Gun On The Moon ?

www.gocomics.com/nonsequitur/2008/07/27/?campid=0&ssns=9&

Nope don't have to wonder. A cartridge arm will fire under water. Therefore it will fire in vacuum.

The Primer is a contact explosive - needing no oxygen. All forms of propellant, from Black Powder on, are gas generators. They really don't combust so much as rapidly degrade and release gassified solids.

In Black, the Salt Peter (KNO3) is the Oxidizer and provides all the Oxygen needed. In modern propellants the base is either Nitroglycerine or Nitrocellulose - andthey need no further oxidizer.

Onward to "Jeremy's" comment: The bullet would not travel farther so much because of gravity, but because of the reduced friction. Muzzle Velocity would be essentially the same because it is a closed system, but once out of the barrel, the bullet would have almost zero drag.

On the Moon there is no advantage to Ballistic Coefficient. A Wadcutter of a specific mass will travel exactly as far and as fast as a spitzer of identical mass.

The biggest problem encountered in the lack of gravity & atmosphere would come in Newtonian physics vis-a-vis recoil. Since the person shooting the gun would have little gravity to push against, the felt force of recoil will be harder to compensate for... i.e. your handgun becomes a little rocket motor that not only pushes a bullet out the barrel at 1200fps but pushes the shooter backward, without air resistance, at a velocity based upon actual mass * FPE recoil.

Be fun to watch.

Sorry.... ish.

I actualy think it's still a fun mental exercise. But then, I'm a geek.

Think about it this way... If you did the math right, you could shoot a 9mm on the moon and hit Nancy Pelosi on Io... ;D