Here's
the back side of wall #3 where the 5.56
was headed.
It was stopped by the back board of the
third wall.
You can see the "bulge" caused
by the round.
This
is the dug out round.
Looked like a tube of toothpaste with all
the toothpaste squeezed out.
Here's
the pieces of the only other M-193 5.56
round to hit the third wall.
Lessons learned:
1. Insulation in walls seems to make very
little, if any, difference in penetration
of the rounds tested. I believe that we can
put that one to rest.
2. Common pistol rounds easily penetrated
all 4 walls spaced out at room distances.
This is a critical issue. Think about the
inside of your house and imagine if you shot
through 4 walls. Could you hit a loved one?
Know your target and what is behind it.
3. The 12 gauge shotgun went through 4 walls
like they were not there. Remember this if
you have loved ones in your house with you
and plan to use slugs for defense loads.
4. The 5.56 rounds deviated greatly from the
original flight path once they started tumbling.
This occurred after the second wall. We need
to do some more tests, but need to build bigger
walls so that we can make sure we capture
the flight path of the rounds.
5. Spreading the walls out at room distances
seemed to make little difference for the pistol
rounds, but made a big difference for the
5.56 rounds. Possibly this was due to the
tumbling of the rounds causing them to deviate
from a straight line.
But this raises an important point. When you
shoot a 5.56 into walls, you cannot be sure
where the flight path of the bullet will go.
This is an important consideration if others
are in your home.
6. It was 70 degrees, the sun was shining,
it was fun shooting stuff, and this was better
than the best day I ever spent at work
