Hunting & Fishing Easy Tests for Terminal Ballistics?

[dbooksta]

I want to test the terminal ballistics on some customized bullets and special loads, just to get a general idea of expansion and penetration relative to standard loads.

I don't really have the means to mix up and chill large batches of standardized ballistic gelatin.

Are there any relatively cheap and easy means of doing terminal ballistics tests for my purposes? I have seen mention of just lining up jugs of water, which can give a rough idea of penetration as well as the ability to recover the bullet. But I don't know if that's a reasonable approximation of expansion. Maybe it could be improved by filling jugs with a suspension of something like corn starch?

 

[SingleShot85]

Re: Easy Tests for Terminal Ballistics?

Pretty sure you will never recover a bullet shot into a jug of water or corn starch for that matter. Your target has to stop/catch the bullet for recovery. If you put a berm behind it, the imact on dirt will distort you findings.

good luck

 

[dbooksta]

Re: Easy Tests for Terminal Ballistics?

Not just one jug -- the idea is to shoot into a line of perhaps half a dozen one-gallon jugs. Of course water isn't ideal, but since 18" of ballistic gel, which is mostly water, will stop most small-arms bullets it shouldn't be hard to come up with a solution that can do something comparable.

I was thinking non-Newtonian suspensions (like heavy starch solutions) would have the advantage of putting up more resistance than water. I'm not as concerned with wound channel as with expansion, but it seems like I could even estimate wound channel by putting sheets of cardboard in the way.

I'll try this all out on my own but I don't want to reinvent the wheel if there are already known methods for improvising terminal ballistics tests.

 

[jasonk]

Re: Easy Tests for Terminal Ballistics?

Have you seen this site?

http://www.theboxotruth.com/

 

[SavageSlayer]

Re: Easy Tests for Terminal Ballistics?

If you line up several milk jugs in a row like 5 or 6 it should work with water. That being said you could mix the gelatin and put it in the milk jug to chill it. That may help some of your concerns.

Also, magazines, catalogs, phonebooks and news paper all completely soaked through with water make a decent media to check the terminal ballistics. I have tried this method and it works very well. I just lined up all my wet phonebooks and catalogs in a cardboard box and shot it from several distances to check ballistics.

 

[M700]

Re: Easy Tests for Terminal Ballistics?

I've used several different things over the years to test bullet penetration/expansion. Last couple of years all I've used are one gallon plastic milk jugs, filled with water. They're free. Easy to work with. Easy to clean up. They'll stress a bullet pretty good too. Here's some photos:

Jugs all lined up on a pair of 4x4's, waiting to be shot:

After a shot - just used the picnic bench this time:

A pair of recovered rifle bullets. A 100 gr Barnes TSX fired from a .25-06, and a 300 gr Remington hollow point fired from a .45/70 Marlin:

Recovered 260 gr Nosler Accubond from a .375 H&H mag:

Federal factory 240 gr hollowpoint .44 mag:

After I shoot, it's pretty easy to find the bullet. I'll note which jug it was recovered from, the retained weight, expansion and of course the muzzle velocity. It's a lot of fun, and perhaps a bit educational. I was impressed when my little .25-06 out-penetrated my big bad .45/70 Marlin... Of course that situation was reversed when I used a tougher bullet out of the Marlin. The more they expand, the less they penetrate. Velocity is not really your friend when looking for penetration in water jugs, soft material or game animals either.

Regards, Guy

 

[M700]

Re: Easy Tests for Terminal Ballistics?

When it comes to newspaper, phone books etc... I started with soaking wet ones, but found I got great results just using a stack of dry phone books, magazines or newspapers. They're tougher, it takes less of 'em to stop a bullet. They're lighter and easier to handle and they clean up a lot easier. If I was going to use newspaper or phone books or magazines again, I wouldn't bother wetting them down.

 

[badred6]

Re: Easy Tests for Terminal Ballistics?

what side of the phone book do you shoot into? The cover?

 

[Sendero_Man]

Re: Easy Tests for Terminal Ballistics?

I just go shoot cows... it works and the hamburgers are great !

 

[brdeano]

Re: Easy Tests for Terminal Ballistics?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Sendero_man</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I just go shoot cows... it works and the hamburgers are great ! </div></div>

That's the spirit!!!

 

[Sendero_Man]

Re: Easy Tests for Terminal Ballistics?

ya... thanks. Graduated from the Cow tipping team