Ballistic Gel Testing

[38ExtraSpecial]

Is anyone messing around with this?
Clear Ballistics Gel is offering less that perfect blocks at a high reduced price. The only defect is a slight off color to the block. It’s still clear and works exactly the same as the regular blocks they sell.
I picked up a block earlier this week.
I ordered the mold so I can remelt it and use it over and over.
It was the hit of the range last week.
Almost all of the cartridges we shot performed as advertised. A couple of them has zero expansion and zipped right through the block.
All in all a ton of fun.

 

[whacko]

Is anyone messing around with this?
Clear Ballistics Gel is offering less that perfect blocks at a high reduced price. The only defect is a slight off color to the block. It’s still clear and works exactly the same as the regular blocks they sell.
I picked up a block earlier this week.
I ordered the mold so I can remelt it and use it over and over.
It was the hit of the range last week.
Almost all of the cartridges we shot performed as advertised. A couple of them has zero expansion and zipped right through the block.
All in all a ton of fun. View attachment 285070

Giant gummy bears work too.....I've used 22lr, 38 spec, 45acp, and the giant gummy stopped them all and hollow points expand well in it. FMJ on all three handgun rounds I fired into it were stopped in the thing! They are friggin bullet proof on the 3 carteridges I tried.

The World's Largest Gummy Bear: A 5 pound gummi bear!

 

[38ExtraSpecial]

NICE!

 

[Dadstoys]

Mind if I ask how much the whole setup costs?
Gel , mold and all ?

 

[38ExtraSpecial]

I think about $140 shipped.
The less than perfect gel FBI sized block was around $55 the mould was around $60 then shipping.
Customer service was crazy too.
Emails thanking for the purchase. Email for shipping details. Email for instructions and FAQ. follow up once it was actually shipped. Follow up once the shipment arrived at the house with a direct cell phone number to sales manager. I called the sales manager to ask a questions about toxicity (using the home oven to melt it) he answers on the second ring and gave me all the info I needed.
Pretty impressive.
Well worth it.
The website said after the 10th or so re-melt it can get a little cloudy (no doubt due to powder and bullet particulates) but will still work as advertised well after that.

 

[Dadstoys]

Thanks
I didn't even realize it could be melted and recast.

 

[38ExtraSpecial]

Thanks
I didn't even realize it could be melted and recast.

Yeah the clear stuff can.

Regular ordnance gel is expensive. Can only be used once, needs to be calibrated and need to be refrigerated.

I’ve been reading a ton of info on wound ballistics. Cool to see some gel tests to compare popular and old school ammo. I have some cool vintage stuff to test like federal nyclad and some of the original hydra shock wadcutters. I think I have some super vel ammo too.

Good reading here. All of the International Wound Ballistic Association articles.

IWBA Wound Ballistics Review - Google Drive

 

[Dadstoys]

We used to use phone books back in the stone age and go digging for the rounds .

 

[38ExtraSpecial]

Melted it last night. It looks like 8hours in the oven.
Next time I’m going to preheat the mold and add some in little by little. Packing it all into the mold left lots of air space and took too long to heat.
Then it had to stay heated for hours to get the bubbles to rise out.
After watching some other videos I’ll change the method a bit next time.

It’s cooling off now. I’m going to pull it tonight and maybe hit a quick range session tomorrow.

 

[JJ4]

Great post OP. Someday I'd like to try this out. This belongs in the new "On-Topic" forum.

I wonder how most club ranges feel about doing this? Sounds like it should leave no mess. For various good reasons it seems most ranges have rules about what kind of targets are allowed so that idiots don't bring their garbage to shoot up.

 

[38ExtraSpecial]

Great post OP. Someday I'd like to try this out. This belongs in the new "On-Topic" forum.

I wonder how most club ranges feel about doing this? Sounds like it should leave no mess. For various good reasons it seems most ranges have rules about what kind of targets are allowed so that idiots don't bring their garbage to shoot up.

Thank you.

Can’t imagine they would mind. It’s mess free.
Though some ranges and ROs aren’t very gun friendly. They really don’t encourage shooting or learning.

 

[massgun]

You probably know about this site, https://www.luckygunner.com/labs/self-defense-ammo-ballistic-tests/#9mm. It would be interesting if you tested, or could test, some of the same ammo they did and compare the results. I plan on water jug testing my chosen carry rounds soon just to see what happens, never did it before. Thanks for the post.

 

[Mass-diver]

Very cool, thanks OP!

 

[38ExtraSpecial]

You probably know about this site, https://www.luckygunner.com/labs/self-defense-ammo-ballistic-tests/#9mm. It would be interesting if you tested, or could test, some of the same ammo they did and compare the results. I plan on water jug testing my chosen carry rounds soon just to see what happens, never did it before. Thanks for the post.

I’ll definitely post my findings. I’ll probably keep an ongoing thread once I start real testing with chrono data and all.

Very cool, thanks OP!

You’re welcome!

 

[38ExtraSpecial]

This is one I can’t wait to test. 3 round balls in a 45/70
Should be pretty impressive.

 

[Dennis in MA]

Hmmm. For $60 I could get one block or 2 Gummy Bears.

I could see Len losing his freaking mind as I dragged one of the new shooting tables out onto the range at Mans. to try this out. ROFL!!!

It looks like fun. I just don't have any reason to do any research on it. And I don't have a place to store that much jiggle.

 

[whacko]

Thank you.

Can’t imagine they would mind. It’s mess free.
Though some ranges and ROs aren’t very gun friendly. They really don’t encourage shooting or learning.

My range is fine with stuff like that as long as it is positioned so that bullets strike the backstop......so.....can't be placed directly on the ground. And you have to clean up everything.

Steel plate targets are ok as long as they swing or tip down.....and are placed so misses hit the backstop.

 

[whacko]

Hmmm. For $60 I could get one block or 2 Gummy Bears.

I could see Len losing his freaking mind as I dragged one of the new shooting tables out onto the range at Mans. to try this out. ROFL!!!

It looks like fun. I just don't have any reason to do any research on it. And I don't have a place to store that much jiggle.

Just bring your own saw horse and plywood that's what I did with the gummy bears.

 

[38ExtraSpecial]

Hmmm. For $60 I could get one block or 2 Gummy Bears.

I could see Len losing his freaking mind as I dragged one of the new shooting tables out onto the range at Mans. to try this out. ROFL!!!

It looks like fun. I just don't have any reason to do any research on it. And I don't have a place to store that much jiggle.

I would go with the gel myself. Reusable. Don't rot. Doesn't need to be calibrated. Clear.
Now buying a bear just to eat would be awesome

 

[whacko]

I would go with the gel myself. Reusable. Don't rot. Doesn't need to be calibrated. Clear.
Now buying a bear just to eat would be awesome

True you can't re use the 5 pound gummy bear. I just found it amazing that itll stop a 45acp.

 

[HorizontalHunter]

True you can't re use the 5 pound gummy bear. I just found it amazing that itll stop a 45acp.

You could make a gummy survival vest for TEOTWAWKI.

Ballistic protection and a quick energy pick me up.

Bob

 

[RapidTransit]

The problem I have with ballistics gel, you can game the system I don't trust the result, every ballistic gel video they call it a consistent test medium and not a 1 to 1 correlation to the real world. My logic, there is never a product that works best for everyone in every situation, so if a round gets 100% good results in ballistic gel, doesn't it sound fishy?

 

[HorizontalHunter]

The problem I have with ballistics gel, you can game the system I don't trust the result, every ballistic gel video they call it a consistent test medium and not a 1 to 1 correlation to the real world. My logic, there is never a product that works best for everyone in every situation, so if a round gets 100% good results in ballistic gel, doesn't it sound fishy?

While I agree that there isn’t a do all product that works for everyone in every situation it does provide a good level of consistency for comparison.

Bob

 

[38ExtraSpecial]

The problem I have with ballistics gel, you can game the system I don't trust the result, every ballistic gel video they call it a consistent test medium and not a 1 to 1 correlation to the real world. My logic, there is never a product that works best for everyone in every situation, so if a round gets 100% good results in ballistic gel, doesn't it sound fishy?

Gel isn’t gaursnteed to give real world results. It’s supposed to give an idea of what a bullet would do in flesh. It’s also supposed to be used to compare given bullet designs vs a known performer.
We all know the 38 special +p 158 FBI load has worked very well over the years. So we can use that as a baseline and compare other bullets to it.
We can also test with barriers in front of the gel to show how bullets perform vs barrier hard or soft. We can also test bullet design based off of the firearm being used. Supposedly 147 grain black talons are awesome bullets but don’t perform out of short barrels due to the decreased velocity. So we can confirm by firing some out of a full sized barrel and seeing how they expand and penetrate then firing some from a short barreled gun to see if they perform or don’t.
We had plenty of ammo not perform last week. Lots of sub 3” barrels at the range and bullets that did not perform from them.

Either way it’s all about learning and having fun. Even if I couldn’t rely on gel and even if it wasn’t a well documented medium for testing. I would still have a hell of a time making little bullet flowers at the range

I agree that the 100% success in gel is a little BS. when it comes down to it there are too many other variables in the whole process. Hell we don’t even know if the ammo will go bang, never mind if we will hit the target or if the bad guy will have 10” of belly fat or look like jack skelington.

Read some of the IWBA articles I posted and you can see lot of real world testing. Autopsies, euthanized livestock, gel with bones, barriers hard and soft.
Those guys settled on gel and standardized it’s foruma and usage because it’s the closest thing we have to flesh to test. Without euthanizing livestock of course.