now you have me curios if I filled the stock on my rifle with expanding foam if it would be enough to float

this has me thinking I have a poly 700 stock I use it as a demo for stance if I filled it with foam and attached 8 pounds to it would it float.

or how difficult it would be to make a sling with enough floatation in it to hold up a loaded gun

Had a friend who used to dive up in the BWCA and they found a couple old flintlocks, so it’s been happening a long time. Myself, a couple on the bottom of the ocean with the entire boat

It's intersting what will float that you wouldn't think. Maybe not up high like a bobber but at the surface. My son and I have floating gun cases for our guns we use for duck hunting. I know that even the older style padded gun cases will float a gun at least until it gets soaked. Lots of people use the metal military ammo cans for their ammo. I dont know if they will float when loaded with their military ammo. I do know that some will float with shot shells in them. As long as sealed up and don't flood.
My guess is if you filled the butt stock of you rifle with foam. Pretty good chance it might float even if just straight up down. it's all about displacement. If it didn't out right float I'm guessing it would be standing on bottom butt up.
Once went to look for very high end titanium bicycle. Couple yahoo stole it when realized the value put them in a different class of charges. They decided to ditch it in the river. We messed around for couple hours before it dawn on us. That bicycle built like it was and the tires it had on it. Was most likly floating who knows where down river. As far as I know it was never recovered and if it was kept quiet.


Mac

Used to bowfish with some guys that used compounds that zip tied chunks of pool noodle on the limbs in case they dropped them in the water. Bows with full setup probably weighed 6 pounds and it only took a chunk of pool noodle 8-10" long on each limb to float.

Some waters will eat up metal pretty fast the lake I’m on the water will eat the galvanized off cable rather quickly. I used cable on my duck decoy weights once they sat in the water a couple weeks the cable was stiff and rusted.

Some of the bogs in the UP stained my conibears on the fresh traps.

I am absolutely laughing at the thought of a gun with the barrel through a pool noodle and another chunk of noodle on the butt of the stock for padding.

Henry made a 22 survival rifle that is supposed to float. I've never dropped a gun in the river, but I've dropped myself in while wearing one a couple times, and fell in with a rifle in hand before also. I've always been told to make sure and tilt the muzzle down and let all the water drain out of the barrel before firing.

I was working with a guy, and he told me he went fishing after work on the Wishkah River. While walking the river he found a loaded 300 savage laying on the bottom. He wanted to keep fishing and was paranoid about someone else picking it up so stuck it in a hollow log. On his way back up he said he could never find that hollow log.
Couple years later I was working with another fella and recounted the story. He exclaimed, "That is my Dad's gun. Seems he lost it when chasing a herd of elk and tried to cross the river when it was too high.
So, the guns still out there if anyone wants a treasure hunt.

My dad told me a story once about a couple guys he heard of out deer hunting. One shot a nice buck and was getting his picture taken with his rifle laid across the bucks antlers. The buck jumped up and took off running with the man’s gun still on his rack. Sometime later on an old farmer was out bushhogging his fence line and saw a dead decomposing buck hung up in his fence with a rusted rifle on his rack.

If you got a gun with quality mounts and scope it should be fine. I’ll spend at least as much money on glass as the gun, and obviously mounts are critical being the connection between these two. Certain guns I don’t cheap out on. As for water, just regular maintenance is fine……..ask these guys…

Dropped my 9mm pistol off a marina dock years go. Luckly only 6 ft deep so a swimming I went. Murky Mississippi so it was the brail method of retrieval.

I think all trappers have dropped a trapping pistol or two in at times. I have.

do you recall the sort of rubbery foam material ski jackets used to be made of , you see it used in the lifeguard tubes

https://www.swimoutlet.com/products/kemp-usa-40-mesh-rescue-tube-8215369/?color=red

think of a similar design to a life guard tube but about 16 inches long that attached to your sling

I run a sling on every thing but my pistol

I even have pistol with lanyard loops I never use , militaries like lanyard loops on pistols

the prototype could very easily be a cloth sleeve with a loop at each end and a chunk of pool noodle sewn inside

easy to unclip the sling slide it through the loops and clip the sling back on
if your paddling in a canoe your not using the sling a ton so it should be mostly out of the way leaving the gun to be used quickly still

Me too!

Honestly I would invest in something like that. Would love to know my pistol would float if I dropped it.

Had my trapping pistol fallout of a POS holster into the creek once. I opened it sloshed i around to clean out most of the silt. When I got home I washed it off and cleaned it good, and oiled it. HI Standard Aluminum Model so no rust to worry about

for a pistol I would run a lanyard and a locking holster.

the Safariland ALS system is fast to let you access your gun but holds tight even if your hanging upside down until you put your thumb on the lever
if is what most cops are running these days on their belts
if you don't both have the right angle and know how to disengage it you don't easily get it out.

https://imidefense.com/product/lanyard-loop-plug-for-glock/

here in canada most of us lost all our guns in a canoe accident.....