Bullet impacts against bone targets

[Brass Fetcher]

I just finished a study shooting various handguns, rifles and shotguns against gelatin, tissue simulant and bone simulant arranged to duplicate shots to the thoracic cavity, femur and pelvis.

The YouTube video with the slow motion video of the impacts is here : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvo9QD0JSFE

The report is here : http://www.brassfetcher.com/SimulatedShotlinesthroughtheHumanBody.pdf

Tested were:

9x19mm 124gr FMJ (M882)
9x19mm 124gr Speer +P Gold Dot
45ACP 230gr FMJ
45ACP 230gr Hornady +P XTP

223 Remington Barnes 55gr TSX
5.56x45mm M193 55gr FMJ

12 gauge shotgun 00 buckshot

People say that gelatin 'doesn't duplicate anything' so lets take it a few steps further.

Please let me know what you think.

 

[sidheshooter]

Pretty intense. I was surprised to see one of the 9mm+P GDHPs that mangled and separated. I think the .45 xtp represented well.

 

[Dentite]

Very cool...thanks for sharing.

 

[Steel Horse Rider]

I can't help myself.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1sf2CzEq0w&feature=related

 

[Dr.Rob]

Amazing to see deflection and seperation in such detail.

Rifles are rifles, pistols are pistols and a shotgun is truly devastating.

 

[Jason_W]

Very interesting tests. It's amazing that anyone shot with a firearm ever survives. The video definitely reaffirmed my faith in the 12-gauge.

 

[Al Thompson]

How did you judge the effectiveness of the simulated bone? Or in other words, what led you to choose what you chose?

 

[AABEN]

I liked it when the HP came apart. That is what a HP was made to do. It is to tear up the body. That way it does more body damage alone with more shock to the body.

 

[gunslinger15]

Wow thanks for putting in the hard but im sure fun work! Very interesting to watch and painful to think about! The shotgun is truly a beast!! Really enjoyed watching the 9mm speer gold dots as that is what is currently sitting on my hip looks like they will do the trick lol. Good Work.

 

[Certaindeaf]

That Jello squishing sound is interesting/odd, especially considering the fact that that it's like one frame per nano second or something.

 

[Brass Fetcher]

How did you judge the effectiveness of the simulated bone? Or in other words, what led you to choose what you chose?

The bone simulant tubes came from a company called Synbone and they market both the flat plate and the round tube as being for ballistic testing. I bought the thickest plates and tubes that I could find, from them.

Basically, it's still difficult to simulate the shots and impossible to exactly duplicate a particular shotline because of all of the variables. But I am happy that the JHPs match the appearance of those recovered from actual shootings and most were recovered from under the skin on the other side of the target.

 

[leadcounsel]

Was a very impressive study. Thank you for putting it together.

Hard to visualize the dramatic difference between pistol calibers, rifles and shotguns, but wow that is impressive.

 

[k_dawg]

Incredible.

It would be interesting to measure either the velocity of the exit and/or penetration into a regular gen to determine velocity loss.

Also, why do you refer to the M882 as +P+ ?

I thought M882 was 112 gr @ ~1260fps

That is almost identical to the SAAMI regular pressure for the 115gr @ 1150fps

btw: it appears as if the Coca-Cola Zero is the most devestating target. Lol

 

[Brass Fetcher]

M882 is a 124gr FMJ at 1250 ft/sec. These were probably mil-surplus because they failed lot acceptance due to the lower-than-spec velocity. Bought them at a gun show.

I've got all of that in bare gelatin too .. a comparison is a good suggestion. Flash-boiled Coke Zero has an aroma that I can't describe. This was a terrible idea, in hindsight. The can shatter one of my spotlight lenses and broke the diffuser.

 

[gunnutery]

JE223, thanks for conducting this testing and thoroughly reporting your findings. I've been rather busy lately so this is the first chance I've gotten to comment.

I'm glad to hear you chose the thickest material available especially since real world events are very difficult to reproduce, and in general, each event is so different that there's not a "one size fits all" test, you might as well go big or go home. You've definately gone big and have been quite generous in sharing.