BIT: DIY BP armor plate (update) rnd 2 test

[Precision]

The exit at the bottom of the picture is the .40 cal. Golden saber 165 gr bullets over 8.3 gr of Unique. Significantly more mushrooming and a much wider hole than either the .22lr or the .380

40 cal damage.v2.jpg

The 9mm hole is next to the .380 hole. 115gr ball ammo
Cut through like warm butter.

9mm damage.v2.jpg

So we learned three things.

lexan, fiberglass, thin layers of bed liner and duct tape ARE NOT bullet resistant at 3/4 inch thickness

.380 is a pathetic penetrator in the Hornady critical defense round out of a Keltec P3AT

It is fun to shoot stuff even when you experience EPIC FAIL in your experiment.

New upgrades to his and my first attempt next weekend.

[SoupOrMan]

There was a New Years' show segment on NHK TV a few years back that answered the audience question "How many layers of facial tissue will stop a bullet?" They wound up layering 2500 or so tissues together before it finally stopped a bullet. I think I was more amazed by the fact that you're required to wear a kevlar vest at indoor ranges in Japan than the Kleenex experiment.

[Aglifter]

Considering Japan all but completely outlaws guns, its not too surprising.

[Precision]

my initial armor attempt is partially complete. Pictures of what I have done so far.
Laying out some duct tape to act as a backer for the tile.

initial tile work .v2.jpg

wrapping the back to encase the tile.

tile overwrap .v2.jpg

[Precision]

4 layers of tile like this with the tiles set up to overlap any gaps over the center of a full tile below.
At a minimum, this should make every piece of the plate have at least two full tiles for the bullet to penetrate.

lexan overwrap.v2.jpg

at the top left you can see my quad tile stack with a lexan backer. The lexan is there to stop tile shards. I am debating what additional layers to use, but I think it will be a layer of diamond plate steel, then lexan, then another layer of plate steel, then 1/4" of bed liner.

wish me luck.

[Precision]

We spent an hour or so yesterday testing the my version 1 and the son's version two.

My plate ended up being 4 layers of ceramic floor tile squares held together by duct tape, followed by a layer of .0903 lexan, then a layer of porcelain tile squares, a 16ga layer of steel another layer of lexan and a final layer of 16ga steel. All held in a stack with duct tape.

The son took his first try, cut in in half so as to double it up and put a double layer of ceramic tile over that.

pre shoot v2.jpg

we first shot it with Blazer .22lr

22lr front v2.jpg

Much improved over round 1 as ZERO through penetration

[Precision]

Some pictures will include the son's version but most will focus on mine as mine was the obviously superior version. Anyone who wants to see the pics of his can email me or just ask and I will post here. Just for bandwidth sake, I edited those out.

22 lr rear v2.jpg

in forensic dis-assembly the .22 did not penetrate past the 2 layers of tile in either plate

9mm front v2.jpg

9mm frontal picture 115 grain FMJ from PF-9

[Precision]

initially, we thought the 9mm had hit and deflected outside the plate, but on dissection, the round remained in the ceramic at level 3/4.

9mm exit v2.jpg

The next was .40 factory hollow point. I forgot to pack some FMJ flat points as I don't even own ball, but these hit with good authority last time so...

40 cal entry v2.jpg

[Precision]

40 exit v2.jpg

as you can see, no pass through on the .40.
upon dissection, the bullet opened up massively - well over double width with little loss of weight. The tile smashed up quite well and slowed the bullet to a small dent in the first steel layer.

223 entry v2.jpg

I jerked the trigger a bit on the .223 and put it way too close to the .22lr. I was aiming about 2 inches over but between the jerk of the trigger and an unstable rest (poor planning). The good news is despite being that close to a previous shot - no through penetration. I was also out of 55 gr FMJ so this was a Sierra Gameking 65gr bullet.

This bullet acted much the same as the .40, coming to rest against the first steel plate. It did however completely turn inside out and fragment all over. FMJ would likely have retained more mass and thus penetrated better.

edit for spelling

[Precision]

7.62x39 brown bear FMJ at 124 gr.

762x39 entry v2.jpg

entry portion does not look much worse than any of the other hits.
The exit side is a bit less promising.

762x39 exit v2.jpg

This bullet was obviously lost into the dirt mound, but measurements from the exit hole indicate that the bullet was not mushroomed much and doesn't look like it was slowed enough to be caught by an underlying level III kevlar vest. The damage to the steel tells my amateur eyes that it was still in excess of 1000 fps.