Rich Grise wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
Rich Grise wrote:
rangerssuck wrote:
On Jan 12, 6:34 pm, Rich Grise wrote:

I _do_ know that 2250 PSI (150 atmospheres) is a very formidable
force.

Didn't you ever see "Jaws"? The shark finds out how much energy is
stored in a scuba tank.

Oh, poof. That was camera tricks. ;-)

A tank that can hold 2250 PSI would probably laugh at a mere bullet,
except for maybe an armor-piercing round. But I'm guessing.

I wonder if anybody's got a definitive answer to that one? Anyone ever
actually shot a full scuba tank or other high-pressure gas cylinder?

Mythbusters did. They found the obvious, that a bullet hole makes a nice
jet nozzle, but it doesn't cause a catastrophic cylinder failure.

Catastrophic cylinder failure comes from sustained load stress cracking
in the aluminum, primarily seen in an older alloy no longer used for the
cylinders. Those failures rip sections out of the cylinder and send them
flying through anything in their way.

Ach! I'd forgotten all about aluminum tanks! All of this thread, I've been
thinking only steel. Did mythbusters do a steel one? Wouldn't an ordinary
bullet just splatter? Armor-piercing, however, is another story, and that's
the one I'm curious about - an armor-piercing bullet into a steel tank.

I don't recall whether they did both steel and aluminum. At any rate,
steel 2015 PSI cylinders aren't that thick and most any jacketed rifle
bullet will punch a very clean hole through them. A clean hole equals a
nice jet nozzle launching the cylinder around.