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Cartoons Were Right? Bending a Rifle's Barrel Backward Will Actually Redirect a Bullet:
In an experiment you should never, ever try at home, the experimenters at YouTube's DemolitionRanch found that if you were strong enough to bend the barrel of a rifle back on itself (a clever maneuver Bugs Bunny often pulled on Elmer Fudd) the bullet would actually follow the curved path.
[...] For DemolitionRanch's latest firearms experiment, it goes one step beyond what The Mythbusters tested[*] and bent the barrel of an automatic rifle almost 180 degrees backward so that it points back at someone unfortunate enough to be holding the weapon. [...] They built a remote rig to safely test what would happen.
[...] when the rifle was fired remotely, the bullet exited the barrel at its business end
[*] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xfYfgpjtws
(Score: 4, Insightful) by ledow on Friday July 31 2020, @02:41PM (2 children)
Quite. The bullet/pressure will follow the path of least resistance. Normally that's bouncing down the barrel and out the hole.
So long as there's not a point in the barrel where the bullet cannot traverse (I'm presuming the bullet tip / components that actually fire forward are small enough to course round the corner), it'll follow the path of least resistance out. And "least resistant" is second only to "stay here and explode the barrel", so there's quite a bit of lee-way.
We know you can make guns that fire round curved barrels. We had them in WW1. Trench guns and all sorts that would fire over the dugout of the trench with the user safely tucked away (and mirrors, etc. on the sights). Fact is that it affects the projectile - speed, accuracy, safety, etc. You're much better off firing in a straight line with an un-obscured barrel and doing whatever is needed for that to point at your enemy. It'll lose less energy, be less risky, and therefore travel further, and more accurately, and do more damage.
So long as the bullet-width allows it to turn through the entire corner without catching too much (the force will overcome some minor friction), it'll do a 360 if you want it to, let alone a 180. But it'll be "richocheting" off the sides all the time it's doing that. And one obstruction or even just a random "catch" on the barrel interior and it'll blow the weapon to pieces and fire shrapnel everywhere.
So long as the "turn" has room enough for that length of bullet to be steered around, of course it will work.
What use that is, is questionable. It's often better to have a shorter straight barrel and make arrangements for it to face a different way to the user to allow the same effect with better outcomes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 31 2020, @03:34PM (1 child)
The "trench guns" you refer to were almost universally ordinary periscope rifles, that is, standard rifles with unbent barrels, mounted on stilts (so to speak) with a periscope and remote trigger.
The Krummlauf family of weapons with actual bent barrels saw quite limited use, and I believe the US and Russian versions never made it past prototypes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 31 2020, @06:13PM
They had scoops attatched a the muzzle, to help the projectiles take a turn, not enclosed.