ballistics jell vs. water jugs.

C

cajun47

New member
im talking about the 1 gallon plastic water jugs you buy or milk jugs filled with water.

example, how many water jugs does a round have to penetrate to equal the fbi's 12 inch minimum in jell? about?

in other words im looking for a cheap way to measure different rounds to see if they might come close to the fbi minimum.
 
In my opinion water jugs dont compare at all. I shoot them sometimes to get my expanded bullet. The bullet will react alot different in gellatin. There fun to shoot though. What ammo do you want to test? I might have done it already.
 
im very curious about federal bulk 550 .22lr hp through my sig 522 rifle and s&w 22a pistol. they are amazing on 8 foot and under gator sculls.

even those tested online, i wanted to try it for myself. like the 7.62x39mm vmax. at brassfetcher they use a 20" barrel, my ak is 16". i want to test everything really. like several different 12ga and .44 mag loads. all sorts of 9mm.

o yea, the 45acp round nose. im curious how the wound channel looks and how much they penetrate.

20 ga and .410 buckshot/slug penetration from 18" barrels.
 
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Ive never tested in ballistic gell but i use to shoot water jugs alot. The federal .22 hp from my ruger sp101 penetrated into the 3rd jug. It suprised me cause my .357 mag with winchester hp penetated the exact same. Most .45s .40 and 9mm hp stop in the 3rd milk jug. Fmj will go through more than 5. Im no expert but i have played alot. The .22 does better than most people think.
 
i know. the good old boys down here never talk down the .22lr. they are the the ones out there all the time killing things with 22s and not here on the internets.

what got me curious about the federal bulk is when i went gator hunting last year. i used my s&w 22a pistol loaded with either cheap federal round nose or remington round nose. on a 6 1/2 foot gator it took 7 shots to the head to stop it.

i switched to the federal bulk hp and it was one shot stop to the head for the next 10 gators ranging 4 to 8 feet long. then we had a 12 foot one and the 22 only scratched the scull but stunned it long enough to shoot it with a .44 mag.
 
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Yea the swamp people kill them all the time with .22s that seems to be there favorite. I always wondered why they dont use pistols when its on the line tho. Must be a good reason.
 
i had gator tags for 10 years. small time, 26 tags.

the thing about long guns is that its easier to put the barrel on the soft spot right behind the scull. i found doing this makes the gators fight more. i rather a pistol on my hip to grab while i work the rope but this way you have to aim and i just go for the much bigger target, the scull.

that whole thing about one guy work the rope and another guy shooting never seemed safe to me.
 
Ive had bad luck with remington ammo. I live in south alabama we have alot of gators here but we cant hunt them i guess there still protected here. Maby one day they will allow us to hunt them it looks fun. Every time i set out trot lines i have gators straiten out my hooks.
 
I wouldn't consider myself anywhere near an expert on the subject of gator hunting, so take this with a huge grain of salt, but having seen every episode of Swamp People to date have two comments to the above.

1) Near as I can tell, almost every one of the hunters on the show is using 22mag not lr. That's of course not to say that it isn't or can't be done with 22lr.

2) i think they mostly use rifles to keep their arms as far away from the gator's mouth as possible when lining up the shot. Using an 18"-22" barrel, you can basically stick the end of the barrel right above the "kill spot" on the back of the skull. I'd think most people would be very hesitant to attempt this with a handgun unless absolutely necessary. A few have used a handgun on occasion when needed including either a Taurus or S&W revolver (couldn't tell which with the limited size and angle of the camera), and another guy used an NAA mini once when he fell in the water.

Also, some of the guys (and gals) on the show seem to be very good shots and using a rifle they can take a surfaced alligator from a decent range. Not sure how far they could do this with a handgun.

JMHO from watching the show, never even seen a gator in the wild yet (though I hope I can some day). So again, take my analysis with a grain of salt and feel free to correct me if you any of you know something I don't.
 
i shoot the gators with the handgun while holding the rope standing up. i never put the gun and hand anywhere near the gator. its like aiming at something a few feet away. i find this keeps the gators more calm and its easier to take the shot.

i never found the time to sit there and wait for a long distance shot. i had so many lines to run and a certain time to get them sold. like 12 pm. im sure some people have the time and it makes great tv.

i know troy and his gang somewhat. they really good people. i owed troy $800(gator related). when i went to pay he said "o no t-buddy! just give me $400." that was long before the show. who the hell does that?
 
I know this has nothing to do with water jugs or ballistic gel, but i have been using index cards rubberbanded together to test my bullets. They are free and plentiful where i work. Im not sure how exactly it would compare to using ballistic gel for testing, but it stops the bullet and you can see how well the expansion is. Also good for testing the penetrating power of bullets against something alittle bit harder than water or gel
 
I use milk jugs filled with tightly packed wet newspaper

I also used 4 layers of denim on the first jug


Not exactly the same as ballistic gel, but I was able to get similar results for equal bullets (penetration and expansion) compared to others testing of the ballistic gel. ( same length barrel )

Its a cheap substitute

It seems to be a "little" more dense as the penetration was consistent, but always a bit less
 
I speltarted

Somewhere, I've seen a conversion formula for milk cartons or jugs to 10% gelatin. Expanding bullets generally penetrate deeper in jugs; my experience makes me believe on the order of 15-20% deeper. I've shot some of both and the expanded bullets don't look any different to me.
 
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I don't think it's possible to put a formula together since the first jug sometimes (usually) ruptures. But if anyone had a formula it would be Duncan MacPherson.
 
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