Penetration report--various guns/loads

getitdone1 · Post by **getitdone1** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 10:39 pm

Last year about this time and today I did some penetration tests with various guns and cartridges--mostly using 1 gallon plastic jugs filled with water with caps on tight. Used-up 45 jugs today.

Here's today's results:

Browning A-bolt, .243 Win--

55 gr. Sierra--1. blows first jug up, stopped in 2nd
2. blows first jug up, fragments in 2nd
A very fast/explosive bullet!

80 gr. FMJ Hornady--Blew 1st up and stopped in 2nd.
What a suprise! I was looking for it to go through 5-6 jugs

95 gr Nosler Partition--Blew-up 1st jug and stopped in 5th. 60 gr remaining.

75 gr Hornady HP--Thru 2 jugs only and blew both up. (I like it!)

Browning 71 Carbine, .348 Win.:

250 gr Barnes Original--Stopped in 5th with buldge on back side. Only 1 jug left standing on the 2X10 board. It creates "excitement!" 210gr left
bullet still had about 1/2" not mushroomed.

Remington 1100, 20 ga.:

Winchester slug--stopped in 1st jug. Whoa. Gotta try this one again when I get more jugs. This must be wrong. One piece of slug in first jug. Must be pretty soft or pure lead. Seems to shatter easy.

Remington #3 buckshot--Went thru 4 & 5 jugs. Found 4 pellets in 4th jug and 4 pellets in 5th. What a suprise! Figured 1 jug would be all they'd penetrate. Each pellet distorted some and averaged weighing about 22 gr each. 20X22 = 440 gr. I would sure not like to be on the receiving end of this and espcially if they were shooting my semi-auto and 3 fast shots. Devastating ! This needs repeating a couple more times once I have more jugs. Go to good ole' Wikipedia encyclopedia and find that #3 buck weighs 23.5 gr and has 0.250" dia. 20, 25 caliber pellets coming at you at about 1200 fps is to be avoided.

Marlin mod. 60, 22 LR

Win SuperX, 37 gr HP bullet--Made it into 3rd bottle
CCI Stinger 32 gr HP bullet--Bullet into 2nd bottle, more explosive
Remington Hi Velocity solid--Wow! Went through 4, no bullet found
Winchester SuperX Hi Velocity, 40 gr--Buldges backside of 4th jug. No bullet distortion and rifling easy to see on sides of bullet.
Federal 40 gr Solid, Champion--Went thru 4 jugs, no bullet found.

Can you believe? The little 22 LR rimfire penetrating as well as some centerfire deer loads. The 22 LR is certainly no toy! We discussed recently how many cattle are killed with them come butchering time on the farm. They go down like they were hit by llightening--I seen it several times. Even did the shooting one time with my dad telling me where to place the bullet in the cows forehead.

Regarding the penetration of the 22 LR. As has been discussed in this group: Slower velocity often gets you more penetration and less bullet distortion/mushrooming--and vice-versa!

Glock G19, 9mm Luger:

115 gr FMJ--Went thru 3 jugs and hit high or might have gone thru more. Need more jugs, more testing--and with other bullets.

Last year about this time, the following:

Browning 1886 SRC, 45-70 Govt:

300 gr Sierra HP--Thru about 2 1/2 jugs. Bullet shattered. 1st jug blown totally apart.
405 gr Remington solid--Thru about 4 1/2 jugs. Kick !
400 gr Barnes Original--Thru 5 jugs and barely in 6th. Beautiful mushroom.

Winchester 94 Cowboy commemorative, 30 WCF

125 gr Sierra HP--Thru 2 and dented 3rd jug. Devastating bullet/load.
150 gr Win. HP factory load--Thru 2 and dented 3rd.
150 gr Win. Power Point--Stopped in 3rd.
170 gr Win. Power Point--Thru 3 and dented 4th.
170 gr Win. Silver Tip--3 and dented 4th.
150 gr Win. Silver Tip--Stopped in 5th. Needs more testing. Why more penetration than the 170 gr Silver Tip?

Browning 71 Carbine .348 Winchester:

200 gr Hornady--Thru 4 and stuck in front of 5th.
200 gr Winchester Silver Tip factory load--Stopped in 4th, jacket separated from core

Related findings/opinions:

I find that the Winchester handgun Silver Tip (Much different from rifle Silver Tip) is very explosive with 45 Colt and 9mm Luger. It's my first choice for self-defense in a handgun.

I find the Gold Dot bullet to be pretty tough and penetrates well out of a handgun.

A faster bullet receives more resistance from water--or anything else. It also mushrooms more and this all combines to give less penetration than if it were driven at a slower speed.

The 22 Long Rifle suprised the heck out of me today. Wanted to test 22 magnum rim-fire but ran-out of jugs.

Several of today's tests, and some from last year, need to be done a couple more times to be believed.

So it's only water. Well, animal tissue is about 66% water so there's some validity to these water tests.

Don McCullough

Bigahh · Post by **Bigahh** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 11:07 pm

Interesting stuff! Sounds like you got to squeeze a few shots off, thanks for the report.

LeverBob · Post by **LeverBob** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 11:08 pm

Thanks Don for posting your tests. This is a really interesting way to test penetration & have a blast (intended) too. heh

Love to read more...

LeverBob
Happy New Year!

LeverBob · Post by **LeverBob** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 11:10 pm

Thanks Don for posting your tests. This is a really interesting way to test penetration & have a blast (intended) too. heh

Love to read more...

LeverBob
Happy New Year!

KirkD · Post by **KirkD** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 11:32 pm

I'm not surprised about the penetration of the 22 rimfire. A lot of people underestimate its penetration. The big surprise for me was the buckshot.

C. Cash · Post by **C. Cash** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 11:33 pm

Very interesting and thank you for sharing these results. I'm dying to know how well 200 gr. 35 Cal. hard cast slug will do travelling about 2100 fps. On my list of to do's.

Comal Forge · Post by **Comal Forge** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 11:49 pm

For some reason unknown to me at the time, my uncle always hunted deer with #1 buckshot - so as a kid, I followed his lead. One evening, I saw a doe at about 40 yds with W-W Super-X shells in the shotgun. I shot once and she disappeared in the recoil. I walked up to where I thought she lay and there was no life left - most of the pellets had gone right through and she was DEAD - no running, no tracking. Maybe Uncle was on to something.

When I was in college, I shot a S&W .44 Mag with cast linotype Keith bullets - these were from a 245 gr SAECO mold over 15.5-17.0 gr of Blue Dot. We discovered some old abandoned storage tanks in the National Forest which were rolled from 5/16 plate. These bullets would punch thru every single time, without fail. I never shot them at water jugs but I expect they would do reasonably well. A buddy shot a buck end for end with this load out of a 10" T/C Contender and it went in about neck level and exited just below the tail. That deer also died without kicking - the Spirit just left him without delay...

There's something to be said for extreme penetration.

Ravenman · Post by **Ravenman** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 6:13 am

Great job. Thanks for sharing.

Some .458 bullets after passing wood logs at 100 meters. Every bullet penetrated a piece of wood of about 20 inches. Only the Winchester 500grs. Soft Point bullet is factory stuff. All others are reloads. The gun is a Winchester 70 XTR Super Express 22".

1" Steel plate at 60 meters. Weatherby MK V 460 Weatherby Magnum with Weatherby factory 500grs. Soft Point ammo.

WCF3030 · Post by **WCF3030** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 7:31 am

KirkD wrote:I'm not surprised about the penetration of the 22 rimfire. A lot of people underestimate its penetration. The big surprise for me was the buckshot.

Same here, I would have figured the buckshot to have stopped in the second jug.

The 30-30 data was no surprise though.

Borregos · Post by **Borregos** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 7:37 am

very interesting post, thanks for sharing with us

1886 · Post by **1886** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 8:01 am

Those big bores are a blast. They make holes that a sparrow could fly through. 1886.

Tycer · Post by **Tycer** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 9:29 am

Love range reports!

Grizz · Post by **Grizz** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 10:00 am

Love the jug tests Don.

Merry Christmas

Grizz

old06 · Post by **old06** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 12:18 pm

Great insight thanks for the report

Ben_Rumson · Post by **Ben_Rumson** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 12:50 pm

I hope I didn't miss it somehow, but at what distance were you from the jugs? Great report.. good stuff ... Thanks

getitdone1 · Post by **getitdone1** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 1:11 pm

Ben_Rumson wrote:I hope I didn't miss it somehow, but at what distance were you from the jugs? Great report.. good stuff ... Thanks

About 20 ft with shotgun and handgun and 30 feet with rest.

As you know, free shower if get too close !

Don McCullough

Ben_Rumson · Post by **Ben_Rumson** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 4:53 pm

Thanks Don.. Yes, Not the weather for a drenching!

tman · Post by **tman** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 6:44 pm

thank you, very interesting.

getitdone1 · Post by **getitdone1** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 9:38 pm

Little more water jug shooting today.

The Winchester 20 ga #3 buck shot performed the same as yesterday. That is 5 jugs penetrated, 2 pellets in 5th jug. Two of the pellets were "fused" together which relates to what I have to say next.

Occured to me, shooting multiple projectiles at once is not the same as one projectile only. The forward pellets are making a "path" for some of those behind ! Follow me? This helps to explain and probably does explain the unbelievable penatration of the #3 buck shot. Other sizes of buck shot too.

Instead of the Winchester 3/4 oz slug, today I shot the Remington 5/8, 20 ga slug into water jugs. Busted two in half very nicely, just hanging together by their tops and cap and into 3rd jug. Found one large slug fragment. Appears both makes of slug are prone to break-up. Very lethal as are the buck shot.

No question in my mind: Up close and in a self-defense situation I'll take a good semi-auto shooting buckshot over anything else. Would trust my life to slugs too. My llittle Remington 1100 Youth model with smaller receiver and 21" barrel is quite a tool. I don't know of a handier shotgun.

Don McCullough

Post by **Old Savage** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 10:09 pm

Interesting - thanks!

Post by **Old Savage** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 10:11 pm

Hermann - you guys are a little rough on the terrain with that artillery.

Ravenman · Post by **Ravenman** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 8:39 am

Fred,

We have big mountains over here, not to worry about the terrain!
Next time we test the other heavy metal; 416 Weatherby Magnum. Got to use a bigger steel plate.

getitdone1 · Post by **getitdone1** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 2:50 pm

Ravenman wrote:Fred,

We have big mountains over here, not to worry about the terrain!
Next time we test the other heavy metal; 416 Weatherby Magnum. Got to use a bigger steel plate.

Ravenman,

Would you care to say a word or two about the recoil of the .416 and .460 Weatherbys ??

Don McCullough

Ravenman · Post by **Ravenman** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 3:38 pm

Don,

My friend got his Weatherby MK V 416 Weatherby Magnum a few days ago. We could not test til now.
But one thing is sure the 460 Weatherby Magnum is not as bad as you may think. The 460 WM MK V has the original Weatherby muzzle brake and it's a heavy gun. My Winchester 70 XTR Safari Express, 458 Winchester Magnum 22" has more recoil.

Ever shot a 10/89 or 12/89 single shot? Recoil of the 460 Weatherby Magnum with Weatherby 500grs. factory ammo is about the same.

getitdone1 · Post by **getitdone1** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 8:50 pm

Ravenman wrote:Don,

My friend got his Weatherby MK V 416 Weatherby Magnum a few days ago. We could not test til now.
But one thing is sure the 460 Weatherby Magnum is not as bad as you may think. The 460 WM MK V has the original Weatherby muzzle brake and it's a heavy gun. My Winchester 70 XTR Safari Express, 458 Winchester Magnum 22" has more recoil. Ever shot a 10/89 or 12/89 single shot? Recoil of the 460 Weatherby Magnum with Weatherby 500grs. factory ammo is about the same.

Ravenman,

You've got me baffled with the 10/89--12/89 single shot.

Don