Anyone made a bullet testing apparatus?

K

kferguson

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I like testing bullets to see how they perform. I have used 2 litre milk or juice cartons filled with water and lined up on a board and these work great. It is so cool to retrieve an expanded bullet from that last jug leaking water. My 220 swift blows up on the first jug or two, as expected, but my 45-70 or my 375 H&H have plowed through 15 jugs without being caught. The major problem is this is a one-off. Once the jugs are shot they can't be reused. And I don't drink that much milk or juice :redface: I suppose I could outrun the recycle truck and pillage my neighbours blue boxes for jugs :dancingbanana: But I remember reading somewhere in a firearms publication about a wooden cradle about 10' or 12' long with wooden partitions every 8" 0r 10" in which the author placed water balloons or plastic bags filled with water. For sure, the partitions would need replacing now and then, but the water holding vessels are now easy to replace and dispose of. And you could measure and compare expansion, penetration, etc.

Anyone made such a thing?:confused: Save your breathe if you are going to start talking about ballistic gelatin. I don't have the time, $ or inclination. :mad:

Thanks in advance! Kevin
 
I made blocks of "blastics gel" using bulk gelatin powder from bulk barn to test home made and factory hollow points several years ago. I forget the mix ratio but google will let you know i'm sure. I made a wooden form that made 6"x6"x16" blocks which is what the fbi uses for testing ammunition (well that's what i read at the time).

I thought i had pictures of the expansion in the block but i only found this one which was a 17hmr. Also this block was made in a 2 litre tetra pack for orange juice.

IMG_0615.jpg


And here is some of the home made hollow points and a factory one. (9mm and 45acp)

Before
IMG_0692.jpg


After
IMG_0743.jpg
 
Used to get newsprint cheap from regina newspaper, horse trough full of water to soak them and cheap table to stack them on. Horses didn't care much for the experiment though. If you can get gel from some riggers it works good too.
 
Medvedqc - the bullets were Hornady 300 gr. DGS from the .375 Double Dutch and hard cast 405gr. from the 45/70. 15 2 litre (not 4 litre jugs) cartons filled with water, shot from about 50 yards.
 
Thanks for the replies so far.
The problem with gelatin blocks or soaked newsprint is disposal. My garbage man will not be happy with me. Water just drains away and waters the lawn. I also want to be able to see how far it went through water before stopping, not just recover an expanded bullet.
 
kferguson said:
Medvedqc - the bullets were Hornady 300 gr. DGS from the .375 Double Dutch and hard cast 405gr. from the 45/70. 15 2 litre (not 4 litre jugs) cartons filled with water, shot from about 50 yards.
Click to expand...

ok solid bullet and cast ... thanks for the info. try with expansive bullets you will recover them. solid can go very far ...
 
I take a card board box and fill it with newspaper and then soak it with water. Most will stop in the first box. Some take two or three boxes. When you are done with them, put them in the newspaper recycle bin.
 
kferguson said:
Thanks for the replies so far.
The problem with gelatin blocks or soaked newsprint is disposal. My garbage man will not be happy with me. Water just drains away and waters the lawn. I also want to be able to see how far it went through water before stopping, not just recover an expanded bullet.
Click to expand...

Poor mans method... dollar store ziplock bags... pour in a known quantity of water into each bag... build a box to hold them .... shoot and see how many bags are damaged. Same as using milk jugs without having to dispose of the milk first. Produce plastic bags would work great and seem to be offered at many locations for "free".... or you can just get a roll from a supplier. This is an ideal way to do a relative comparison... this went through 5 bags... this went through 8. And you can likely find the bullet or fragments.

Rich man would set up a long fish tank, rubber dam at one end, high speed camera (digi cams or even a smart phone can work), "ruler" on the other side and can film the event,

Water is the best material for the average person... and usually readily available. And typically very consistent, heavy metal not withstanding :-0

Jerry
 
I use to do quite a bit of this years ago when phone books were easy to get and free. I'd soak them in a garbage bag for at least a day, placed in a milk crate, just to hold them in place. I suppose you can do the same with newspapers. This way I could easily get several feet of heavy wet material with a large frontal area. I'd test mostly at 50 yards but also did some at 100 and 200 yards. Based on info from a guy that did a LOT of testing, his results showed that whatever your bullet penetrated in the books, you'd get 2X the penetration in a Deer or Elk. You'd also have a permanent cavity to examine and the bullet to view. I'd prefer that to what you'd get from a simple water test. The wet paper can be dried out and you can dispose of it in the recycle box.
 
I was also thinking you could put a heavy cow bone at the front of the test apparatus to see what happens to the bullet after that. Kind of like a shoulder shot on (really) big game. My dogs can dispose of the bone afterwards.
 
big boar said:
I use to do quite a bit of this years ago when phone books were easy to get and free. I'd soak them in a garbage bag for at least a day, placed in a milk crate, just to hold them in place. I suppose you can do the same with newspapers. This way I could easily get several feet of heavy wet material with a large frontal area. I'd test mostly at 50 yards but also did some at 100 and 200 yards. Based on info from a guy that did a LOT of testing, his results showed that whatever your bullet penetrated in the books, you'd get 2X the penetration in a Deer or Elk. You'd also have a permanent cavity to examine and the bullet to view. I'd prefer that to what you'd get from a simple water test. The wet paper can be dried out and you can dispose of it in the recycle box.
Click to expand...

All the same advantages to plain wet news print, although I found I had to tie it into "bunches" to handle it when wet. But wet phone books or news print is a far better test medium than jugs of water. A lot more work is involved, but you get more information in return.
 
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