Penetration?

[Nightcrawler]

What handgun rounds and loads give the best penetration? I'm not talking about just in human/animal targets, but in hard targets as well.

What factors go into how deep a bullet penetrates? There's more to it than mass, velocity, and momentum, I take it?

 

[Mike Irwin]

What do you consider to be a "hard target"?

Auto body?

Wood door?

Brick wall?

Generally, hardball will show the best soft- and hard-target penetration over a wide range of targets.

 

[Chris McDermott]

Mass, velocity, the medium the bullet hits (the target), frontal area & shape and amount of bullet deformation pretty much cover it.

Mass and velocity gives both momentum (m*v) and energy ((m*v*v)/2). The target material matters, wood is easier to penetrate than steel; and the reaction of the target medium can greatly affect the penetration. Frontal area and shape help determine how easily the bullet will travel in a medium, doesn't matter if the medium is air, flesh or steel. Amount of bullet deformation matters as it absorbs energy and changes frontal area and shape; and is largely determined by how strong the bullet is and how much energy it's carrying.

A "stronger" bullet (say hard cast lead vs swaged lead, or jacketed vs hard cast lead) may not penetrate as well as the "weaker" bullet if it is carrying too much energy (shot with too much velocity) and deforms (or simply disintegrates) instead of penetrating. I think this is best demonstrated by the penetration of magnum handguns with cast lead bullets at 1250 fps vs magnum rifles using expanding jacketed bullets at 3200 fps. The rifle bullets expand, and have trouble going more than 20". The hard cast bullets hold their shape and go 24-38".
Also the reaction of the target medium can have a great effect. For example a 22-250 with a varmint style bullet at 3800 fps. This load can punch a hole in 1/2" steel plate, but can't put a hole through a deer broadside. In both cases the bullet disintegrates on the outside of the target. The steel can't absorb the released energy and gets a hole punched in it. The deer can absorb the energy and gets a large surface wound blasted into its side; but not a hole through into the vitals.

 

[Ewok_Guy]

7.62x25 Toke

 

[Nightcrawler]

Hard targets? Hmm...car doors, wall material, wood, trash dumpsters, etc.

 

[biere]

Go to general discussion and read about the body armor penetration thread.

Run some searches for accidents while dry firing during election times, many tvs killed but not always full penetration of the boob tube.

Run some searches for reactionary targets.

And decide what you are wanting to accomplish.

Some things are not so hard to penetrate, but a full size trash dumpster I figure would stop all of my stuff for handgun useage.

In general, give me military surplus ball.

 

[OutLaw]

7.62 x 25 tok is an effective round,For a more common pistol caliber,I'd have to say 40 S&W in a 165 grain load.

 

[KSFreeman]

7.62x25mm. That Czech milsur stuff was really hot. Don't know if still around.

 

[Jeff OTMG]

What handgun rounds and loads give the best penetration?

****** I would say a .224 Boz would be one of the best.

What factors go into how deep a bullet penetrates? There's more to it than mass, velocity, and momentum, I take it?

****** Look for a small caliber, long bullet, pointed profile, driven at high velocity, made of a hard material like steel, tungsten, or depleted uranium.

 

[Preacherman]

For an interesting look at penetration (comparing both rifles and handguns in heavy loads), check out the results of the penetration tests done at the 2002 Linebaugh seminar. They're on the Web at http://www.sixgunner.com/linebaugh/penetration_test.htm.

 

[krept]

bullet construction, as others have touched on, plays a huge role. I think some refer to this as sectional density. They way I think of it is...

imagine you have a rod. If the rod hits a hard target shaped like an "I" then the force behind it is spread over a much larger area and it does not penetrate as well. If it hits same target on it's end... like a "." then this same force is applied over a much smaller area, so penetration is greater.

This is fundamental in that it keeps the variables to a minimum. Say you have the same density projectile and same shape (rod) and the same direction of impact ("." - straight on) but you alter the length of one projectile... well to compensate for the shorter length you have to increase it's size (make it thicker) so now you have a long "." vs a shorter "o"

You can make penetration complicated by adding variables mentioned above like velocity, density, construction, shape, materials... etc. endless possibilities.

What many discussions come down to here is the momentum of a given bullet and it's sectional density. Sectional density is like the "." vs "o" comparison above - the same density object but the "." has a greater sectional density and the force is applied over a smaller surface area of the same target, so it takes a greater length of the same medium (think penetration depth) to slow it down.

At least this is how I make sense of the big issue. I am not aware, however, which matters more and what the relationship is between sectional density and momentum because although it appears that the 230 gr ball would have a greater momentum, the 9mm 147gr frequently has greater penetration. Thus it would appear that SD trumps momentum in this case, although momentum allows for greater knockdown power (relative, think bowling pins).