Line #15 Main/GunsFiringUnderwater


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10	[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyGhosts https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/call_duty_ghost_underwater_gunfight.jpg]]]]
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12	In fiction, guns can be practically drowned in water and still fire accurately, if not a little worse for wear. It doesn't matter who's holding the gun -- TheHero or the BigBad, they can still fire completely accurately, despite the fact that GunsDoNotWorkThatWay.
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14	In Real Life, most guns will jam or misfire when people discharge them underwater. It's not the gun itself that is affected (well, not for the first time, anyway) -- it's the ammunition itself. Even if the gun is somewhat water-resistant (and that's a big somewhat, given that the barrel of a gun is essentially a giant hole), the primer of the ammunition is not. Besides the possibility of the primer being waterlogged, the gun's inner workings could also end up corroded by the water, and attempting to fire a corroded gun is a Very Bad Idea.
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16	A gun may work one or two times when fired underwater, but in the long run, water will seep into the gun or wet the crucial parts of it, making it completely useless. And then there's the actual water pressure itself, which means the bullet won't go very far.
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18	However, there ''are'' some guns that have been designed to work underwater. These include the Heckler and Koch P11 pistol and the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin APS Underwater Assault Rifle.]]
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20	Also a case of DoNotTryThisAtHome, because guns are not intended to be fired underwater. Shooting a gun filled with water or wet ammunition is probably not going to end well for you or anyone around you. And shooting a gun underwater with air in its barrel is even worse, because the gun can explode.
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22	Subtrope of WaterIsAir, [[ExactWords because the bullets will still work fine — though they just won't travel very far.]] [[HarpoonGun Spearguns]] designed for fishing underwater are also common in the hands of divers and underwater Mooks.
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25	!!Examples:
26	[[foldercontrol]]
27
28	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
29	* In ''Manga/BlackLagoon'', Revy gratefully takes an [=APS=] Underwater rifle from Balalaika, who used her military connections to the newly restructured Russian military to acquire it. She notably uses it during the Das Wieder Erstehen Des Adlers/Die Rückkehr des Adlers story when the APS is used against Aryan Socialist Union forces raiding a wrecked U-Boat.
30	* One of Leiji Matsumoto's short war stories depicts what happens when a rifle is waterlogged. A Japanese soldier, having been rescued from the sea, shoots the sole surviving crewman of a recently destroyed American submarine that sank his transport ship. The Japanese rifle, having gotten seawater down the barrel, manages to spit out the water along with the bullet. The bullet is slowed down by the water and only gives the intended victim a nasty bump on the head. To the credit of the Type 99 short rifle in question, the barrel's chrome-lined bore doesn't suffer any corrosion.
31	[[/folder]]
32
33	[[folder:Comic Books]]
34	* In ''ComicBook/JonSableFreelance'', Jon's .357 Magnum pepperbox — a SwissArmyWeapon — can fire underwater; usually firing steel spikes like a miniature spear gun. Justified as this is a gun specifically designed to fire underwater, being based on a prototype weapon designed for the Navy [=SEALs=].
35	[[/folder]]
36
37	[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
38	* ''Film/JohnWickChapter3Parabellum'': John Wick and a {{Mook}} fall into a pool during the battle of the Continetal. The mook tries to shoot Wick, but the bullets do not reach him and he shoots the mook point blank instead.
39	* ''Film/JurassicWorldFallenKingdom'': Claire and Franklin are trapped in a leaking "hamster ball" under water. Owen fires his gun at the ball to help them escape, and it actually works until he gets hit by a blob of lava and drops his gun.
40	* In the opening action scene of ''Film/LaraCroftTombRaiderTheCradleOfLife'', Lara is attacked by rival tomb raiders in a sunken Greek temple. The raiders are armed with {{Harpoon Gun}}s, while she fights back with a Heckler & Koch P11, a pistol designed to fire underwater.
41	* ''Film/LethalWeapon4'': Martin Riggs kills Wah Sing Ku by shooting him point blank with an assault rifle after throwing him into the water.
42	* In the 1983 thriller ''Love is Forever'' (aka ''Comeback'') the protagonist is swimming using scuba equipment across the Mekong River into Laos when he's spotted by a patrol boat who open fire with a machine gun. Underwater shots reveal the bullets scatter wildly after they hit the water and he's able to dive beneath them. Then they start throwing grenades...
43	* In the climactic fight of ''Film/{{Mindhunters}}'', the heroine and the SerialKiller BigBad both pack Glocks and both shoot at each other while struggling underwater, but while the Glocks shoot all right, the bullets just lose all of their velocity the moment they leave the barrel. The two of them are then forced to keep the guns ''out'' of the water and the fight then becomes a test to see who can hold their breath the longest, with the stakes of the loser being shot the moment they have to emerge.
44	* ''Film/ShootToKill''. FBI Agent Stantin shoots the killer during an underwater struggle at point-blank range, avoiding the bullet diversion problem.
45	* ''Film/USMarshals'': While a pistol is not actually fired underwater, Sam Gerald makes mention of Glocks being capable of doing this as [[ProductPlacement one of the reasons he loves his sidearm]].
46	[[/folder]]
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48	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
49	* Tested by the ''Series/MythBusters''. Even if a gun does fire, the water will slow a bullet down to nonlethal speed in short order.
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51
52	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
53	* In ''TabletopGame/BluePlanet'', most modern guns use electrically-ignited binary propellants and work just fine underwater, or can be made to with a minimum of fuss. (Corrosion's a problem, but [[FesteringFungus it happens on land too]].) That being said, water pressure does horrible things to external ballistics; range penalties pile up fast, on top of a penalty for being underwater at all.
54	* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': Firearms can't be used underwater unless protected with specific magic, and even then, shooting through water imposes a stiff penalty on the weapon's accuracy. Early ammunition is ruined outright by exposure to water.
55	* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'': Averted, as there are rules for how bullets work underwater (generally, they don't) and there are a few weapons that have been specifically designed for underwater combat, including a carbine.
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58	[[folder:Video Games]]
59	* ''VideoGame/AlterAILA'': In the Underwater Facility, you can fight enemies while underwater, and the battle screen doesn't reflect the battle being under water. This means that you can use all the regular weapons that you'd be able to use normally, like Shotguns and such.
60	* In ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyGhosts'', Logan starts of the underwater missions "Atlas Falls" and "Into the Deep" with the APS Underwater Rifle.
61	* In ''VideoGame/CaveStory'', all the firearms you can acquire fire underwater just as well as out of water.
62	* ''VideoGame/DeathInTheWater'' has the krakken, an underwater shotgun which is a high-tech piece of hardware meant to function in the deepest trenches.
63	* ''VideoGame/DeltaForce'''s standard guns won't fire underwater, which is a nice touch considering how little time players will actually spend swimming. The second game introduces a pistol and an assault rifle specifically for underwear combat, [[CripplingOverspecialization but they're notably inferior to standard guns]].
64	* ''VideoGame/DeepBlackReloaded'' is a third-person shooter that's mostly set underwater, and all your guns fire effectively without any problems in the abyss.
65	* Guns won't work underwater in ''VideoGame/DeusEx'', so you'll want a melee weapon for dealing with critters in the sewers.
66	* ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'': One of the advantages of the Glock (the game's starting handgun) is the capacity to fire underwater. It is one of only three weapons (the others being the {{crowbar\|Combatant}} and the crossbow) that can be used in such scenarios, and this characteristic carries over to its equivalent in ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'', the USP Match.
67	* In the {{Water Level}}s from ''VideoGame/JazzJackrabbit'' (Lagunicus in the first game and Marinated Rabbit in the second), all of the weapons successfully work underwater, including the fire bullets, without getting slowed down.
68	* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSpiritTracks'': The train's weapon is a large cannon, but deals with underwater segments by firing torpedoes instead.
69	* ''VideoGame/MetalSlug'', from ''3'' onwards, introduces underwater levels, and all your weapons works fine while you're beneath the surface. You ''don't'' get the Flame Shot in underwater stages though, but it's still possible to die via ManOnFire even in such stages.
70	* In ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic VII'', the closest thing to a gun is the ''only'' weapon that can be used underwater, though being LostTechnology {{Ray Gun}}s it can probably get away with it (it is a bit more odd that you can't use spears). Conversely, the underwater area in ''VIII'' imposed no restrictions at all, but being the Elemental Plane of Water it isn't quite working on the same rules as normal water to start with.
71	* ''VideoGame/PlayerUnknownsBattleGrounds'': The player can swim through the water and their guns can fire as though nothing happened.
72	* In ''VideoGame/RedOcean'', your guns can't fire underwater (though underwater areas never contain enemies) and as you surface in areas with enemies, your firearms can somehow work perfectly without clogging issues, despite being underwater literally seconds ago.
73	* : All the guns in ''VideoGame/SeaOfThieves'' fire perfectly fine underwater, made more egregious by the fact that they're all powder weapons and shouldn't even be able to fire because the ammo is wet.
74	* ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'': Most of the mechs' projectile weapons work underwater regardless of how these actually function in the canons of the works that are [[CrossOver crossing over]]. GameplayAndStorySegregation applies, of course, but sometimes these can also be {{handwave}}d by the MinovskyPhysics or {{Magitek}} involved with a particular series. Subverted because, depending on the installment, there might be some penalties to the damage output and/or accuracy of these weapons based on their [[GeoEffects terrain ratings]] (''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' beam weapons in particular used to deal nothing but ScratchDamage if used underwater, though later games buffed them to a more standard damage reduction). These ratings can be improved through upgrades, {{ace\|Pilot}} bonuses, or items, if these features are present.
75	* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'': Many of the weapons will work underwater, except for Pyro's [[FireBreathingWeapon flamethrower]], and the flare gun.
76	* ''VideoGame/{{Terraria}}'': Multiple types of guns can fire underwater with no difficulties. Flare Guns can fire underwater fine, as can the minishark, which fires musket balls.
77	* The archguns in ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'' are a class of firearms [[{{BFG}} so massive]] that without a Gravimag device installed they can be wielded properly only in freefall... or underwater, where they work just as fine as in space. The Grineer [[AquaticMook underwater forces]] are equipped with {{Harp\|oonGun}}aks and Kulstar [[PocketRocketLauncher handheld torpedo launchers]], two types of guns designed for use underwater which the Tenno ironically can only use on dry land.
78	* Justified in ''VideoGame/XComTerrorFromTheDeep''. Since most of the fighting is done underwater, the X-COM soldiers use weapons specially designed to be used underwater. Some weapons only work underwater (for example, the torpedo launcher), while others work both under and above water.
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81	[[folder:Western Animation]]
82	* Not conventional guns, but in ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' blasters are shown being used underwater during the Battle of Mon Calamari, as are lightsabers. Somehow the energy doesn't dissipate into the water until it hits a target.
83	[[/folder]]
84
85	[[folder:Real Life]]
86	* While dedicated underwater weapons have been developed as noted below they have never been used in combat, as the odds of two groups of divers encountering each other is almost nonexistent. Most potential targets have anti-diver defenses mounted on the surface, using everything from high powered sonar and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Navy_Marine_Mammal_Program dolphins]] to concussive grenades[[note]]Explosions underwater are far more lethal than in air, because water is incompressible and so the shockwave has more power.[[/note]], while divers themselves are more or less guaranteed to be killed if they are found and so few of them really bother to carry weapons for such a niche purpose.
87	* The Soviet [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APS_underwater_rifle APS underwater rifle]] is an assault rifle designed for underwater combat, firing steel darts that resemble those fired by a [[HarpoonGun Spear Gun]]. It was originally designed for the use by divers guarding important underwater infrastructure, after NATO successfully tapped underwater telephone cables carrying military comms and prompted the Soviets to start having their own frogmen carry out patrols. It was also issued to Spetznas for their own combat diver teams, but they quickly discovered it suffered from CripplingOverspecialisation: Out of the water its range and accuracy were poor. The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASM-DT_amphibious_rifle ASM-DT amphibious rifle]] and [[https://firearmcentral.fandom.com/wiki/AFM-DT AFM-DT carbine,]] which could fire the same darts as the APS but also load standard 5.45x39mm bullets, was developed to meet demand for a dual-purpose weapon. Later the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADS_amphibious_rifle ADS Amphibious rifle]] was developed which could use both standard 5.45mm ammo as well as special 5.45x39mm M74 7N6 cartridges meant for firing underwater.
88	* Underwater firing pistols have also been developed, the most popular being the Soviet [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPP-1_underwater_pistol SPP-1 underwater pistol]] and the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heckler_%26_Koch_P11 Heckler & Koch P11.]] The SPP-1 has four shots and can be reloaded via clips that hold its 4.5mm cartridges together, while the P11 uses a pre-loaded five round cylinder that must be replaced by the manufacturer in order to be reloaded. Pistols are often preferred because they waste less space for such a niche weapon.
89	* Some people just ''had'' to try firing [[http://douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/COMMS/underwtrgun/underwtrgun.htm ship-board artillery underwater.]] Unsurprisingly it didn't work, but the idea did lead to the far more practical concept of the torpedo.
90	* There was a news item making the rounds in 2016 about [[https://www.range365.com/how-to-shoot-glock-underwater a Florida fisherman]] ([[OnlyInFlorida of course]]) who used a Glock underwater to fish. Of note for the purposes of this trope: While the gun could fire multiple shots after some slight modification ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWlTluQro9s apparently, all that needs to happen is the firing pin needs to be cut to allow to allow water to flow behind it and the springs are probably going to need replacing a lot sooner]]), he had to use a special (underwater only) sound suppressor, as the sound waves became sufficient to impact the shooter underwater, particularly with repeated shots.
91	[[/folder]]

Context Main / GunsFiringUnderwater