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Milk Jug Ballistics Lab ??

stanmanstanman Member Posts: 3,052
edited May 2004 in General Discussion
OK, I'm kidding, sort of.
The subject of shooting jugs filled with water has taken alot of flaming on the forum in the past.
As I recall, someone wanted to offer exploding milk jugs as evidence that some particular round was adequate for whitetail deer or long range coyote killing or some such thing.

Well, I confess, I've been known to take a couple gallon jugs out shooting with me, purely for entertainment.
But recently, I discovered that they can actually be a fair indicator of bullet energy deposited "on target".
This will probably be no surprise to many members here, but I find that I get more violent upset from a .22lr HP than I get from a .357 mag. 158 gr. FMJ.

Anyway, what I'm leading to here is an experience that I had while trying out the new (to me) P97.
I had purchased a couple boxes of Win. 230 gr. JHPs and was considering them as a home defense load, but because of the HUGE hollow point cavity, I wanted to shoot several mags through the pistol to check reliability of feeding.
During the course of this exercise, I plunked a couple gallon jugs of water at about 25 ft. and the results were visually impressive.
But, when I walked over to collect the shredded remains, I found 2 perfectly mushroomed bullets laying on the ground directly behind the jugs.
I'm taking this to be an indicator that, on a center mass hit, over-penetration should not be much of a problem.
Can anybody tell me how wrong I am??
Or is this typical of anyone else's experience??

Comments

  • Gibbs505Gibbs505 Member Posts: 3,175
    edited November -1
    Never ahot them with a 357 but had lots of fun with a 44. That was fun and I have about 50 or so stored up for some fun in the near future![:D][8D][:)][;)]

    Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
  • jsergovicjsergovic Member Posts: 5,526
    edited November -1
    A local Deputy lines them up and shoots point-blank. The one who told me it was O.K. to shoot in town (not). Aside from almost getting arrested for blasting off on N.Y. Eve afternoon, great guy.

    I've wanted to to these tests for a while but never get around to it.
  • plains scoutplains scout Member Posts: 4,563
    edited November -1
    No scientic proof, but try this for size.

    A doctor friend sent me a great medical article a few years back on the charateristics of gunshot wounds written I think by an ER doctor. He discussed how the mechanics of a wound works. Nasty stuff.

    The human body is 80% water???? Anyway, fluid slows down a bullet pretty quickly. Water jug and human anatomy have a little in common in my way of thinking. Just my $0.02

    "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
    ~Abraham Lincoln
  • BerettafanBerettafan Member Posts: 592 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I have heard from some shooting buddies that one could use phone books as a good, cheap indicator of bullet performance. If you take a few old phonebooks and soak them in water overnight, then bind them together fairly tightly, one could competently test their bullet's performance. I haven't done it yet, but I am planning on doing it later this week, and I will post a range report.

    I do shoot jugs from time to time for kicks and giggles, but none of the ammo I have ever used is close enough to find like that. I just shoot them for the visual effect.

    All it takes for evil to prevail is that good men do nothing.

    For the first time a civilized nation has full gun registration; the streets are safer, the police are more effective, and the rest of the world will follow us into history--Hitler 1937
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