Bullet Stop for Holster

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Alllen Bundy

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Continuation from:
Fanny Pack Holster - Proof of Concepthttps://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/fanny-pack-holster-proof-of-concept.897607/
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While working on the design of the fabric cover for my fanny pack holster frame for my P365X, I was thinking that when the P365X is in the holster, the barrel of the pistol is pointing sideways instead of the more normal down position.

And then I thought what if a person was in the way of the barrel?

What if the striker safety gets stuck and it cannot prevent an accidental discharge. (Yes, the striker safety has been known to get stuck on the P365 series.)

What if I forget to switch on the manual safety and I get careless during holstering or unholstering and have a negligent discharge?

So why not install a bullet stop on my holster in front of the barrel to greatly reduce the possibility of an innocent person being struck by an unintentionally fired bullet?

I'm sure many of you will consider this overkill. But the last thing I would ever want to do in my lifetime is to kill an innocent person. So I'm willing to make the extra effort to reduce the possibility.

I had to determine what would stop a 9 mm bullet in a very small space. I found the following test of different bullet calibers versus aluminum.

40 SW vs. 357 Sig vs. 9MM vs. 45 ACP (Part 2) (FMJ Aluminum Test) - by The Penetration Channel - Dec 11, 2016


A Winchester White Box 115 gr 9 mm FMJ bullet was able to punch through two layers of 1/8" (0.125") thick 6061-T6 alloy aluminum, but was stopped by the 3rd layer. So 3/8" (0.375") aluminum thickness should do the job.

I'm not 100% sure about the grade of aluminum sheets that I have, but I grabbed them from the scrap metal bin where I previously worked and we mostly used 6061-T6 alloy aluminum.

I used a stack of three 0.047" thick aluminum sheets separated by 0.075" diameter toothpicks glued at the edges of the sheets. This stack was glued to three 0.090" thick aluminum sheets, glued to the 0.087" thick U-shaped aluminum frame. Total thickness = 0.498" of aluminum, just a hair under 1/2 inch. That should be sufficient to stop a 9 mm bullet.

Bullet Stop Exposed End.jpg

The bullet stop, weighing just under 3 oz, is 11 times more massive than the 115 gr bullet it needs to stop. The bullet stop would be 8.6 times more massive than a 147 gr bullet.

The surface area of the bullet stop is about 35 times greater than the bullet diameter, so that would spread the force of the bullet over a much greater area.

So even if the bullet stop was not restrained and did not deform, when the bullet stop was hit by a bullet and it went flying, it would not likely cause a serious injury to a person.

There is space behind each of the first 3 layers of aluminum for the bullet to deform the aluminum into. The intent is that the bullet either penetrate or deform the aluminum so much that it is trapped before it contacts the last 4 layers of aluminum.

The bullet stop is held in place with 17 screws and was also epoxied into the aluminum holster frame. But the frame has had a considerable amount of weight relieving that has weakened it. I'm not sure if the bullet's energy would be enough to cause breakage of the frame. But at the very least, any deformation of the frame before it breaks will absorb much of the kinetic energy of the bullet.

Bullet Stop Installed.jpg

Adding the bullet stop was an after thought. In the next version I will not use the weight relieving near the end of the aluminum frame by the bullet stop.

Everything considered, I'm fairly certain that this bullet stop will work well enough to stop one 9 mm bullet.

Some people might complain about the extra 3 oz of weight added by the bullet stop. But I've got 35 lbs to lose. So what is an extra 3 oz to me?

Now that I've finished the frame I can sew on the water resistant Codura cover and make it look like a dorky looking fanny pack.
 
Have you considered how, should a round somehow go off, the muzzle blast and all the pieces parts of bullet and aluminum would escape through the holes and crevices in the device and firearm?
 
Have you considered how, should a round somehow go off, the muzzle blast and all the pieces parts of bullet and aluminum would escape through the holes and crevices in the device and firearm?

There will be a flap with a Velcro closure that opens on each end of the frame. A flap on one side to access the pistol and another flap on the opposite side to access the spare magazines. Any gasses from the powder burn would escape from both ends.

The reason for space behind each of the 1st 3 layers of aluminum would be to trap the bullet. I doubt that much fragmentation would occur. That's one of the reasons that I chose to use aluminum. It is far more likely to deform than break. The video that I linked will give you an idea of just how ductile the aluminum is. The aluminum sheet in the video is 0.125" thick. The first 3 layers of aluminum in my bullet stop are only 0.047" thick and will deform even more easily.
 
There will be a flap with a Velcro closure that opens on each end of the frame. A flap on one side to access the pistol and another flap on the opposite side to access the spare magazines. Any gasses from the powder burn would escape from both ends.

The reason for space behind each of the 1st 3 layers of aluminum would be to trap the bullet. I doubt that much fragmentation would occur. That's one of the reasons that I chose to use aluminum. It is far more likely to deform than break. The video that I linked will give you an idea of just how ductile the aluminum is. The aluminum sheet in the video is 0.125" thick. The first 3 layers of aluminum in my bullet stop are only 0.047" thick and will deform even more easily.

On contact shots, the blast amplifies the overall effect on the target, so I wouldn't assume that the video is giving you the full picture of what will happen in a confined space with a contact shot. Also, you are assuming that the gun fires while it is fully enclosed in the contraption without human intervention. What if user error or equipment malfunction has it firing while it is being drawn? But, I'm no scientific expert.
 
On contact shots, the blast amplifies the overall effect on the target, so I wouldn't assume that the video is giving you the full picture of what will happen in a confined space with a contact shot. Also, you are assuming that the gun fires while it is fully enclosed in the contraption without human intervention. What if user error or equipment malfunction has it firing while it is being drawn? But, I'm no scientific expert.

There is no guarantee what will happen until I test it. I doubt that any of the indoor ranges will let me do this kind of testing, so I will likely need to wait until spring to do any real testing outdoors. I'm not actually going to test the pistol inside the actual holster. I will instead make additional bullet stops in different configurations and test them with +P 9 mm rounds. Whatever works best will be incorporated into the next version of the fanny pack. This is after all a proof of concept.

Whether the pistol accidentally fired on it's own or fired because of user error/incompetence, just about anything that I put in front of the barrel will be better than nothing. FYI, There is enough room inside that the bullet will completely escape the barrel before contacting the aluminum plates, even when using the longer P365XL barrel.

The way this holster works it is extremely unlikely that my finger could even go onto the trigger accidentally when removing the pistol from the holster. Unintentional firing while holstering the pistol is the most likely scenario.
 
Am I missing something here? Backpack carry is a pretty slow retrieve to begin with. Why not just leave the chamber empty and rake a round when needed.
 
I think HSO is on to something; a fabric solution would likely reduce the chances of shrapnel/spray, be lighter, be easier to fabricate and less likely to spall.

Larry
 
Am I missing something here? Backpack carry is a pretty slow retrieve to begin with. Why not just leave the chamber empty and rake a round when needed.

This isn't backpack carry and it is only slightly slower than a draw from the hip. How it works will be more apparent when I have finished the Codura cover.

I may not have a second hand available to rack the slide, so I will carry with a round in the chamber. Not to mention that it's one more round before needing to swap magazines. The manual safety pretty much takes care of an unintentional discharge. Adding the bullet stop is just one more layer of redundancy.
 
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