Soldiers with too much time on their hands

[sectshun8]

One afternoon when i was in Iraq... a buddy of mine and I were tasked to take the SEE (that's like a loose suspension bucket loader/back hoe) outside the wire to a fueling ROM about 10 miles down the MSR, with no support. Getting out there was pretty uneventful. One the way back, my buddy gets one of those, cool at the time ideas. He wants to find out if a water bottle silencer would work on his M16.

So, with his 30 round mag in, round chambered, water bottle on the end of the barrel.... BOOM! Now we're both deaf because of the small confines of the SEE. Yeah, apparently it did not work.

It seems as though water from the bottle made it down the barrel, completely effing with the gas operation. The super heated water completed welded the bolt to the upper receiver, AND put a 2 inch long, 1/8 wide crack along the length of the bolt. The resulting pushed all of the rounds out of the bottom of the magazine and all of the floor. We had to take a chizel and a sledge hammer to even get the upper and lower receiver apart.

Luckily no one was hurt... but jesus, it's been over 3 years since that happened and it still is crazy to even think of.

[hoytinak]

Even though it's only 10 miles down the MSR your chain of command should have gotten relieved for sending yall out without support. We get hit just 1 mile or so out the wire, plus that's how we (the military in general) keep getting people killed and kidnapped. I'm usually not one to bash on here but that just wasn't very smart, hope you learned from it.

[fisherman66]

Thanks for yer service fellas.

[sectshun8]

Ha, no kidding dude. Our CoC was sooooo whacked out it wasn't right. Our CO and 1SG both were stricken of command out in the field.

[VUPDblue]

Thank you for your service, but back to your story. I at first assumed that the bottle was empty. I guess that was incorrect. If you attached a bottle FULL OF WATER to your rifle, then you were, in effect, firing through a barrel obstruction. No wonder you effed up your rifle. If the water filled the barrel and the gas tube, then your rifle would, in effect, try to act as if it were blowback operated. I doubt the water "welded" the bolt to the chamber. If it were hot enough to do that, then simply firing a round would cause damage, with or without water. More likely, the force of the recoil either deformed the lugs or simply squeezed them together causing it to be inoperable. The cracking of the carrier was more than likely near the gas key, correct? Water in the gas system would act like a hydraulic ram and split your carrier when under pressure, especially if the bolt was already locked up as stated previously. I wouldn't be surprised if your barrel was bulged at some point, especially if it was a M4 profile barrel. Good thing you didn't come under fire at any point after this, as you would be down by 50% on your rifle inventory Moral of the story here is don't shoot through barrel obstructions.

Successful suppressors have been created utilizing bottles. The solution, however, is to use a medium within the bottle that is less dense than water and stays put. Shaving cream comes to mind. Now before Bud Helms goes and gets all antsy about me discussing unregistered suppressors consider that there are more than a few suppressors on the registry that work in just this manner. I know a guy that F1'd an adapter that adapts 1/2 x 28 threads to the thread pitch of 20oz bottles. The bottle and it's contents are considered the disposable or "wipes" part of the design. Best part is, that it actually works! Worst part is the mess.

[K80Geoff]

How much did the Article 15/Summary Court cost you?

[Manedwolf]

I'm sure you'll now never forget the basic physics principle that water is a nearly incompressible material.

You can't squeeze it into a smaller space than it already occupies, so firing into a sealed water bottle with water in the barrel as well was tantamount to firing into a solid.



For example, you can pound in the nail with the flask full of water under pressure, and the rigidity of the water keeps the nail from breaking through the glass.

[fisherman66]

Manedwolf, yer grand (1000)

[sectshun8]

How much did the Article 15/Summary Court cost you?

Remember, whacked out CoC... no disciplinary action . It was taken as a field loss, and a new rifle issued.

[44 AMP]

First, Empty the bottle!







Idiots!

[hoytinak]

I love pogues....yall are so entertaining.

[DesertDawg]

Like what 44AMP said, empty the water bottle FIRST! Attach the neck of the bottle onto flash hider and tape it in-place. It won't "silence" the weapon, but will lower the amount of decibels a bit when fired.

One of my long-time buddies was one of the first Marine combat troops in Viet Nam, back in 1964/1965. A guy in his unit was a "fiddler"....he like to "fiddle around" with just about anything/everything! Well, the "fiddler" was on a listening post (LP) one night, and started "fiddling" with his M-14 rifle. He wanted to see how effective the flash hider worked, so he REMOVED it for the "test". Not only that, he loaded a magazine with nothing but 7.62 TRACER rounds for the "test". Before the other Marine on that LP knew what the "fiddler" was up to, the "fiddler" let a couple of rounds fly!

Three things were disclosed by that incident: (A) The flash hider DOES help in dissipating the muzzle flash, (B) tracer rounds tend to pin-point your position, especially if it has been "advertised" by the huge flame being released, due to no flash dissipation, and (C) that the Viet Cong were CLOSER to the perimeter than anyone was aware of!

The "fiddler" also learned a lesson that night. LP's are set up for LISTENING, not "fiddling"! The other Marine in that LP threatened to report the TRUE story, but he didn't....only because the "fiddling" of the "fiddler" made it obvious that perimeter security had to be increased.

I can attest to G.I.'s doing stooooopid things when they have too much time on their hands! Sometimes, they're funny, though!

[fisherman66]

For the kiddos stateside.....

don't try this at home. My untrained legal opinion is ...the attempt to reduce the report of a firearm is a ATF issue and under many conditions ILLEGAL.

FYI

[sectshun8]

It was reported to our unit armorer, where it goes from there is beyond my pay grade

Weapons are destroyed everyday in Iraq, and 99% of them are reported as field loss, regardless of reason.

If I remember, the rifle was sent to an AMSA shop back in Kuwait and machined to field grade.

Oh, and by no means am I trying to justify it, it was a pretty dumbass move. Just saying is all.