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: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 01 2020, @08:24AM
They were also intended for urban combat, but there were significant aiming problems in addition to the barrels being a pain (read: expensive) to manufacture. The US military have repeatedly experimented with various weapons for the same purpose but always run into the same roadblocks: Cost and practicality.