Can 50 BMG penetrate through 10 average houses?

[TimRB]

"If you line the windows up right you could do 20 houses with a .22"

Exactly.

You guys are missing the whole point of VPC's absurd claim. Namely, you're thinking about it. VPC doesn't care about people who analyze the average number of walls, and count the pieces of sheetrock. They want to plant a thought-bomb in the minds of simpletons whose reaction will be "Oh my! This is terrible! Somebody do something -- ANYTHING!"

Tim

 

[artherd]

Normal modern building code minimum standards construction?

Sure, but so can a softpoint .30-06.


There was a magazine article recently testing the Barrett Model 99 (Special Weapons maybe) and discussed the .50 from a Law Enforcement perspective.

They shot a (I belive) 14" diameter tree, describing it as the kind of thing they would hide behind in a firefight if they were a Bad Guy(TM)(R).

The round completely penetrated the tree.

.50BMG is 2-3x normal non-magnum deer hunting rifles, that's about all.

Heck, I hope they ban it. .408CT has a BETTER BC!

 

[JohnKSa]

Probably correct.

Probably just something people haven't thought about.

I know for a fact that a pistol round can shoot all the way through a wood frame house. There was a drive by in my folks' neighborhood years ago. I don't know if the gun was a .38 or a .357--probably the latter, but one of the bullets went in the front of a house and out the back. It happened that there were no walls in between, but I figure exterior walls present a lot more of an obstacle than sheetrock.

Another bullet from the same gun penetrated one side of my dad's van, angled upwards and went out the other side. It then hit the arm on the external hinge of the sliding door and put a hole in that as well and was not recovered. I can't recall exactly, but it punched through 3 - 5 layers of metal without stopping.

Bullets are pretty good at going through stuff--that's what they're made for.

Some of the penetration champions in the hunting rifle world will go through 4-5 feet of meat and bone. The .50 BMG is, IMO, going to do way better than that with AP.

 

[artherd]

.50BMG Raufoss (the best performing Explosive Tipped, Incendary, Armour piercing ammunition available in .50cal) penetrates 4" or so of a 600lb safe. Steel/iron grade unknown, but that's some ghesthalt.

http://www.biggerhammer.net/barrett/50calt1.rm



Then again, a .30-06 *softpoint* will punch through 1/2" plate steel. AP will do better.

Rifles are no joke.

 

[Tony Williams]

Against steel armour plate, a tungsten-cored 7.62x51 will get through about 15mm at 300m. Steel-cored AP will be more like 10mm. The .30-06 would be similar.

The standard AP M2 loading for the .50 Browning (steel core) as used in WW2 will get through around 20mm armour at 200m. The tungsten-cored SLAP APDS round is as good as it gets for hole-punching with a .50; that will penetrate 25mm all the way out to 1,000m.

Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website and discussion
forum

 

[Diggler]

If I were a pilot, I'd be more concerned about a single duck flying towards the windshield than getting shot out of the sky with a .50 caliber.

Ban the waterfowl!

 

[MeekandMild]

Can 50 BMG penetrate through 10 average houses?

Right, sure. It uses those smart bullets like they had on "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" LEOs have the improved version which will knock on doors, hover 15 seconds and show little warrents before they shoot through.

Isn't the VPC the bunch who said that .50 BMG shell cases were the size of ketchup bottles? Hey zoomies! I've got a .17 which shoots cartridges the size of those hot sauce bottles in MRE packs and will shoot through an entire water heater tank!

Morons.

Idiots.

 

[twoblink]

If you hit something first, then it might destablize the bullet enough that it might begin to wabble and then later tumble. If that happens, then it won't do 10 houses. But like everybody else says, if you hit nothing but drywall, a 375 H&H will probably do 20 pieces of dry wall...

 

[artherd]

I would be willing to bet heavily on the penetration abilities of a 750grain slug at 2700fps, EVEN sideways! (esp if AP or SLAP is used.) The video I posted shows some Raufos cores nearly come through the last 2" steel of the safe sideways.

Trajectory may be affected, but yeah, .50BMG is a lousy CQB choice

Like most of the VPC claims about the .50BMG, it's true. Kinda. With many caveats. And it's nearly meaningless.

Yes, .50BMG could down a jet. But only on takeoff/aproach, and within that same window there are many other calibers equally suitable for taking out a jet. .30-06 tracer would do juuuust fine. Nothing small-arms is going to touch a jet at 30,000feet however.

 

[six 4 sure]

Note to self, redesign of exterior walls necessary before building your house. You don’t want to be average.

six

 

[444]

Around here, where most of the construction is new, I wouldn't doubt it at all. Stucco and sheetrock vs. a .50 BMG ? Not much of a contest.

 

[Unlucky]

They shot a (I belive) 14" diameter tree, describing it as the kind of thing they would hide behind in a firefight if they were a Bad Guy(TM)(R).

.303 will penetrate a 8-10" pine tree, from personal experience; 14" is hardly a stretch for .50BMG

 

[Moparmike]

No kidding. I was shooting my AK to see how well it does last Monday, and 124gr FMJ @ 25yds blew completely through a 8" tree. Hell, even the softpoint did.

I dont know what their point is supposed to be (besides the afformentioned thought bomb), because I have a .22 Marlin that will go through a 55gal drum @ 25yds, with hollowpoints. 4 peices of drywall spaced 5yds apart @ 25yds shouldnt be a problem.



ITS CALLED PHYSICS PEOPLE!!! (vpc people.)

 

[Jim K]

I think it probably would, given (as has been noted) that there is nothing more substatial than dry wall and plastic siding in the way. I suspect, though, that their claim was guesswork, not something they actually tried.

Still, I am reminded of the claim (I forget if it was VPC or some other such group) that a "streetsweeper (shotgun) fires 400 bullets with one pull of the trigger and any one of those can destroy a building and kill dozens of people."

Even sillier than some of the claims made for the .223 when the AR-15 was being promoted. Trouble is ignorant people believe that sort of nonsense.

Jim

 

[KevlarTester]

That's ridiculous. Siding/outside wall, insulation, interior outside wall, room walls (both sides), interior outside wall, insulation, outside wall/siding.

Studs/nails/pipes-plastic,copper,brass,cast iron/wires/plaster/lathe/furniture... I'll exclude these.

What about deflection?

Probably could get through one, definitely not two.

 

[jimpeel]

Some wallboard tests

.223 wallboard test

http://www.njpdresources.com/pdfs/wallboard_test.pdf

Wound Ballistic Report Portland PD

http://le.atk.com/pdf/PortlandWoundBallisticReport1.pdf

This ammo is just plain cool!

http://www.ammoman.com/40_EP_DESC.htm

More calibers but still no .50 BMG

http://le.atk.com/Interior.asp?section=2&page=pages/ccispeer/ccispeer_GoldDot.asp

And then there's this on blended metal ammo:

http://engforum.pravda.ru/showthread.php3?s=&threadid=47338

Play the video at HERE Ya wouldn't wanna get hit by one of those!

Still no .50 BMG wallboard tests but I keep finding these really cool sites!

http://airbornecombatengineer.typepad.com/airborne_combat_engineer/weapons_firearms/

 

[clubsoda22]

my house has 18" stone walls, so, in my case, no.