Something to check out?

**Lancshooter74** · April 11th, 2009, 02:07 AM

Dunno if it's been posted on here or not but I thought I'd try to see what happened after a shot was fired. I always wondered how far my bullets went.

I took 5 phone books and duct taped them together. Three Lancaster and 2 Wrightsville, Then shot the mass with my carry ammo {speer gold dot}.

Let your fingers do the walking and you can clearly see wound channels, plus as an added bonus you can get the slug to see expansion. Wanna find out if your ammo may shoot through and through? Try this. Not being sick but I feel knowing what could happen in a situation is a good idea. Plus it is cheaper then ballistics gel.

Just thought I'd share.

**Steelblitz** · April 11th, 2009, 02:21 AM

I've done this in the past, but wet. For a better effect on the bullets, saturate the phonebooks over a couple day period, I mean make sure they are soaking wet.

**ranger7** · April 11th, 2009, 02:58 AM

Yes, I think the phone books should be wet for realistic results. I leaf through the phonebooks, like 10 pages at a time, under running water, then I immediately bundle several books together with wire. The bundles go into a tub of water and soak overnight to completely saturate. The day I shoot them, I take them out of the soak and carry the bundles to the range in some plastic pans or storage bins. Waterproof plastic bags would work too.

If I'm ever attacked by a horde of wet phone books, I know what bullets are best to defend myself. ;-)

**ScaredOnce** · April 11th, 2009, 03:09 AM

Originally Posted by ranger7

Yes, I think the phone books should be wet for realistic results. I leaf through the phonebooks, like 10 pages at a time, under running water, then I immediately bundle several books together with wire. The bundles go into a tub of water and soak overnight to completely saturate. The day I shoot them, I take them out of the soak and carry the bundles to the range in some plastic pans or storage bins. Waterproof plastic bags would work too.

If I'm ever attacked by a horde of wet phone books, I know what bullets are best to defend myself. ;-)

I've done this as well. I've also used 1/8" sheets of steel to test my homemade (not by me) rifle ammo. These kids of "real-world" tests mean more to me than anything published in a magazine or report.

**FormerUser123** · April 11th, 2009, 12:22 PM

Roughly how many water soaked phone books equal an average human? When soaked, are the phone books the same density as a body, therefore 1 inch of phonebook is 1 inch of flesh?

I have a feeling my 8mm Mauser will tear right through a stack of 5 soaked phone books, but I'm curious to see what my 9mm Remmington Golden Sabers will do.

**Lancshooter74** · April 11th, 2009, 08:41 PM

Mine were dry. The Speer Gold dot 9mm stopped in the 2nd book if I remember but had impact / energy tears well into the 3rd. My 357 stopped in the 3rd book and had tears into the 4th just at the begining.

**XD40coyote** · April 11th, 2009, 09:58 PM

I've done such tests using deer necks or stacks of scrap meat and hide peices. Hollowpoints don't exit when you shoot into 2 skinned rutting buck necks stacked on eachother. 9mms get slowed down to stopping after shattering the neck bones, .40's still have some energy and may go into the 2nd neck. Gold Dot .40's expand very nicely, as does Pwrball. Bones get really messed up broken by both .40 and 9mm. Large whitetail buck deer neck bones probably akin to lower back vertibrae in humans, in certain densities. Not sure what they compare to as far as leg bones, human skull, etc. Human cranium can be pretty thick in some spots on an adult male. I got to look at some autopsy pics after they saw the top of the skull off and I could plainly see the varying thicknesses.