The Ginormous Penetration Test w/pics

[whosyrdaddy]

The question of ball penetration from "hot loads" fired into Oak was brought up on another thread. The following results were obtained from a highly un-scientific experiment conducted in two parts.

Three balls were fired from an Uberti Walker for each test.
All chages were 777 ffg 55 grain by volume and weighed exactly 46.0 grains.
All balls were swagged .454 (maker unknown) and weighed exactly 140.8 grains and were loaded over lubricated wad (maker unknown).
Caps were Rem #11's pinched to fit the Uberti factory nipples.
Cylinder gap was gauged at .006 before firing, and was gauged at .007 after firing all 6 rounds.
Distance to target was 7 yards. Distance to Chrony was 5 yards.


The first part was to test ball penetration on a piece of Oak newel post 3.5" square.




The second part was to test ball penetration on .75" thick pieces of oak spaced 1" apart.




to be continued...........

 

[whosyrdaddy]

some results

Shot #1 penetrated 7/8" into the newel with a velocity of 1191 fps.




Shot #2 penetrated 1 & 1/16" into the newel with a velocity of 1206 fps.


shot #3 penetrated 1" into the newel with a velocity of 1157 fps.


to be continued again................

 

[whosyrdaddy]

more results

Shot #4 penetrated 2 boards completely and embedded itself into the third with a velocity of 1182 fps.


Shots 5 and 6 cleared 3 boards and imprinted on the fourth. their velocities were 1113 and 1184 respectively.


I was only able to recover 1 complete ball from this part of the test and it retained a weight of 131.1 grains.

Here are the boards numbered in order.

 

[Voodoochile]

Nice work.

The 19th century standard of small arms lethality was the ability to penetrate 1" soft pine & being that your .75" Oak boards are slightly harder than Pine but slightly thinner it nearly conformes to their findings during those time periods.

 

[scrat]

sooo sooo cool. good work

 

[bigbadgun]

Very nice test good job and great findings.

 

[Ginormous]

WOW! Very impressive methodology. Thank you whosyrdaddy, this is a really well done and well controlled series of tests. I especially appreciate the velocity and load information you give with the test.

Very informative results here. Muzzle energy developed is in the 400 to 450 foot-lbs range. Nothing to be trifled with at all. When (if) I purchase a chrony, something I have been meaning to do for a while, I'll definitely be using your chrony stand as the model for mine.

Again, thank you for an excellent test and extremely well done post.

If you are amenable this idea, PM me your contact info, and I'll provide some conicals in 200 and 220 gr weights for additional testing. I think these big bruisers would provide some interesting results as well.

Addendum: I just noticed the newel post is actually a laminated beam. The lamination process very likely makes that post even tougher than a single solid piece of oak. It so happens that I have a red oak with literally thousands of board feet of heartwood from which I could fabricate a single section of non laminated post for testing as well, if you are interested.

 

[messerist]

If you ask me that looks pretty scientific. Maybe you weren't wearing a lab coat. Next time get a lab coat and a film crew from ABC. Then your results will be irrefutable.

 

[DrLaw]

Come to Carthage, Illinois for the annual John Linebaugh Big Bore Conference in May and you can test out your guns against bone and see how far, the bullets will penetrate, if at all. Results may surprise you.

Contact Todd at 309-458-6464 for more information about prices for the three day seminar, or one day attendance.

Linebaugh will be there, and, if you are daring enough, you can try out one of those .500 Linebaughs you may have heard about.

The Doc is out now.

 

[Acorn Mush]

Cylinder gap was gauged at .006 before firing, and was gauged at .007 after firing all 6 rounds.

Very interesting test results, but I am concerned about the cylinder-gap increase after only six rounds.

Any additional info about this?

By the way, Happy Easter to all!

 

[Smokin_Gun]

All chages were 777 ffg 55 grain by volume and weighed exactly 46.0 grains.

Great test and pics ... the above equation converted to Black Powder by volume is 63.2gr BP = 55gr 777

 

[whosyrdaddy]

Thanks for all those great replies.

Ginoumous, I think that I may actually have a few conicals floating around here somewhere, If I don't, then I will take you up on that very generous offer. I was duly informed that my very next project will be training Momma in the use of her newly acquired Pietta .44 Rem 5.5". Guess she finally got tired of watching from the window.

Those pieces of newel are cutoffs that I've collected over the years from some of the staircases that I've built. I honestly can't remember the last time I saw one that wasn't a glue-up. I think that a solid piece would probably be more prone to splitting from the force of the bullet impact.



DrLaw, Bone? As in some sort of cadaver shoot? I guess if your going to donate your body to science upon your death, It shouldn't matter which science.



Acorn Mush, I really don't know what to make of that cylinder gap thing. The readings were taken several hours apart, so temperature could be a factor, but I will be keeping a close eye on it for sure.



SG, I did some experimenting last fall with nitrated paper cartridges using 60 grains/volume of 777 ffg and rb's. The loads were wildly inaccurate to the point that I was not confident that I could consistently hit a 3.5" wide target at 7 yards for this test.

These are the velocities that I was able to record at a distance of 5 yards to the Chrony. 1327, 1314, 1257, 1230, 1269, 1246, 1306, 1301, 1267, 1220, 1280, 1183. The lower velocities were from torn cartridges during loading that caused powder to be lost.

Note that the use of ffg in place of fffg was to offset the decision not to reduce the loads by 15% for the 777.

 

[Oyeboten]

Cool..!


As a sidelight, Southern Red Oak can be in-effect 'softer' ( less dense, lower Specific Gravity - less resistance ) than various Pines...as well as that individual same Species Trees can differ in any given region.


Too, grain or Ring orientation and ring-count-per-inch will occasion difference in resistance to peneration for any same Species Wood.


Phil
l v

 

[4v50 Gary]

With exception of the substitution of oak for pine wood, your test is like the tests of the old days. Oak was used at times, but I think pine was more frequent.