Simple Method for Testing Bullets with YOUR Guns

[Alan Fud]

http://www.firearmstactical.com/briefs3.htm ...

... A quick and easy method to determine bullet or shotshell performance out of any handgun or shotgun is to gather several (and we mean several -- about 30) cardboard half-gallon milk cartons (plastic won't do).

Fill them full of water, line them up side-by-side three abreast, in three rows of 10 (each carton should be in contact with its neighbor). Back-up several feet and shoot a bullet from your handgun into the center row of cartons.

Count the number of water filled cartons the bullet penetrated, including the carton where the bullet came to rest. Multiply the number of cartons times 2.5 to determine penetration depth in inches. This will give you a SWAG (scientific wild-??? gauge) of how your gun/cartridge combination will perform in soft tissue (both bullet expansion and penetration).

The data obtained and averaged from three test shots should give you a fairly accurate SWAG. Remember to observe all safety rules when handling your firearm. ...

... I found the above interesting and was wondering if anybody ever tried it or thinks that it is a good idea / valid approach.

 

[Bigjake]

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[Alan Fud]

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[Bigjake]

i make the occasional exception for extreme instances. I was wrong, despite what i thought of the whole thread, my apologies.

 

[greyhound]

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[pax]

Moderator Note

If you have a problem with another poster, please take it to PM or email.

Post here only if you have a comment about this topic and this thread.

Thanks,

pax

If you speak insults you will hear them also. -- Plautus

 

[Bigjake]

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[greyhound]

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[Alan Fud]

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[Bigjake]

on this particular thread, i've never seen milk in cardboard cartons, where would one obtain them for a test?

 

[greyhound]

Pax -

Sorry, no more from me on this.

And Mr. Fud, if that happened, my apologizes for jumping to conclusions.

 

[Standing Wolf]

This will give you a SWAG (scientific wild-??? gauge) of how your gun/cartridge combination will perform in soft tissue (both bullet expansion and penetration).

Sounds like a pretty good earthquake predictor, too.

 

[Dave R]

Never tried cardboard milk cartons to test bullets from a handgun.

I did try plastic gallon jugs with a rifle. I wanted to see the difference between 7.62 NATO FMJ bullets and commercial .308 hunting loads.

Two rows of 5 X 1 gallon plastic milk jugs. Shot from 25 yards. With 7.62 NATO FMJ--thought I missed. Then I saw water leaking from the jugs. .30 hole through all jugs. With Remington 15o gr. Core-Lokt bullet, big explosion. Water everywhere. First jug is 1 flat sheet, lying 4ft. from POI. 2nd jug is torn asunder, 2ft from POI. 3rd jug is ripped wide open. 4th jug is ripped wide. Bullet yawed and did not penetrate 5th jug.

Made me a believer in "terminal ballistics."

I did some penetration/expansion testing with handguns, but I used wet newspaper media. Much easier to obtain and set up than 30 cardboard milk cartons. Compared 9mm vs. .380acp. The .380 performed closer to 9mm than I thought it would.

 

[pax]

*whew*

Ok, I just did some fairly heavy-handed moderating, for which I apologize.

For the curious: Those deleted posts were not universally bad; they simply were not on topic for this thread.

Post away, folks. Keep it on topic is all.

pax

 

[AR-10]

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[bdhawk]

bullet testing

i do something similar. i use one gallon zip lock type bags. i make a 90 deg. "V" with scrap lumber that is at least four feet long X12X12. i prop this up on a couple of old sawhorses. i stack several water filled bags side by side in the "V". i put a red stick on dot dead center of the first bag. i shoot from about seven yards, trying to make the bullet go through the center of the bags. i measure the distance and divide by 1.8. in other words, for example, 24"/1.8=13.3333. this is the approximate penetration in ballistic gellitin. i got the formula outta gun magazine several years ago. it works well. 9MM hydra shocks are evil lookin'. a black talon .45 looks down right evil. silvertips have marginal expansion and it looses the aluminum jacket. this willwork with rifles, just make it lots longer for the big stuff.

 

[Mike Irwin]

That's not a lot different from the "Fackler Box" concept of testing bullets.

I'm not sure about the 2.5 factor, though. I think that's too much.

Dr. Martin Fackler gives a factor by which you multiply penetration in water to arrive at approximate penetration in ballistic gelatin.

As for getting milk in paper cartons, I can go to just about any store in the Washington, DC, metro area and find it so packaged.

Think about it, though.

Orange, and a large variety of other juices, also come packaged in the same paper cartons.

 

[synoptic]

the orange juice boxes are bigger than the milk ones though. You'll have to adjust the calculations accordingly... That 2.5" seems to be the length of the carton, so if you multiply it by the number of cartons then plug it into fackler's formula you should have a fairly accurate measurement.

 

[444]

I have done this with plastic gallon jugs. I didn't really think it had any basis in science. I just thought it would give a relative test of penetration. I was very surprised that my .338 Win Mag really didn't do much more than my .30-06.
All the bullets I fired however did give me a beautiful mushroom just like the one's in the catalogs.

 

[Sisco]

When I was developing loads for my .41 mag I was curious about penetration. Nothing scientific here, just filled plastic 1 gal. milk jugs with fine sand.
First time I tried it I was pleasantly surprised to find that two of them back-to-back weren't enough.