Myth Busted

[Dutch Limbach]

Last night the Mythbusters explored the B Western myth of disarming someone without harming them by shooting the gun out of the bad guy's hand. They examined the myth from three different ways; 1. the Draw- the barrel was pointed down at the ground as it would be if it was being drawn from a holster, 2. the Shootout- the barrel was leveled and pointed in the direction of the income bullet, and 3. the Hostage- the barrel level and pointed to the side as though it was on a hostage.

What was interesting when the shooting started was the way the bullets fragmented and sprayed the plywood villains with shrapnel. Given the location of the target gun the wounds inflicted were not just to the hand and arms. A lot of the shrapnel was hitting the upper thigh with some striking in the area of the femoral artery.

Obviously, they came to the conclusion that the myth is "Busted".

[Galloway]

I saw footage of a police sniper shooting the gun out of a guys hand, so I wouldnt say its totally busted.

[Dutch Limbach]

They were examining the classic B Western perspective of a offhand pistol shot with a lead bullet. Not a sniper using a scoped rifle from a rest firing a jacketed bullet. They did mention that incident in their discussion along with another modern incident were a LEO disarmed a guy by shooting his gun hand.

[Delmonico]

The guy who got the gun shot out of his hand with the sniper rifle got shapnel in his hands.  What surpises me is that anyone would believe a gun could be shot out of someones hand with no harm.

[Texas Lawdog]

Only in Hollywood!

[Will Ketchum]

I saw footage of an incident where a citizen had followed some bank robbers to their residence.  The police surrounded the house.  The bad guys surrendered except for one guy who crawled out on the front porch on his back with a stainless auto held to his breast.  An FBI agent and a street cop were crouched to the side of the porch about 10 feet away.  The cop told the agent "I can shoot that gun" the agent told him to go for it.  The cop shot, hit the slide but didn't knock the gun from the guy's hand.  The guy took one look at the bent frame, tossed the gun away and surrendered.  There was no apparent injury to his hand.  Thought it was a pretty easy shot but still took confidence to take it.

Will Ketchum

[Delmonico]

Bet he still had pieces in his hands, guess a slide might absorb some of the energy.  The pistol the sniper shot or at least the film I saw, the gun went to pieces.

[Dutch Limbach]

I failed to mention in the original post that and failed to mention that the bullet impact did usually knock the gun out of the contraption they rigged up to serve as a hand. The times shown that it didn't was when the gun was in the "Shootout" position. They theorized that was because the impact was moving the gun in the direction that the firearm had been designed for to absorb recoil when fired. The reason they called the myth busted was due to the damage inflicted by the shrapnel.

They also did tests to see what it would feel like to be holding the gun when it was hit. Hopefully they will post some video from the episode on Youtube in the near future.
 

[Don Nix]

I have to disagree. I know for a fact that you can shoot the gun out off a Bad Guys hand. I was taught to do  it at the US Army Military Police School in Ft Gordon Ga.
It is very simple and easy to do, When confronted by an armed aggressor,take careful aim and fire three .45 cal  rounds into the center of the aggressors chest and the weapon will drop from his hand every time.

[Dutch Limbach]

LOL,

We'll go through this ONE MORE TIME. Disarming the bad guy is only HALF the equation. The other half is doing so without harming him.

Perhaps the title of the episode "Unarmed AND Unharmed" might shed some light on the myth they were exploring.

[Ol Gabe]

Del, Kind Sir,
I always enjoy your comments regarding firearms and the use thereof, etc., as I always learn something new! I wish that with all your knowledge of same you would seriously consider an e-published safety manuel or something akin, that would contain all your accumulated experiences such as you have described above as it would be a boon to all CAS/WAS Shooters both in SASS & NCOWS as well as Hunters, etc., that use the self-same firearms to harvest wild game.
OK, I have gently challenged you to do so and hope you will accept it as such in the positive method it is sent. You, Kind Sir, have a plethora of knowledge that most us of us will never have and it really, really needs to be published here or in an article in one of our various CAS/WAS org mags of your choice.
Please, please consider this as it will be ever so helpful and your expertise will be most welcome and encouraged!
Best regards and good thinking!
'Ol Gabe
P.S.
I think Terry Lane will be most interested in this concept as it is something you could publish, package and sell or use as a 'value-added' item give-away item with every CAS/WAS sale you all make at your most excellent place of business!

[Delmonico]

Gabe, do I have to tell how some of the knowledge was obtained, I hate being a "do as I say, not as I've did" kind of person.

BTW the worst Mythbusters I ever saw was the time they made a bullet out of frozen hamburger and tried to fire over the charge in a 6.5 Carcano round they'd just pulled the 160 round nose out of.  Does anyone who reloads much know why they didn't get much velocity out of it.

Kinda quit watchin' them much after that one.

[kflach]

Huh?

You'd let reality keep you from watching a cute redhead??

<grin>

[Texas Lawdog]

Kflach, Let's leave my wife out of this!

[Dutch Limbach]

Huh?

You'd let reality keep you from watching a cute redhead??

<grin>

A cute redhead that likes guns and explosions!

(No disrespect intended toward your bride TL.)

[Mogorilla]

I really liked the Pirate myth show where they kept using the air cannon instead of a real one, saying they were similar.  Then they shot the real cannon (civil war era, not ship's cannon).  the ball passed through five pig carcasses like butter.  They seemed to have a whole new respect for black powder after that.

[Skeeter Lewis]

This tells you all you need to know about shooting guns from people's hands. Watch a pro.

[kflach]

LOL!

TLD, more power to you!

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

Did you see those "hand" targets that Tom's character uses to practice.  I thought they'd be a hoot to use as a stop-time target at a match.

Here's the clip about goodguys.  Too bad, cause I'd fit in to Barber's character!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZeS1b4QSVk&feature=related

[Delmonico]

Huh?

You'd let reality keep you from watching a cute redhead??

<grin>

Guess that's why some of us know more than others, we do research, not watch TV all the time.  Sides I got penty at home.