Little help here - un-exploding water bottle targets :-)

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Dansker

Dansker

Member
Jan 23, 2019
56
1
California
Had fun playing in the desert today.. shot up a couple bottles of water..
Now feeling really disappointed because i know from YouTube they are supposed to explode gloriously..
Mine just got a nice round hole on each side and the water ran out... Im clearly doing something very wrong.! :)

* For starters, I used quality plastic bottles from the recycling bin...
possible I should have grabbed for crappier bottles.

* Carbonated beverages would probably be more fun that my having just refilled empties with flat water.

* Polymags? flat nosed ? 😃

https://youtu.be/Rwr1hmZa3E0
 
Carbonated explode more readily, but the key here is the energy with which the pellet (or, Heaven forbid, slug) hits the container. You can use recycled bottles with straight water but you need to hit them with lots of foot-pounds of force to generate the hydrostatic shock that will explode the water outwards. Carbonated drinks in cans explode easily; in bottles there's lots of spraying unless you again get a pellet that dumps lots of energy when it hits. Either get closer with what you have or find a way to pump up the energy of the pellet - closer to the target, higher projectile speed, larger projectile diameter, better terminal performance (flat head or mushrooming).
 
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What kind of air rifle are you using? I ask because if is capable of shooting supersonic, the effects you see traveling through water will amplify greatly if you pick a lighter ammo that will break the sound barrier (and if your rifle can push it to a reasonable distance). The sad part is, even if you have a gun that can shoot lighter alloy pellets at 1200 fps, you won't see "explosiveness" with the water unless you can shoot an expanding pellet of that order at 5 yards or less. Anything beyond that, the ballistic coefficient is exponentially low and the pellet slows down to fast leaving the barrel, and the trans-sonic pressure-wave is lost before it reaches the target (and accuracy is significantly degraded at that exact threshold to begin with).
 
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Thank you guys,
So much useful feedback here.
looking at the bottles they were "designer water" type and far thicker than your average water bottles, thinking downgrading the bottles. and trying alu cans as well.

Crittahitta - that is a .30 50grains at roughly 850fps ish.

RBAZ - hmmm definitely need to order some of those "blast caps" like the idea of pressurizing the bottle, and fun before recycling the bottle.

IronLion269 - Thank you sir, this is helping me understand the mechanics of this. :)

ptthre - thats my impact .30 at max punch. delivering probably about 75-85 foot-pounds at 25 yards ish.
I thought about switching pellet etc. but don't really want to change my setup as Im used to it with the regular pellets. might try some polymag's with the current settings
probably the biggest variable was that the bottles are surprisingly thick walled, all of them literally blew the top of the cap, while the cap tread stayed in place.

Lots of homework before take-two :) Thank you again guys.

 
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If you have some silicone rubber around, you can make your own blast caps. Just drill a small hole in the cap for the needle valve and put some silicon rubber on the inside and let it dry completely. Rough up the inside of the cap for better adhesion. When pushing the needle valve through, hold the rubber with your fingers so it doesn't just get pushed off the cap. After the needle valve is in, screw the cap on tight and fill with air.

1548778517_12970448655c507c15c41a53.51754675_BottleBlastCap1.jpg


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31VIBI52kUU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4iQozDOL4k


 
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