Sergeant Sabre
Member
I was at my back-yard range, I had a bunch of Federal XM855, and I had a old junk water heater. Why not?
The target:
An old water heater tank. It's been shot a bit already with various things. I don't know the hardness of the steel. The idea was to shoot it length-wise, so the bullet would have to penetrate three steel faces to reach the berm. Point-of-aim will be the raised square plate at the top.
You can see from this angle the "plate" at the top is about 1/8" thick. Holes in the actual tank reveal the tank is the same thickness. That adds up to roughly three 1/8" steel barriers.
The shots:
This is the top square plate. I first shot two XM855, and two XM193. I found two rounds penetrated the entire tank, and two were lodged in the bottom (third barrier). I didn't know which was which, so I fired four more XM855. The two holes on the far right are the XM193. All others are XM855.
These are the exits / impacts at the bottom. The two holes very close together in the very center were the two complete pass-throughs I fired at first. Note the bullet lodged in the steel, second-from-top. I don't know if this is XM855 or XM193. After the first four shots, two of which passed fully through, I fired the four additional XM855, getting more than four more holes, probably due to fragments.
But how much damage would one of these do after exit? As I know, there is no way to tell unless the bullet is caught in some kind of tissue simulant. The best I had were two water-filled milk jugs. Yes, the murky bottle in front is water, it's just been outside for a while.
I fired three more XM855. All three completely penetrated the water tank. The first jug was burst open from the impact. There were a few small exit holes that appeared to be from small fragments. The second jug was knocked over, but not penetrated.
First jug entrances
First jug fragment exits
So what can we learn from this? Really nothing, since it's completely unscientific. It's fun to shoot stuff, though.
ADDED VIDEO:
The sound is a little off, but here is the video I took. I propped my cell phone up on a rock near the jugs. I was a little worried that it might get wet, or some random bullet fragment would find it, but it all worked out. I probably forgot to add in the original post that the distance to target was about 30yds.
I can't figure out how to embed a video, so if anybody can tell me how I'd appreciate it.
Anyway, a link to the vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WTF0HBRxSc&feature=youtu.be
The target:
An old water heater tank. It's been shot a bit already with various things. I don't know the hardness of the steel. The idea was to shoot it length-wise, so the bullet would have to penetrate three steel faces to reach the berm. Point-of-aim will be the raised square plate at the top.
You can see from this angle the "plate" at the top is about 1/8" thick. Holes in the actual tank reveal the tank is the same thickness. That adds up to roughly three 1/8" steel barriers.
The shots:
This is the top square plate. I first shot two XM855, and two XM193. I found two rounds penetrated the entire tank, and two were lodged in the bottom (third barrier). I didn't know which was which, so I fired four more XM855. The two holes on the far right are the XM193. All others are XM855.
These are the exits / impacts at the bottom. The two holes very close together in the very center were the two complete pass-throughs I fired at first. Note the bullet lodged in the steel, second-from-top. I don't know if this is XM855 or XM193. After the first four shots, two of which passed fully through, I fired the four additional XM855, getting more than four more holes, probably due to fragments.
But how much damage would one of these do after exit? As I know, there is no way to tell unless the bullet is caught in some kind of tissue simulant. The best I had were two water-filled milk jugs. Yes, the murky bottle in front is water, it's just been outside for a while.
I fired three more XM855. All three completely penetrated the water tank. The first jug was burst open from the impact. There were a few small exit holes that appeared to be from small fragments. The second jug was knocked over, but not penetrated.
First jug entrances
First jug fragment exits
So what can we learn from this? Really nothing, since it's completely unscientific. It's fun to shoot stuff, though.
ADDED VIDEO:
The sound is a little off, but here is the video I took. I propped my cell phone up on a rock near the jugs. I was a little worried that it might get wet, or some random bullet fragment would find it, but it all worked out. I probably forgot to add in the original post that the distance to target was about 30yds.
I can't figure out how to embed a video, so if anybody can tell me how I'd appreciate it.
Anyway, a link to the vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WTF0HBRxSc&feature=youtu.be
Last edited:
