I think this test just proves why you should be concerned about over-penetration through walls in a defensive shooting incident.
Kentucky Ballistics (a YouTube Channel) is always entertaining, and occasionally insane. Here is a short - less than 1 minute.
10MM vs 357 MAG (Penetration Test)And this is a topic close to my heart.
About the only commonly used caliber that won't readily penetrate drywall is 22lr. And with that it's not impossible. Only bird shot is "safe" when it comes to over penetration.
ReplyDeleteI once saw the aftermath of an ND in .45acp. The round went through two layers of plastered drywall, diagonally through a thin closet door, through a piece of electronics (a palm pilot, which should date the incident pretty accurately...the palm pilot did not survive) two more layers of drywall and stopped when it hit a brick fireplace. Didn't have much energy left by the time it got to the fireplace, but it did chip the brick.
ReplyDeleteWe recovered the bullet, which basically just ended up rolling around on the floor in the room with the fireplace. The thing that shocked me was that it was a brand name hollowpoint (Hornady XTP) but it didn't expand at all. The hollow point cavity was jammed completely full of plaster and drywall material, so that it essentially became a FMJ from that initial hit into the wall onward.
Not scientific and it may have been a fluke, but it definitely opened my eyes to the limitations of JHP bullets in preventing a miss from going through the whole house and possibly hitting someone you didn't intend to hit. I'm just glad no one else was there when it happened. And no, I wasn't the one who pulled the trigger and said "I didn't know there was one in the chamber!!!".
Paul Harrell made many videos about the clogging of hollow point ammo. While his testing methods were not laboratory precise, the conclusions were accurate and repeatable.
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