How much will it take to stop a 470?

[TedH]

I've been gathering old phone books to use as a medium for testing my 470 Nitro cast bullets. I'll soak them in water and don't want to use any thing hard to simulate bone just yet. I want them to stop in just the wet phone books. I'm anxious to try some, but i don't know if i have enough material to stop them. How many inches of material do you think it will take to contain a flat nose 500 gr. bullet traveling at 2150 fps? They are fairly hard, cast from a #2 alloy duplicate.

[Old Ironsights]

I'd start with a minimum of 24" worth... with 36" being a safer bet.

[homefront]

WOW!

What the heck is a .470 nitro?

Looks like a battleship shell!

[TedH]

It's an old English cartridge for dangerous game. Found mainly in the big double rifles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.470_Nitro_Express

I've got about 24"-26" worth of phone books so far, and I think 36" would definately contain it. I guess I'll scrounge a few more books just to be safe.

[Modoc ED]

I wouldn't think that the use of wet phone books would really give a good indication of penetration. To do so, each phone book would have to have the same number of pages, and would have to absorb equally in each book the same amount of water as the others.

MidwayUSA sells ballistic jellitan (sp?) at a reasonable cost and would in my opinion give a better indication of penetration.

Of course any .470 Nitro Express bullet, of proper construction should be sufficient to kill anything on this planet.

Just my .02¢

[TedH]

I'm not so much interested in how far they will penetrate at this time, rather just how well the bullets hold together or don't. How much smearing, weight loss etc. Besides that, I'm cheap, and phone books are free.

[86er]

Here's what we do when trying to capture bullets. Use around 25" of wet phone books. Behind the phone books, get a cardboard box about 25"-30" by at least 15 inches wide and tall. Put a plastic garbage bag in the cardboard box as a liner and fill with water. If your bullet is in the books - fine. It is passes through, it should be captured in the water. To repeat, just change the garbage bag liner and fill with water again. At 25 yards with a 470-500 you might want to put another 12 inches of books behind your water box just in case.

[Buck Elliott]

To reliably 'stop' hardcast slugs of that size & weight, you would do well to START with about 60" of wet phone books. The penetration capability of big-bore, monolithic bullets is incredible...

[Jason_W]

Well, it takes 6" of wet paper just to stop a frangible .22 lr bullet, so the short answer is, "a lot".

Since you're probably not looking for expansion and won't be running a lot of tests, I would cook up about 24" of ballistics gel backed by a stack of plywood pieces at least a foot thick. The gel will record cavity and the wood will stop the bullet.

[Doc Hudson]

It's an old English cartridge for dangerous game. Found mainly in the big double rifles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.470_Nitro_Express

I've got about 24"-26" worth of phone books so far, and I think 36" would definately contain it. I guess I'll scrounge a few more books just to be safe.

i don't think you are even half way there yet!

Granted I'm going by the performance of FMJ bullets, but any slug that will exit an elephant on a heart shot ain't gonna slow down much for three feet of paper. I'd suggest six feet as a minimum, and eight feet preferred.

That way, if I'm wrong and three or four feet of phone books stop the bullet, you have enough for another test.

[Buck Elliott]

AT least 8ft of phone books, I did a similiar test in my backyard with a 338 Win Mag and it went in almost 5 feet, but those bullets aren't spitzers and I am assuming that a 470 doesn't produce the velocity of the 338 as bets I can tell the cartidge was originally loaded with either cordite or black powder in the really early days

On further consideration, I tend to agree.

At one of John Linebaugh's sixgun seminars, a .475 Linebaugh revolver penetrated almost 5 feet of wet newspapers with a 400 + grain bullets.

If still in doubt, set up an old DeSoto behind your bullet trap. That should stop just about anything...

[Nobody]

[Pete44ru]

How 'bout, I volunteer my mother-in-law for backstop duty ?
She stops clocks, so she should be able to stop a bullet, too.

.

[Rimfire McNutjob]

I'll go 32 inches. Do I lose if I "go over"?

[TedH]

No Rimfire, you wouldnt loose, but maybe we should start a pool and see who guesses the closest for a small prize.

[mescalero1]

pete44ru

[1886]

How 'bout, I volunteer my mother-in-law for backstop duty ?
She stops clocks, so she should be able to stop a bullet, too.

.

I will throw mine in for free just in case the rounds penetrate the first one. Please, 1886.

[mescalero1]

mothers-in-law have a credibility problem here?

[hocbj23]

no apparently mothers in law have an expendability problem here-- they r expendable.BJ

[mescalero1]

[Old Ironsights]

no apparently mothers in law have an expendability problem here-- they r expendable.BJ

I'll keep the MiL, but I'll donate a slacker/lowlife man-child BiL...

[TedH]

Ok, here's what I'm planning to do. I've got right at 30" of phone books. I've also found cardboard boxes that are 15"x15"x30". Think I'll put the phone books in front of two of those boxes lined with trash bags and filled with water. That will be a total of 90" to stop the bullet. Maybe this weekend I can try it out and let ya'll know what happens.

[Buck Elliott]

Wear a big hat and a raincoat...

[TedH]

LOL! I hadn't thought of that. Maybe just an umbrella.

[DBW]

One politican killing the 2nd Amendment.

[Ysabel Kid]

WOW!

What the heck is a .470 nitro?

Looks like a battleship shell!

Small field artillery fired from a shoulder weapon!

[Doc Hudson]

I'll volunteer my ex-wife to stand in front of the phone books.

[brucew44guns]

If that bullet will penetrate 5 feet of wet phone books, I'd think of the headache a Rhino would have taking a hit between the eyes!!

[kimwcook]

As already stated, I think data from Linebaugh's testing would give a guy a close idea as to how much penetration you'd get.

[Pete44ru]

Ya kin try a string tracker on the bullet bases, thar, Ted !

.

[buckeyeshooter]

Better put something behind it! My guess is that it goes through the whole deal. At least my .470 capstick with barnes solids does

[TedH]

I bet a solid would, but I'm banking on these cast bullets mushrooming some and loosing some weight to smearing.

[Saltcreek]

LOL! I hadn't thought of that. Maybe just an umbrella.

Oh Great! He's going to look like Mary Poppins on the range.