JP1954
Member
I saw MB today and they decided to see if water would protect a person from being shot. They started indoors with a plexiglass tank they built that I estimate was approximately 2ft wide x 2ft deep x by 10ft high. They got a recipe for ballistic gel from the FBI and made a cube approximately 2ftx2ftx1ft.
1) B gel at 6 ft deep....9mm pistol shot straight down went all the way through (dead). 2) B gel at 8ft. deep....9mm pistol shot straight down got stuck in top of cube....considered minor injury. 3)Second gun......12GA pump....B gel at bottom 9ft(remember it is 1ft thick) 3" slugshell......Tank bursts....slug ends up laying on top of B gel cube..They thought the water stopped it until they took the cube out and discovered a huge cone shaped chunk of plastic at the bottom of the tank broken out which meant the slug went through the gel and ricocheted back up through the gel(real dead).
Then it dawned on them that the more likely scenario of someone in the water being shot at would be from some distance (i.e shoreline) not from directly above. They decided to next try shooting into the water at a 30 degree angle. They went to a public pool, rigged up a 30degree ramp, and slid the B gel down it I think about 2 -3 feet deep. The first attack was with a .223 cal rifle....the round disintegrated before reaching the B gel. Next up....M1-Garand 30 cal (I guess 30-06 or .308....they didn't say which)... I thought this would get it....but.....it too disintegrated before hitting B gel.....Lastly they shot a 50 cal....I thought for sure that would obliterate it and punch a hole in the bottom of the pool...but it too disintegrated to my amazement....They also pointed out that all the rifle rounds used were FMJ no HP....Maybe a physicist can explain it.... Being someone who has never taken a physics class I can only guess that high velocity rounds comprised of really soft lead and relatively soft copper jacket hitting water which I do know is an incompressible substance, disintegrate on impact due to the "virtual hardness" of the water getting exponentially harder as the velocity of the round gets exponentially faster......If there are any physicists out there who could explain the reasons for these results I would be fascinated to hear from them.....Oh and yes, they concluded that at two feet deep, a round shot at a 30 degree angle would have to travel through 8 ft. of water which would protect against all the high power rifles and the 9mm they tested (they didn't mention the shotgun though) so it in fact is not a myth but they said they wouldn't want to test it with themselves !
1) B gel at 6 ft deep....9mm pistol shot straight down went all the way through (dead). 2) B gel at 8ft. deep....9mm pistol shot straight down got stuck in top of cube....considered minor injury. 3)Second gun......12GA pump....B gel at bottom 9ft(remember it is 1ft thick) 3" slugshell......Tank bursts....slug ends up laying on top of B gel cube..They thought the water stopped it until they took the cube out and discovered a huge cone shaped chunk of plastic at the bottom of the tank broken out which meant the slug went through the gel and ricocheted back up through the gel(real dead).
Then it dawned on them that the more likely scenario of someone in the water being shot at would be from some distance (i.e shoreline) not from directly above. They decided to next try shooting into the water at a 30 degree angle. They went to a public pool, rigged up a 30degree ramp, and slid the B gel down it I think about 2 -3 feet deep. The first attack was with a .223 cal rifle....the round disintegrated before reaching the B gel. Next up....M1-Garand 30 cal (I guess 30-06 or .308....they didn't say which)... I thought this would get it....but.....it too disintegrated before hitting B gel.....Lastly they shot a 50 cal....I thought for sure that would obliterate it and punch a hole in the bottom of the pool...but it too disintegrated to my amazement....They also pointed out that all the rifle rounds used were FMJ no HP....Maybe a physicist can explain it.... Being someone who has never taken a physics class I can only guess that high velocity rounds comprised of really soft lead and relatively soft copper jacket hitting water which I do know is an incompressible substance, disintegrate on impact due to the "virtual hardness" of the water getting exponentially harder as the velocity of the round gets exponentially faster......If there are any physicists out there who could explain the reasons for these results I would be fascinated to hear from them.....Oh and yes, they concluded that at two feet deep, a round shot at a 30 degree angle would have to travel through 8 ft. of water which would protect against all the high power rifles and the 9mm they tested (they didn't mention the shotgun though) so it in fact is not a myth but they said they wouldn't want to test it with themselves !
