Planning 9mm home protection ammo tests

[Bighouse Doc]

Simply penetrating a barrier proves little since even some rimfire ammo could possibly penetrate your material.

A projectile must, after penetrating the barrier, still reach the "Off Buttons" inside.

You may be incurring expense with no worthwhile data coming out of it.

-Doc

[martywinston]

I dropped Extreme Shock a note - thanks.

[martywinston]

Doc -

Let me take the flip side of that:

Not even penetrating a barrier might disqualify some ammunition from consideration by all those newcomers to gun ownership who have yet to fire a round even though their guns are now a year or two old.

If my test shows a small hole up front and a bigger hole in back, I can surmise that some stopping power remains.

If it shows a small hole up front and no hole in the back, I can surmise that the bullet didn't make it through the canvas.

If it shows a small hole up front and a small hole in back, since I'm not dealing with through-and-through FMJ rounds, I can surmise that any significant stopping effects inherent to the bullet design are not prematurely engaged.

For novices who bought who-knows-what to go with their guns, this can at least head them in some good directions.

By the way (buried this deep in a reply this deep in a thread, I doubt anybody will notice), I had a preliminary discussion yesterday about a half-hour TV show that would run nationally and be about all the products that gun owners may want to consider using. (Zero politics, nothing about constitutional rights or Wild West criminality, just an acknoledgment that ownership is growing and there are cool products to make that more interesting, more effective, more fun and maybe even safer).

[Bighouse Doc]

Exit/entry size ratios have little to do with the mythical "Stopping Power." Perhaps the projectile destabilized and what you see has to do with impact induced yaw?

Put a slab of brisket behind your barrier and describe the wound. Does the bullet remain intact or fragment? Does the projectile exit the slab? This is much more useful data.

Of course, shooting things is fun and if that is all this is about...Enjoy!

-Doc

[martywinston]

It is all about doing reasonable things with the grace of the owners of a range that isn't mine.