Shooting through cover?

[Austincqc]

I didn't know where to post this, but it seemed this might be the appropriate place. Mods, if I'm wrong, please move it to the appropriate forum.

I did some searching and couldn't find any hits. I wanted to see if anybody has tested the range of their ammo on targets behind cover. As a country boy growing up with real corn-fed, horse ridin,' dip spittin,' "mama's in jail" hicks, I've shot through just about everything. Refrigerators, barn doors, car doors, microwaves, lol...life was good in the country growing up.

Since we were so excited to see a 'fridge door get shot off its hinges, we never wanted to see how far we could shoot from to see if our bullet penetrated the other side. Has anybody done this?

The closest that I ever came to doing something like that was at a school in San Antonio. We fired a few different kinds of weapons at cars to hit targets on the other side. The purpose was to let you know that when SHTF, there isn't much more than an engine block that will provide protection from an 7.62x39.

Anybody tried something like this?

 

[Pat M]

Re: Shooting through cover?

Thin stainless steel (1/16" +)from a resturant top will stop lead 45acp from a MAC-10 (will bend and some split but it will stop)

 

[LoneWolfUSMC]

Re: Shooting through cover?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: AustinCQC</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Anybody tried something like this? </div></div>

The rule of thumb is that if its not specifically designed to stop a rifle round OR VERY thick, a rifle round will pass through it with enough energy to do serious harm.

CARS ARE NOT COVER from rifles. They are concealment only.

 

[Andrew Blubaugh]

Re: Shooting through cover?

We shoot through type items all the time to get en idea what is or isn't cover. We tend to shoot a lot of cars because the the easy access to seized junkers.... What I can tell you is I have observed small calibers punch through things I thought would stop them and large calibers not go through things I thought they would easily slice through.

 

[Austincqc]

Re: Shooting through cover?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: LoneWolfUSMC</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: AustinCQC</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Anybody tried something like this? </div></div>

The rule of thumb is that if its not specifically designed to stop a rifle round OR VERY thick, a rifle round will pass through it with enough energy to do serious harm.

CARS ARE NOT COVER from rifles. They are concealment only. </div></div>

I agree with you and said in my post that I've shot through car doors. No doubt on my end that cars aren't cover.

Just wanted to see if anybody had ranged things like that is all.

 

[M25BeastShooter]

Re: Shooting through cover?

Engine blocks are about the only thing on a car that is "cover" I have literally shot through the front of the passenger compartment fire wall and out through the trunk with .308 FMJ out of a M14. .223 is unreliable though as it tends to fragment. Windshields deflect .223 where as the side and rear glass(safety glass) don't even slow .223 and usually hit point of aim.

Pistol ammo while it will penetrate at the right angles and conditions it is not reliable.

Oh by the way .308 going through heavy metal parts creates "spall" or hot sparks and they will on occasion start fires in the interior of the car. To my embarassment with out any fire fighting gear on the range!!

 

[stefan73]

Re: Shooting through cover?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: M25BeastShooter</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Engine blocks are about the only thing on a car that is "cover" I have literally shot through the front of the passenger compartment fire wall and out through the trunk with .308 FMJ out of a M14. .223 is unreliable though as it tends to fragment. Windshields deflect .223 where as the side and rear glass(safety glass) don't even slow .223 and usually hit point of aim.

Pistol ammo while it will penetrate at the right angles and conditions it is not reliable.

Oh by the way .308 going through heavy metal parts creates "spall" or hot sparks and they will on occasion start fires in the interior of the car. To my embarassment with out any fire fighting gear on the range!! </div></div>
We did some training at Fort Knox and caught a car on fire doing that (but we were using M240B as part of an ambush line).

 

[Austincqc]

Re: Shooting through cover?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: M25BeastShooter</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Engine blocks are about the only thing on a car that is "cover" I have literally shot through the front of the passenger compartment fire wall and out through the trunk with .308 FMJ out of a M14. </div></div>

That's awesome. My cousin's husband had to investigate a crash site after a high speed pursuit. An officer used a .308 to shoot out the radiator as the car came down a street, but instead shot through one of the cylinder heads and killed the engine within the next few blocks.

 

[81Z4ME]

Re: Shooting through cover?

Shooting .44 magnum (240 gn HP, 240 gn SWC), .357 magnum (125 gn HP, 158 gn SWC), .22 rimfire (40 gn HP and solid), .223 Rem (45 gn spitzer) and .45 acp (230 gn FMJ) into a bucket of sand, about 8 or 10 inches deep - the only round that put a hole in bottom of the bucket was the .45 acp. Everything else expanded to some degree and stopped in the sand at varying depths, the .223 Rem was vaporized (along with some of the sand). We assumed the .45 acp penetrated due to the lower velocity and copper jacket that kept the bullet from deforming and slowing down due to increased resistance. My boss didn't believe me so we repeated the "experiment" at the range a few weeks later and sure enough we had to dig the 230 gn hardball out of the dirt after it passed through the bottom of the bucket.

Shot 30.06 180 grain Rem. corloks into oak log sections - 10 to 12" diameter - three of them one behind the other and the corloks would shoot through two of the oak log sections and be stopped in the third.

Yes, a .44 magnum with either 240 gn HPs or heavy duty SWC's will pass through both sides of a refrigerator and keep going.

A .357 magnum 125 HP will pass through one side of a hot water heater tank and raise up a dimple on the back side of the tank. A .44 magnum 240 HP will pass through both sides of the water heater tank and kept on going. A .45 acp 230 FMJ bounces off the outside of the water heater tank and some can be found in the dirt in front of the tank if hit squarely.

Sometimes a .308, 165 gn spitzer boat tail will pass clean through a big white tail buck and sometimes it won't - but it will turn and travel a couple of feet down the spine after being deflected by the spine - range was just under 100 yds.

I've seen a .44 magnum 240 HP pass through a man's upper chest, pass through the interior wall and exterior wall of a house (interior wall was that heavy duty masonite panelling over sheetrock and the outside wall was that stuff they called lap siding) travel a few feet through the air before digging a 1 foot or so furrow in the dirt, strike a rock and ricochet out across the ridge somewhere. I didn't actually "see" it happen, just got there afterwards and saw the damage. Oh, in spite of the hype, the big HP left a small hole going in and a small hole going out.

Shot car doors, fenders, trunks, etc. with the .308. I wouldn't try hiding behind a car if someone was using a .308 or 30.06.

 

[jakhamr81]

Re: Shooting through cover?

Don't forget the secondary fragment either. We put some cardboard targets behind the wheel well of a car and shot five rounds with an AK through the car. The target looked like it had been shot at with a few shotgun rounds.