The Behavior of Bullets

[WestonSmith]

I am new to handguns and am wondering what materials bullets will pass right through/stop at/ricochet off of? One of the rules of firearm safety is to know your target and what is beyond it. If you are in a situation where you have to use defensive shooting, you want to know what will stop the bullet, what the bullet will just go right through, and especially what it will ricochet off of. Let us say that you are in your apartment and there is an armed home invasion. If some of your bullets miss the assailant, will they go right through the interior wall, into the next room, then ricochet off the exterior wall on the other side, then come back to you, possibly hitting others when ricocheting back? Are there things that would stop the bullet right where it is at, with no ricocheting or passing right through? What if one of your bullets were to hit a microwave or desk, where would the bullet end up?

 

[LanEvo`]

I am new to handguns and am wondering what materials bullets will pass right through/stop at/ricochet off of?

That's not such an easy question to answer. A lot of it depends on the thickness of the material and the angle at which the bullet strikes it. And, of course, a lot depends on the caliber. There's a mighty big difference between, say, a .38spl leaving a 2" barrel and a rifled slug leaving a 12ga shotty.

Let us say that you are in your apartment and there is an armed home invasion. If some of your bullets miss the assailant, will they go right through the interior wall, into the next room, then ricochet off the exterior wall on the other side, then come back to you, possibly hitting others when ricocheting back?

I think you will find that most of the materials used in typical homes and apartments are rather poor at stopping bullets. Even a .22LR should pass through a layer of drywall without much difficulty. For more insight, you might want to look at the Box o' Truth website.

Are there things that would stop the bullet right where it is at, with no ricocheting or passing right through? What if one of your bullets were to hit a microwave or desk, where would the bullet end up?

To stop a bullet dead in it's tracks with zero chance of ricocheting, you'd need something like sandbags, an earth berm, or those bins full of shredded tires they use at some ranges.

 

[Oleg Volk]

I found that ice is very unpredictable...so is packed snow!

 

[thexrayboy]

Wondering how different types of rounds behave when fired at different items from different weapons?.....then visit our good friends at Box-o-Truth. They
have done much of the experiments to see what real world situations can look like.



http://www.theboxotruth.com

 

[WestonSmith]

The caliber that I was most thinking of is 9mm hollow point shot from a handgun.

 

[bogie]

If you're hiding behind it, it'll zip right through it.