SOme informal ballistics testing

[MachIVshooter]

I got bored tonight and decided to play with my carry ammo in the 4 guns I alternate, an old pair of denim shorts, a 25 pound block of potters clay and my trusty camera.

This is by no means scientific, especially since potters clay is so dense and lacks elasticity. I wrapped the ~6x6x12" block with cling wrap to help keep things together, as the last time I tested on an exposed block using 10mm loads, I was cleaning clay off the ceiling. Even though this is no where near as useful as some members' gelatin tests, I had fun doing it and thought some of you might enjoy the results.

First up was the Beretta 3032 Tomcat with 60 grain silvertip's. It was 4 layers of denim and then this 6" cube of clay. The bullet fully penetrated, and I think we can safely assume it would have gone another 1-2" if I had used the full block. The slug bounced off the steel plate behind the block, landing about 8 inches in front of the plate. The slug was expanded to .503"



Next was the P3AT with my handloaded 102 grain golden sabres that clock 1067 FPS from my Beretta 84FS. This bullet also passed through 4 layers of denim and then fully penetrated the 12" of clay. The hollow point (on top of the block) plugged with denim and failed to expand.



Now the Remington 115 gr. JHP's (100 round value pack) that I use in my PF-9. After teh 4 layers of denim, the entry was much more disruptive then the .380, but it actually did not achieve as much penetration, stopping at about 10" (the slug is visible still in the clay). The bullet was expanded to .584".

(Sorry, the cross section on this one is messy, since I had no exit hole to determine the bullet's path).



Lastly, my Witness compact 10mm with my handloaded 180 grain Golden Sabres. Since the 10mm is so much more potent than the others, I added 2 more layers of denim, for a total of 6. When this round impacted, it severely distorted the block and shortened it to about 10":



The bullet (front and center of the 2 block halves) pulled a bunch of the cling wrap with it, fully penetrated and expanded to .958", with the jacket and core having separated



So, the .32, 9mm and 10mm behaved pretty much as expected. The .380, OTOH, I did not expect to penetrate nearly that well. Granted, the cosistency of potter's clay dictates that slower projectiles do not suffer as much upset as faster ones, but nonetheless, this round of testing has given me more confidence in the .380 for defense. Even though the bullet didn't expand, it definitely got deep enough.

Now I just have to explain to my girlfriend why her potting clay has little bits of denim mixed up in it.

 

[308sc]

thanks for posting,

very interesting

 

[19-3Ben]

wow. thanks or that. very interesting.
HP's plugging with denim bugs me. I hate that.

 

[loop]

Nice job. Results confirm some of my conclusions.

 

[HM2PAC]

MachIV,

Nice posting. Good luck explaining the clay to the GF.

 

[McCall911]

That's just too neat, MachIV! Thanks for posting.
I wonder how this would compare to ballistic gelatin?

Now I just have to explain to my girlfriend why her potting clay has little bits of denim mixed up in it.

I guess you can tell your significant other that it was all in the name of science! (But my ex would have said, "Well, Einstein, you can get your a$$ out and go buy me some more clay!" )

 

[papajohn]

Good post, and nice pix. I LOVE this kinda stuff, and this reminds me I haven't done it for awhile. I have about 25 pounds of Duxseal I use, stiff oil-based clay, even denser than potter's clay. It's a lousy replicator of flesh but a good way to compare bullets. And while some say that a core-jacket seperation is a bullet failure, I don't see it as such. If the jacket makes it more than five inches or so, I consider that adequate.

On the other hand, nearly all my Duty ammo and CCW ammo is Gold Dots, because they CAN'T seperate, and they expand like crazy. After 25 years of testing bullets in newsprint, water, mud, and duxseal, I've come to realize that when it comes to good bullets, these ARE the good old days!

PJ

 

[MachIVshooter]

And while some say that a core-jacket seperation is a bullet failure, I don't see it as such. If the jacket makes it more than five inches or so, I consider that adequate.

Agreed. In this case, both the core and jacket exited the block.

The reason I chose Golden Sabres is because the Jackets are very tough. Even though they aren't bonded, they hold together better at 10mm Velocities than the other HP's I tested. The 165 and 180 grain Gold Dot's shed their petals in my tests, leaving a slightly expanded base to exit with several fragments still in the clay. Same with Sierra and Standard Speer HP's. The 200 grain Hornady XTP's stay together, but often didn't expand and had feeding issues in some guns.

I think I still have some of my Gold Dot loads, and if I can find them, I'll photgraph the results (didn't have digital back when I did most of this testing)

The Golden Sabres feed reliably in all my 10'mm's, perform well and cost little more than FMJ bullets. IIRC, I paid about $160 for 1000 180 grain GS's from Midway.

Some close-up's of the core and jacket (sorry for the pixellation, I had to crop the hell out of 'em). Combined weight was 178 grains.

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