How Many Houses Will A Bullet Actually Go Through?
BY Herschel Smith
3 years, 5 months ago
This video is interesting for not only the point that the 5.56 round penetrates no more than roughly the pistol rounds, but also for the good performance of the 77 gr. SMK compared to the 55 grain M193.
However, I think his testing suffers from a flaw that could throw the results into question, depending upon review of the test materials after testing (which of course I didn’t do).
I question the need for the studs in between the walls, and especially “randomly” positioned (not that it’s really random anyway). If what you’re comparing / contrasting is penetration of various pistol and rifle rounds, putting a stud in between the dry wall to be hit “randomly” based on your aim makes no sense. It would only yield meaningful results if you had one set of tests where every round only penetrated dry wall and siding, and another set of tests where every round had to pass through a stud. Otherwise, he’s skewing the results without even knowing it.
Not that it’s a very scientific test anyway.
Finally, his testing includes no rifles shooting 5.56mm from 18″ or 20″ barrels.
On June 7, 2021 at 9:03 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
@ Herschel Smith
For what it is worth, I recall reading someplace a year or two ago that the Janes Group, the people famous years ago for their guides to naval vessels of the world, “Janes Fighting Ships,” did extensive penetration and performance testing of small arms and ammunition using common residential and commercial construction materials.
This was done in the part of their consultancy devoted to land warfare and small arms. Such information being valuable to their various state and organizational clients around the globe. Whether such information is available to the general reader or not, I do not know. Though I suspect it would require purchasing a subscription of some kind from them, or paying to access their website.
Posting this information mostly to let your readers know that this subject has been thought about and researched before, and that some valuable data may already be out there to be had.
On June 7, 2021 at 9:14 pm, Herschel Smith said:
@Georgiaboy61,
That would be great information to have and share. Unfortunately, the chance of it being in the public domain for no fee is somewhere between statistically insignificant and zero.
On June 7, 2021 at 10:29 pm, BRVTVS said:
The closest I could find was this paper: https://ascelibrary.org/doi/pdf/10.1061/9780784482896.001
On June 8, 2021 at 7:19 am, Chris Mallory said:
The Box o Truth did it better. They used sheetrock walls set 10 feet apart. They found that the only round that did not penatrate 4 walls was birdshot. The 5.56 rounds were wildly off course by the last wall.
Theboxotruth.com chapters 12 and 14.
A big plus is that it is written with pictures. So no annoying youtube stars to prattle on unceasingly.
On June 8, 2021 at 1:19 pm, Paul B said:
My thinking is that this is interesting but what about space? I think most rooms are 10 by 14 and you would go through at least two rooms to get through most houses as well as the distance between houses. Rarely are houses less that 4 feet speciation. It is usually 10 or more feet here in suburbia.
Now if some one set some like that up I would take notice.
On June 8, 2021 at 1:20 pm, Paul B said:
Separation. Not sure how speciation came about.