The power of the .40 S&W

I will take a picture today and let y'all see the results. In fact I may finish the plate off with some 40's and .357's.
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I'm curious about additional rounds of .40 and how they perform. I don't doubt your results but I'd be surprised if any other .40s penetrate an undamaged plate.
 
How do you explain a x-ray in a earlier post. A guy shot with a .40 one round went trough a lung the second hit the sternum penetrating around 2 inches not enough to hit the heart.
 
Kreyzhorse said:
I'm curious about additional rounds of .40 and how they perform. I don't doubt your results but I'd be surprised if any other .40s penetrate an undamaged plate.
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Pictures 40 sw exit then entrance:
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1345405453.446120.jpgImageUploadedByTapatalk1345405472.227730.jpg
 

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Your reported results are so far outside expectation that I have to believe Mike's "Golden Twinkie" hypothesis.

It simply makes no sense. No sense at all.

There's simply no way that round "melted a hole thorugh the plate".

357sig would generate more heat than 40SW.

The rifle rounds would ALL generate FAR more heat than any handgun round.

I don't believe ANY of them would generate enough heat to melt the plate.

It's a fluke. Pure and simple.

It's one shot that did something it shouldn't have done due to some unaccounted variable.

The "power of 40SW" indeed. It's a bullet .043 inches bigger than 357sig or 9mm that typically generates more power than 9mm and less than 357sig. What exactly would be magical about it?

Nothing. It's a fluke.
 
The .357's easily penetrated as shown in the pictures.

I am not trying to prove anything guys, I am just showing you real data of what happened.

Please don't take this post as me trying to prove any point. But please look at the facts.
Pictures show a lot.
 
To make things a tad more realistic-upon further examination of the plate-I did find a 6.5 MPC that had exited and 3 .223's that had exited as well.
The exit wounds were almost invisible as spectra has a self sealing type surface.

Sorry to rattle anybody's opinions. Just telling you guys what happened to an armored plate.
 
We have shot various pistol and rifle rounds at a 55gal steel drum and the only pistol round to penetrate were from the FiveseveN and Magnum revolvers both .357 and .44. The other rounds (9,40,45) only dented the drum. Nothing scientific just bored shooting stuff.
 
BTW sheepdog I do appreciate the effort and time you took to do this. Good job.
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Thanks. I am glad there are a couple of people here who aren't trying to burn me at the stake for witnessing an armor plate failing to stop a modern pistol round.

Next time I just won't post anything.
 
"I have been doing research on some good body armor in the event stuff gets bad."

Have you considered the millions of rifles in this country? And shotgun slugs?
 
Sheepdog, just keep posting, brother, and thanks for the data! Some of this is counter-intuitive. I wish more people would experiment.
 
After Columbine Law Enforcement started some serious testing on different calibers in building settings and more specifically Schools. They found pistol rounds, more so with 40S&W, had more over penetration in common building barriers then rifle and shotgun. Also pistol rounds caused more damage with skimming off hard surfaces, (the rounds bouncing down hallways stayed intact and penetrated more when they finally hit something square.) Hence the testing led to .223/5.56mm being standard issue to LEO. The fear of over penetration was dismissed and the value of a long arm dominated the debate with some Department heads, (DEA and FBI had pistol caliber carbines for a long time before they switched, the pistol caliber carbines are more likely to over penetrate when they aren't suppose to and under penetrate body armor when they are suppose to.)

Sheepdog keep up the good work.
 
Sheepdog keep up the good work.
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I appreciate your appreciation.

By the way, to all of you who found my post to be counterintuitive, or ruffling your feathers: I did spend a good deal of money to do this test, so please be respectful of that fact; that I am a long time member of TFL; and you can go back and look at 99% of my posts and find them to be intelligent and respectful.
 
I have been following this thread, and let me say thank you to Sheepdog for the time and effort. It's amazing that simply reporting a simple observation generated such commotion. The only thing it did for me was to make me want to grab some of my 180FMJ .40s and shoot some stuff :)
 
Thanks for sharing your results.

40S&W is a good handgun round. I've carried 2 pistols in .40cal and felt pretty good with their performance.

What I doubt is their superiority to rifle rounds like 5.56NATO, as those rounds are definitely powerful in the appropriate ammunition.
 
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