Well, if your ammunition — common consumer/sporting ammunition — gets submerged in water for a minute or less, don't worry about it. However, after somewhere between 60 seconds and 24 hours of submersion, you can start to expect to potentially see deterioration in performance.
Modern ammunition is watertight and you may still fire them outdoors during heavy rain or high-humidity season. However, if submerged underwater for too long, it's likely that water will get into the casing and render the powder too wet to ignite.
Humidity in the air, and especially direct liquid water exposure, can have devastating effects on ammunition. Quality ammo can be immersed in water without damage, as long as it's quickly dried off afterward and returned to a dry, cool location.
Originally Answered: if a gun gets wet can it still fire? Yes. Since the invention of modern cartridge ammunition guns are able to get wet and fire. This was more of a concern in the days of muskets when powder was kept separately from the bullets.
Some people might tell you that ammunition is mostly “waterproof”, so it's all right to wipe it dry and reuse it. They may even suggest other ways of “reusing” wet ammo. It's better to be safe than sorry, though. Once moisture has gotten through ammo, the primer or gunpowder inside it may have already been compromised.
Much depends on the velocity of the bullet. Relatively low-velocity rounds, like most pistol bullets and such, will actually penetrate to a depth of 7–9 feet. However, high-velocity rifle bullets, even strongly-constructed military “full metal jacket” bullets, will normally fragment on contact with water.
The other main thing to look for when you're examining ammo is going to be any sort of discoloration or corrosion on the outside. If there's any green-ish gray patina on the outside, then the round is probably past its sell-by date and needs to go.
When it comes to choosing the right safe, water resistance is a huge factor. But just remember that no safe is completely waterproof. If you experience a flood and the water is deep enough, or your safe is submerged long enough, it'll let water in.
Shooting at water is never a good idea. Bullets skip off water and go out of control in often dangerous directions. Sometimes a thrown rock “penetrates” into water, and sometimes it skips along the surface. Same with a bullet on water or the ground.
In terms of shelf life, ammunition generally doesn't expire or go bad. Many manufacturers will list an expiration date of ten years past the manufacturer date, but that's more for legal reasons than it is for safety reasons. If it's stored correctly, then there's no real known limit to how long you can keep ammunition.
In extreme heat, the interior of a car can reach temperatures over 100 degrees. While it might get too hot for a person's safety, it's still not likely to get hot enough to cause ammo to explode. Most guns and ammunition can handle being exposed to temperatures of several hundred degrees.
Water is 800% more dense than air, so unlike a bullet fired above the surface, once the bullet hits the water it immediately begins slowing down, the Science Channel explains.
While ordinary bullets can travel about half a mile per second, that speed quickly slows to a complete stop when the bullet travels through denser materials like water.
Many extraneous marks, scratches, deformations, and engravings are caused during recovery of the bullet after the projectile has left the muzzle of the weapon. To obtain bullets in the most ideal condition is to recover them in water.
Dry fire does not pose any real risk of damage to most modern centerfire firearms; however, it can for rimfire weapons, where the firing pin in most designs will impact the breech face if the weapon is dry-fired.
It's ok to dry fire your GLOCK pistol, but we recommend using a snap cap or dummy round if you will be dry firing for a long period of time. What kind of ammunition should I use in my GLOCK pistol?
Generally, yes. If factory centerfire cartridges are stored in a dry, cool place with low humidity, preferably in an airtight container, they can have an amazingly long shelf life. Many ballistics experts who have shot tens of thousands of rounds over the years report shooting 20- to 50-year-old ammo with no problems.
Although most manufacturers recommend not using ammo older than ten years, it's better to be safe than sorry. After a few years, use those older rounds at the first opportunity, maybe getting some practice in at the shooting range.
Typically, there's no expiration date on currently manufactured gunpowder products. This is because ammunition has the potential to have an unlimited life span when it's properly stored.
Brick can stop sustained rifle and pistol fire for several minutes, but will eventually fall apart. With the majority of modern homes and office construction, brick walls are durable enough to bear the brunt of most handgun calibers like 9mm, . 380, .
Assuming you are floating freely in space the gun will work just as it does on Earth. However, the bullet will continue moving for many thousands of years, eventually coming to a stop due to the friction from the diffuse material found in 'empty' space (or when it encounters another object).
When bullets fly through the air, they do so at amazing speeds. The fastest bullets travel more than 2,600 feet per second. That's equivalent to over 1,800 miles per hour. To put that in perspective, it's amazing to realize that bullets travel over twice the speed of sound!