Sept. 2012 American Rifleman

[TheGunGuy]

Starting on page 50 of the Sept. 2012 American Rifleman there is an article regarding stopping power of handgun rounds. It looks like they did some pretty extensive testing of the various calibers. I am especially interested in the 9mm. It seems that the 124 grain rounds seemed to fair the best. My question is though, it looks as if they tested in bare gelatin with no cloth. Is that really a true representation of the rounds efficacy? I thought that a certain thickness of denim or material was used to represent a more real world simulation.

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[pturner67]

Yeah, I saw that. Looked like a good article.

I agree about the bare gel. From videos I've seen on youtube, many use at least one layer of blue jeans.

 

[g.willikers]

Here's the same article, or one very similar, that can be real online and downloaded:

http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/handgun-stopping-power

 

[sigcurious]

IMHO, where you live and what season it is probably has large effect on how accurate the testing is when comparing bare to clothed gel.

One thing I've wondered, why is it usually denim in tests? I don't see that many people in jean jackets anymore.

 

[TheGunGuy]

IMHO, where you live and what season it is probably has large effect on how accurate the testing is when comparing bare to clothed gel.

One thing I've wondered, why is it usually denim in tests? I don't see that many people in jean jackets anymore.

I don't think the denim is used to specifically represent denim itself, just some tough layers of clothing. I also thought that the presence of or lack of the denim or other material either retarded or caused early expansion.

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[sigcurious]

I get that denim is just representative. I was just poking fun at the choice given today's fashions rarely have people draped in denim.

For me, bare gel would suffice. I live in the desert and it's summer. I'd steer clear of the weirdo wearing multiple layers of heavy clothing regardless of anything else. Even in the winter, people aren't wearing much more than sweatshirts or sweaters most of the time.

Real world, could vary from Fairbanks AK in the middle of winter, to Death Valley CA in the middle of summer. It would take an huge number of tests to account for all the clothing variables, even down to the differences in, do you live in some place where when it's cold people wear carhartts? or do people prefer synthetics? The point being, even if they do use a layer or a few layers of cloth, unless people wear that exact cloth in that exact number of layers, some cloth or no cloth at all would probably be a decent indicator.