I heard a fair bit of gear went into a deep sea trench West of Rottnest as well, as for the Mk III floating it will not float in water sea or fresh but it will in outer space, so ponder this can a rifle be fired in outer space! I reckon it could because the propellant supplies the reaction to push the projectile. Now going into Peters realm of I guess Applied Physics the equal and apposing forces rule by Einstein would that mean the astronaut being propelled backwards by the recoil forever and would the projectile go forever or until they both hit something.
Can a rifle be fired in space, yes, I wonder what difference a vacuum would make to muzzle velocity .. bet Peter's got the answer!
It will give the astronauts something to do on route to Mars I guess.