used for common bottling. Clay containers work just as well, and were certainly used to hurl burning stuff at people.

[Hanslanda]

Total War has taught me that Mongols used naptha bombs. Idk if it's historically supported but it's the same concept as molotovs. Delicate casing, fuel, and ignition source.

Also new poll sometime tonight.

[Rusty Shackleford]

What I think is interesting is how powerful molotov cocktails seem to be in movies and video games and how utterly ineffective they are IRL.

Watch some footage of Greeks rioting and throwing these everywhere. They are pretty underwhelming as a weapon.

[GiglameshDespair]

What I think is interesting is how powerful molotov cocktails seem to be in movies and video games and how utterly ineffective they are IRL.

Watch some footage of Greeks rioting and throwing these everywhere. They are pretty underwhelming as a weapon.

They're the opposite of flamethrowers, which are inevitably much shorter ranged and weaker in video games than they are in real life.

[Neonivek]

What I think is interesting is how powerful molotov cocktails seem to be in movies and video games and how utterly ineffective they are IRL.

Watch some footage of Greeks rioting and throwing these everywhere. They are pretty underwhelming as a weapon.

They're the opposite of flamethrowers, which are inevitably much shorter ranged and weaker in video games than they are in real life.

Well sometimes Flamethrowers are even stronger than they are in real life "AHH I got slightly burnt! Dead!"

but yeah they are presented as SUPER short ranged.

Not that Flamethrowers in real life have a super long effective range (They are considered a close range weapon... but remember that military engagement can occur over miles... so close means like... 100 feet)

[AzyWng]

IIRC, most video game flamethrowers behave as though they're directly shooting jets of fire.

Most fires tend to not spread very far without fuel (and in a lot of video games, the terrain cannot provide fuel for these fires).

A lot of real life flamethrowers nowadays I think shoot out a flammable liquid that is then ignited as it is shot out of the nozzle of the flamethrower by a pilot light (I think).

That means they're not shooting a jet of flame - rather, they're shooting a jet of liquid that's on fire.

I also remember reading in a book on WWII weapons that flamethrowers were mainly used for their psychological effect rather than because they could kill people. I guess that's because fire's scary. That could also explain why molotov cocktails are always depicted as super effective in video games.

My own question: How are non-lethal weapons going these days? Are people able to knock out others with rubber bullet headshots like it's MGSV?

[Rusty Shackleford]

Flamethrowers used historically in Vietnam used to propel napalm or super-napalm (or a generic-brand equivalent, Du Pont makes Napalm brand napalm and nobody else!), which is more like a flammable gel than a liquid. It's bouncy, even, so it'll bounce off walls and stream around corners and off ceilings. It's also almost impossible to extinguish and it sticks to skin, due to its chemical affinity (or somesuch) for lipids and greases like people are made out of.

 Flamethrowers are really cool and I haven't seen a video game get it right before. That one WH40k RTS game got it very close, visually at least with the neat flamethrower tanks the Imperial Guard used.

I digress, though. But yeah, hollywood flamethrowers shoot burning propane gas, real ones spray a stream of burning fluid. The latter is always correct even if it's technically a kind of melted gel or something.