What happens if you shoot a bed sheet?

[vanguard]

I have this friend that I go camping with and he always brings these unbelievable "campfire facts" that he has full faith in. I, being the computer nerd that I am, go home and research them to see how he does.

For example:

W is sometimes a vowel - true
Mountain Dew is the highest selling soft drink - false
The melting point of aluminum is 1200 degrees - true

His latest is that you can't shoot through a bed sheet. He maintains that the sheet will give, wrap around the bullet, and capture it. I doubt it, I think even a 9mm pistol round will shoot right through it. Google hasn't been helpful, does anybody know the answer for sure?

 

[rondog]

I suggest you try it, but insist that HE provide the sheet!

 

[ericyp]

I haven't shot a bedsheet with a firearm, but I've tried using them as a pellet catch and I know a pellet gun will go right through them... I would think anything going at a decent velocity will go right through it.

 

[Central FL Mike]

If you shoot a bedsheet you have to mount it. Club rules.

 

[SteelyNirvana]

I was bored and my mind was wondering one night a few months ago and I had the idea to do a bit of in-home ballistic testing. I purposely fired an Agularia super colbri .22 from my 6" rough rider into a thick bath towel folded over several times, just to see what it would do. It almost penetrated the first layer and had began to on the second. If a .22 with just the priming mixture will do this to a thick bath towel I'm sure any center fire cartridge would penetrate a thin bed sheet.

 

[taliv]

both of you need to check yourselves into mental hospitals for even asking. if a sheet could catch a bullet, then every indoor range in the country would hang sheets up and collect and reuse these bullets instead of paying tens of thousands for expensive backstops and EPA fees for cleanup. where do people come up with this stuff??

 

[Gunfighter123]

Sheets bullet proof ??? NOT TRUE -- I heard thats why the KKK quit wearing them !!!


PS ---- just a joke , don't freak out about it !!!

 

[franconialocal]

Gee....

C'mon....tell your buddy to get real!! I SUPPOSE MAYBE if the bullet has dumped enough of it's terminal velocity, speed, etc. by the time it gets there then yes, but this sounds like a really lame urban legend. If this truly were the case then why do I have to wear this uncomfortable ballistic vest to work every day made of kevlar with a seperate trauma plate when I could just come to work looking like I'm ready for a toga party? Yeah....I'm sure the Chief would love that. :banghead: At the academy I remember shooting at old t-shirts and, regardless of the caliber, it went right through even at distance.

 

[TAB]

no, but when hung from the top they will stop lower powered arrows( think the kind that little kids shoot)

 

[rokclmb]

Sounds like something for Mythbusters!

 

[f4t9r]

If you shoot a bedsheet you have to mount it.

I have a Satin and a Cotton mounted

 

[tunnug]

I believe he might be confusing the sheet thing, the one I have heard is that a silk sheet/hankershief will slide around a bullet fired into it, if it's held only by the top corners letting it hang free------I've never had the desire to see if it's true.

 

[JeffDilla]

What happens if you shoot a bedsheet?

You'll wake someone up?

Sorry, couldn't resist
It was lame, I know.

 

[BubbaX]

Huh? :banghead: How can anyone even entertain this idiotic suggestion? If you even for one second think this might be plausible you shouldn't be handling firearms.

 

[Gun Slinger]

What happens if you shoot a bed sheet?


Is he wearing it?

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

What happens if you shoot a bed sheet?

The bullet won't slow down one whit as it goes through. Where do people get these ideas?

 

[vanguard]

I don't see it as possible but to me, it's fun to entertain the thought. The key is the mounting, like a clothesline. Even a pro pitcher can't throw a baseball through a well mounted sheet because of the way it gives and wraps around the ball. Obviously holding a sheet up against your chest and asking a pitcher to drill you is a lousy idea, but hanging it from a clothesline and standing 10' behind it is pretty safe.

Having said all that, I bet the bullet sails right through.

 

[xstuntman]

The wife accidentally discharged my .22 revolver into the bed. It went through the comforter, blanket, both sheets, the mattress, box spring, a 1/2 inch pine board, bounced off the angled steel support under the pine board, and got lost somewhere in the box springs. BTW, we're talking Fed bulk ammo. Imagine what a 9mm could do? If I ever find that round i'm planning on mounting it in a setting for her. Mike

 

[tmajors]

I used a loose sheet as a backdrop in a home built trap in the garage when I was a kid for BB's. Worked great. Should work even better for Airsoft. I wouldn't use it for anything more though.

 

[hankdatank1362]

Well a bullet has to be moving around 300fps at least in order to penetrate human skin, right?

I imagine a bedsheet is about the same. And I can't think of one cartridge that won't send a bullet at least 300fps.

 

[qwert65]

well if your sheet is big enough and hung right you can throw an egg at it and the egg wont break(my physics proffessor showed me this)

according to the theory you can stop anything that way(if I remember correctly)bc the sheet catches it it's the resistance that makes it penetrate like the baseball ex above. of course for a bullet it'd have to be a huge sheet like maybe the size of deleware so a bed sheet i would say no

course I was always better at chem then physics.......

 

[Blacksmoke]

I guess if that is true the Klan has something with the sheets they wear. I might even press a couple into robes except all mine have bears and poodles on them. That might not make me to popular at the next convocation of the Claven!

 

[2nd 41]

If you shoot a sheet.......it will leak. It will not hold water. You cannot wear it in the rain. But, you will have good peephole

 

[Firethorn]

Thinking about the physics of it - a sheet won't be penetrated if it's allowed to move as long as the weight and momentum of the sheet itself doesn't exceed the force needed to snap the threads - thus something like a dull arrow will pierce a taunt sheet that isn't allowed to move, while 'catching' if hung loose.

However, most bullets will have enough energy to exceed the strength of the threads - the sheet won't/can't move fast enough to avoid having the threads in contact with the bullet broken.

In this context, a sheet made of stronger, lighter threads would work better - Silk, for example

 

[jerkface11]

So what you need is a Kevlar bedsheet.