[MattInFla]

Useful video segment on this weeks Personal Defense TV on ammo penetration through typical interior walls.

They set up two interior walls with two layers of drywall with insulation in between, then an "exterior" wall with drywall and outside sheeting.

9mm JHP - penetrated all three walls, exited the "house".
.45ACP JHP - penetrated all three walls, exited the "house".

.223 55gr FMJ - penetrated two walls, fragmented, did not exit.
.223 soft point - penetrated two walls, fragmented, did not penetrate third wall.

Seems to validate the school of thought that a carbine round is less of an over penetration hazard than many pistol rounds.

Matt

 

[Random]

9mm JHP - penetrated all three walls, exited the "house".
.45ACP JHP - penetrated all three walls, exited the "house".

I don't use JHP. What about regular hollow-points, or some of the more frangible options? That would be a better comparison, I think.

 

[longtalltechsan]

From what I have read is that frangible ammo may not penetrate a bad guy enough to disable them. You are better off with something like a soft point or hollow point.

There is a big misconception out there that .223 will penetrate walls much more than handguns and buckshot. The results are amazing. I have recently switched from a shotgun with 00 to my AR15 as my HD weapon due to having neighbors close by.

 

[farronwolf]

There is no way that a 9mm went through all the same stuff as the 45. The 45 must have knocked down the entire set of walls instead of just going through them. :rofl: I will have to check the dvr out this weekend and watch it for myself.

Kidding aside, this is not surprising. Did anyone watch mythbusters when they were trying to recover lead in a swimming pool. They shot pistol rounds and when they recovered them the rounds were intact. They went up through a 50 cal, and guess what, the 50 just evaporated when it went into the water. They had to scour the bottom for tiny pieces of brass.

Bullets do funny things under different circumstances. This points out that the type of ammo you use is just as important as the gun or other equipment you choose or combination of.

BTW, I did watch the one they did on the shotgun rounds, and it was pretty surprising how much damage birdshot did. Of course buck shot and the slug just went completely through the structures just as the pistol rounds did in this demonstration.