The Car Door- Not a good place for "cover"

N

njtrigger

Moderator
I have taken pictures of a car door from a Crown Victoria Police Interceptor. This door is very lightweight and can easily be picked up. The outer layer of the door is 1 piece of sheetmetal that is as thick as a dime. There is a reinforcement on the inside to mount the trim panel, but this is also a thin sheet of metal. Inside the door itself goes the window and the regulator/motor that makes it go up/down.

So when you get behind a car door, all you have is 1 or 2 sheets of thin metal, a glass window, a vinyl trim piece and some other random bits of steel.

You can easily shoot through this door even with smaller calibers.
 

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Doors are concealment and poor concealment at that, engine bays are cover for a limited time. You gotta get off the X. Cars in general are bullet magnets, get out and get away and find cover as quickly as possible.
 
as a test one time i shot a 45long colt 230 grain hornady bullitt throught a 65 ford galaxy,both doors and the seat!it would do it all the time,if you hit the ribs or any other reinforcments it would only dent the outer skin,the car door is not very safe!:eek:
 
All true, but a door is better than standing up straight with a sign saying "Shoot Me."

FWIW, one piece of good cover is a mail box. Those things are heavy steel and it takes a lot to shoot through one.

Jim
 
Re: Car doors - they keep getting thinner, lighter and less protective as the tree-huggers and global-warmers demand more fuel mileage out of the maker's fleet. The real test is to open the car door to it's first detent and measure it's angle to the fenderline (about 25-35 degrees) then fire with the door at that angle to the bullet. They're still not very resistant to hot projectiles.

Re: Mailboxes - IF you can find any! USPS has been removing many free-standing mailboxes in urban areas. Some are being removed as low-volume boxes (cut labor) while some along busy streets are being removed due to concerns about them being used for bombings (the thick hide contains some of the explosion but a decent bomb can send lots of fragments about during high traffic periods).
 
OK, first off, if you are in a gun fight things have gone bad, and you are looking to maximize your odds of survival. You may not be able to guarantee your own survival, but you can do whatever you can to up your odds.

Hiding behind a car door can make it harder for the bad guy to hit you, even if the door doesn't stop bullets. First off, they'll have to guess as to where center of mass is, because your center of mass is obstructed. Second of all, I have been told, although I don't know if it's true, that people without training are unlikely to shoot through concealment to hit a target they can't see. That forces them to aim for the parts of you they can see (which isn't ideal, but makes them less likely to hit you).
 
Alternate question for you guys.....if inside the car trapped and you are being jacked ect, would you shoot through your door or through the window or neither? Assuming a .40 cal.
 
In my car, through the door. I know how thin my door is and automotive glass has been known to throw bullets off a few degrees. If the window is down, then I shoot through the window.
 
The CVPI (Crown Victoria Police Interceptor) is offered with an optional Ceramic Anti-Ballistic panel in the doors now that will resist most of the rounds now on the street.

Law Enforcement Officers will also turn the wheel full lock to the left to increase the frontal area of the tire to the the "violator" for added protection.
 
A car door has safe two of my working buddy’s lives when
they stopped a pickup that was involved in a transit- robbery.
The shootout was approx. twenty meters apart and the
suspects used AK’s.

The police officers did only take
shrapnel on the feet and lower legs as some of the
AK rounds hit the tarmac in front of them.
 
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