50BMG vs Body Armor

[CSBOMB]

One of my students swears that he has seen a video of a US Marine being hit by a 50BMG round and surviving...not only surviving but getting back up off the ground.

Is there ANY Body Armor that could not only prevent the round from penetrating...but somehow, magically dissipate enough energy to keep every bone from being crushed and every internal organ from being turned into jelly?

 

[essayons21]

No.

The video he is probably thinking about: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=3587841

Sorry about the myspace link (not mine), but the video seems to have been taken down off youtube.

Apparently that medics unit tracked down and captured the sniper, injuring him in the process, then the same medic that was hit ended up working to save the life of the insurgent.

 

[Pat4x4]

BS.. I know what video he is talking about.. And a Guy got hit by a Iraqi BB gun.. Unless you were wearing 3" or more thick steal plate you are not going to be living after the fact.. Why would a American shoot another American Anyways

 

[CSBOMB]

Oh...and I suppose I'd have to question the likelihood of a US Marine getting hit with a 50BMG round to begin with seeing the probability of a foreign fighter having a 50 rifle.

 

[Pat4x4]

yep, that is the video.. I love modern technology..

 

[CSBOMB]

More than likely it was a 7.62x39...or at worse a 7.62x54??

 

[essayons21]

There were .50 rifles in the possession of the Mahdi army in March 2008. Not to mention a few remaining Dishka's, at least one of which was inside Sadr City in 2007-2008.

 

[Dr.Mall Ninja]

yeah that video looked fake

 

[General Geoff]

Not unless you count holding a 3/4" AR500 steel plate in front of you as "body armor"

 

[essayons21]

yeah the chance of an Iraqi get a chance to shoot a 50 bmg round at an american seems pretty slim to me.

Recovered round, solid tungsten, had penetrated approx .75 inch of steel armor, a kevlar blanket, and lodged in a MICH helmet. The guy wearing it was fine.

 

[CSBOMB]

That round looks untouched!

 

[essayons21]

Yep, you could just barely make out some rifling marks on it, and that was it. This was the third time a truck had been hit, and the insurgent shooting supposedly had a meeting later in the week with a Hellfire.

 

[essayons21]

yeah that video looked fake

The video is real, but it was not a .50 round he was hit with, but something in the 7.62 range.

 

[CSBOMB]

Hellfire for a 7.62? ...that's a satisfying trade off.

 

[Grey Morel]

Your student has a poor grasp of ballistics, as well as the forces involved. Please use this opportunity to educate him properly.

 

[ny32182]

The .50's official role is stopping light armored vehicles, right? I'm pretty sure there is no "body armor" on the planet that is going to stop that within its accurate range.

 

[CSBOMB]

He is an interesting character. One of the other students just said "Mr. D...I think he just wants to argue and isn't going to listen to anything you say..."

That says enough.

 

[IndianaBoy]

He is sorely mistaken. It is asking a lot of body armor with the plate inserts to stop anything in the 7.62 class. 50 BMG, forget about it.

Tell him to play less video games.

 

[627PCFan]

I saw a clip on the military channel. He was shot by a PSL which I believe is a 7.62x54R.

 

[desidog]

Oh...and I suppose I'd have to question the likelihood of a US Marine getting hit with a 50BMG round to begin with seeing the probability of a foreign fighter having a 50 rifle.

As a point of fact, the US supplied the Afghani Mujaheddin with Barrett M-82's back in the 80's to combat the Soviets. Some of those guns have turned up...others are unaccounted for. A buddy of mine doing counterinsurgency work traded H2O wells for guns, and came across one.

 

[rcmodel]

Yep, you could just barely make out some rifling marks on it, and that was it

If it's solid tungsten like you said, it is not a bullet.

It is the AP core out of a bullet.

No doubt the copper or steel bullet jacket stripped off when it went through the 3/4" steel armor and the AP core continued on.

Thats how AP ammo works.

Nobody anywhere makes solid tungsten bullets without a jacket over it to protect the barrel.

rc

 

[essayons21]

Negative, it was milled from solid tungsten. It was something manufactured by the insurgency for a specific purpose. I don't know if it was some sort of sabot arrangement, I'm sure the tungsten couldn't have been good for the barrel, but there are rifling marks on the bullet.

Also, the diameter of the bullet was approx. 12.7mm, so if there was any sabot or jacketing it was extremely thin and most likely stripped off immediately after firing. And look at the bullet, it has a boat tail... never seen a boat tailed penetrator.

Very unusual, which is why it was recovered and sent for analysis, not just kept as a souvenier.

 

[rcmodel]

Well heres the thing.

Tungsten is so many times harder then any barrel steel that if they made it big enough to engage the rifling, it would take the rifling out with it the first shot.

After that, bullets would tumble and not hit point first if they hit at all.

rc

 

[essayons21]

Which is why I personally thought it was some sort of sabot arrangement, but that doesn't explain the clear rifling marks on the back 1/3 of the round.

 

[KBintheSLC]

Most Level 4 trauma plates are designed to take hits from 30-06 and 7.62x54. These develop energies under 3000 ft/lbs. The 50BMG develops energies far exceeding 10,000 ft/lbs. sometimes upwards of 13,000 ft/lbs. That would perforate multiple soldiers wearing L4 trauma plates in the front and back.