In an action novel I read many years ago, the good guy thwarted the bad guy by sticking his finger into the barrel of the bad guy’s gun, causing the gun to explode when the bad guy pulled the trigger (this did cost the good guy his finger). In a somewhat similar scene (on a different scale), Indiana Jones stuffs a rock down the barrel of a tank gun in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, again causing the gun to explode.
Is either scenario possible? Why or why not?
thanks…
There is the famous Gyrojet gun, which fired solid-rocket based rounds with a muzzle velocity so slow you could stop them with a finger over the barrel. But with a traditional gun, no way. The bullet would just lob your finger right off.
Plugging a barrel can make a gun blow up. This has been known to happen with rifles and shotguns when careless hunters allow mud to plug the end. Even a bit of rainwater in a shotgun barrel is enough to cause a barrel bulge when the shock wave hits the uncompressable water. P.O. Ackley IIRC tested the Japanese Arisaka rifle (WWII bolt action rifle) by leaving a cleaning rod in the barrel. Amazingly the gun didn’t blow up in the expected way but the force tore the threads off the barrel, launching it like a projectile.
That said it’s really hard for an adult to get a finger in a gun barrel save for shotguns. If you have very small fingers you might get a pinkie inside a .45 caliber barrel but that’s marginal.
In response to the OP, yes. The projectile is pushed down the barrel by the esaping gases caused by the explosion (fast burn) of the propellant. If the propellant gas has no egress, ie., out the end of the barrel, the gases must go somewhere, which results in a shattered barrel end and/or shattered breech (where the catridge is loaded). This is more commonly seen with shotguns, as their barrel thickness is usually much less than a rifle, depending on it’s configuration.
As Padeye points out, an adult would have a hard time getting a finger into most gun barrels; I have thin fingers and my pinkie won’t go into a .45 barrel. If you just cover the muzzle then the gun is very unlikely to explode, but putting something deep in could very well damage the gun (and finger), exactly what would happen depends on how strong the gun is, how powerful the cartridge is, and how complete the blockage is.
I’d say that it’s incredibly unlikely to work, your action hero would have a much better chance if he attempted to just deflect the gun. He could also try to push back the slide (on a pistol), which would leave the chamber partially open and the gun either unable to fire or unable to fire properly, or to get a finger in between the hammer and firing pin (for a revolver or pistol with exposed hammer), which would stop the hammer from falling.
If I remember the museum correctly, the Gettysburg Battlefield information center has a nice cannon where the barrel exploded. I don’t recall the exact details, but I’m pretty sure I read that the barrel had been fouled by too many shots and the last cannon ball got stuck for long enough to explode the base of the barrel. It’s a pretty impressive amount of force considering how thick the gun barrel was and that we are talking about black powder.
Don’t forget James Garner in Support Your Local Sheriff; IIRC, it went like this: Blustering Bad Guy draws his six-shooter and menaces Garner with it; Garner indignantly shoves his finger in the muzzle. Bad Guy yells “Get your finger outta my gun!” Garner refuses. Something happens, Garner relents, and Bad Guy clutches his pistol protectively, saying: “If I’d a’ pulled the trigger, this gun would a’ blown up in my face! I could a’ been killed!”
Garner: “Yeah? Well, it wouldn’t have done my finger any good, either!”
It will foul the reload on a semi automatic if your finger manages to interupt the recoil/chambering. I’d think you would be better off doing this against an semi-auto. I don’t think a revolver would be as effected. If all you are doing is trying to stop a second shot. A hole in your hand is better than your head. The projectile would be disturbed enough by back pressure that some of it’s force would be taken away. The bullet wouldn’t reach the velocity it normaly would, but it would still ruin your day.
IIRC, a couple years ago a banger in my town blew his hand to pieces trying out a homemade silencer.
I suspect that what you are thinking of is a 12 pounder light gun from Rorty’s Rhode Island Battery. During the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg, during the cannonade that preceded Pickett’s Charge, the bronze gun tube was struck at the muzzle by a solid shot deforming the bore right at its mouth. When the next round was loaded the shell hung up at the muzzle and could not be forced down the tube even by whacking it with a sledge hammer. When the gun cooled the muzzle permanently clamped down on the partially loaded shell. I think the gun is in a state museum in Rhode Island.
Incidentally, Civil War artillery, especially iron or wrought iron gun tubes, was subject to rupture with unpleasant consequences for the gun crew.
Don’t forget also Lethal Weapon, where Mel Gibson sticks his finger in a gun. (It may have been Lethal Weapon 2, 3, 5, 73, whatever, but it was one of those) I believe in that case the intent was merely psychological, rather than intended to explode the gun, but it wasn’t explicitly stated either way.
In order to actually plug the end of the barrel, wouldn’t you have to have your finger jammed in there so hard that the metal barrel would rupture from the pressure? That’s pretty tight… just try holding back the flow from your garden hose with a finger. But I guess you’re just trying to obstruct the barrel, not absolutely seal it.
A few years ago I saw a cop show with recreated crime scenes, and one where a cop was one his back with the bad guy sitting on his chest trying to shoot him. The cop talked about trying to get his finger between the trigger and the … “round guard thing that goes around it” (sorry, my gun terminology really sucks) -behind the trigger, so that he couldn’t pull the trigger back all the way. Said something about being trained to do that, as the guy could crush your finger but wouldn’t be able to fire the gun.
Not an easy manuever to pull off as there is so little room behind the trigger that it would be hard to wedge one’s fingertip there. Yes, blocking it would prevent some guns from firing and there is even a safety device sold for Glock pistols that works just this way.
If something was jammed in there sufficiently to create a psuedo air-tight seal, then it is feasible… After all, the pressures from the superheated gasses… will be quite extreme. And if they have no place to go out, then they have to go somewhere. BOOM!!!
Gun probably wouldn’t explode per say, but it definitely would be damaged.
mmmiiikkkeee: all you have to do is slow down the bullet, then it does the sealing. It basically turns the gun barrel into a pipe bomb.
The Stupid Gun trick: on a 1911 (Gov’t model) .45, the trigger is designed such that you can’t get a finger behind the trigger. So you could grab the guy’s wrist and push the flat of your hand hard against the front of the gun, pushing back the barrel and slide far enough that the disconnector engages, as if the gun’s been fired and is ejecting the empty case (the disconnector is what keeps it from going full-auto if you hold down the trigger). Of course, if you let go, all he has to do to reset the mechanism is release the trigger, so it’s best to have somebody with a large blunt object standing by when you do this.
Disclaimer: Do not try this at home, with an actual gun, especially not a loaded one, it’s just as stupid as sticking your finger in the barrel, information for entertainment purposes only, I assume no liability if anybody actually tries it and hurts themself, etc.
Now that’s possible. Most tank rounds have a primer mechanism set off by violent movement. This is set off by the force of the propellant during firing. This effectively arms the shell, meaning that the explosive inside will detonate when it hits something. With a rock wedged firmly in the barrell the fired shell will simply explode in the barrell even without the gasses built up behind it. I’m not sure however if the primer activates fast enough to arm the shell before it leaves the barell.
I don’t know of a finger-in-the-barrel scene in Lethal Weapon, but in the first movie Mel Gibson is about to shoot himself and Danny Glover blocks the gun’s hammer with his hand, preventing it from firing.
As far as I know, finger-in-the-barrel bits only work in the cartoons.
Nope. I happen to live about 15 miles from Gettysburg, and downstairs in the exhibit center is one damaged cannons mixed in among all the others. I managed to find a picture of it on the web:
It’s been a while since I’ve taken the tour, but as I recall there is a plaque near the cannon that says no cannons exploded during the battle of Gettysburg. This one exploded at some sort of celebration later, but had been used in the battle of Gettysburg. That’s my memory of the exhibit, but I wasn’t able to find a cite for it on the internet.
Gwahh!!! GWAHHH!!! GRRAWWW!!! WTF?? You can plug a barrel enough to make it explode… but only with something approaching the strength of the rest of the gun. In my experience guns are usually made out of metal, while fingers are made out of flesh! I can see that a semi-automatic pistol would have a higher pressure in the barrel for a moment, and repeated firing with a finger in the barrel might cause the slide spring to wear out a little faster… but I would think that it would continue to reload, as the required gas pressure would be enough.
Don’t even think about trying to stop a shotgun with your finger… sploit! While you can maybe damage a gun a little with the finger approach, I think that the best bet in the long run would be to try gnawing on it.