Range Report: Evaluation of a bulletproof laminated panel! - Lots o' big pics!

[55_grain]

More than a year ago, I won a NES karma for a bulletproof panel! It's been sitting in my basement since.

Here's the thread: http://www.northeastshooters.com/vbulletin/threads/101524-Winners-Picked-Shoot-em-up-Karma

Here's the material: Bullet Resistant Fiberglass Level 3 UL Listed Panel

Per the vendor it is "Bullet resistant fiberglass is a reinforced plastic material consisting of multiple layers of woven roving ballistic grade fiberglass cloth impregnated with a thermoset polyester resin and compressed into rigid flat sheets."
This is the vendor: http://www.pacificbulletproof.com/pr...Adwords&p=0.52

It's supposed to stop the following:
.357 Mag., 158 Gr., 1395 Ft. Sec., JSP
.44 Mag., 240 Gr., 1350 Ft. Sec., SWC
.44 Mag., 240 Gr., 1400 Ft. Sec., SWC

It's about 9x9", and a hefty four pounds or so. So...what should we do with it? Shoot it, of course.

I don't have access to a .44, or any other kind of hand cannon.

But I do have access to
-> a 9mm with 115-grain FMJ (1150 fps). The standard cartridge of, well, everywhere.
-> a .45 ACP with 230-grain FMJ (850 fps). Heavy, but slow.
-> and 7.62x25 in my CZ-52 with 90-grain FMJ's (1450 fps!) Exceptionally fast for a pistol round, these are copper-washed steel and are claimed to push thru class II vests and the PASGT helmet.

I put the target at 25 yards, and at a slight angle to decrease the chances of me shooting myself with a riccochet. That would be embarrassing.

9mm first! Bang! OK, that's a hit.

Then .45ACP. Bang! Er, missed. How embarrassing. Bang! Missed again. Bang! That's better. Clearly more practice is needed. Let's go check out the target.

Here it is.

The 9mm has cut thru the first layer or so of fiberglass weave, then bounced back to, um, somewhere. Nice.

The .45 FMJ has cut thru a little deeper, and actually mushroomed so nicely that it's firmly stuck in there.

Overall, not much damage, although there is some delamination around the .45

Let's get out the evil NATO-killing commie ammo! Bang! nothing. Bang! nothing. Bang! wtf? Let's go for a walk again.

Looks like all three hit, actually pretty close together. Damage is a little lighter than the 9mm. Bullets are elsewhere.

So...the panel will stop most common handgun rounds, as it should. Guess we'll have to upgrade.

I happened to bring along some 5.56x45 ammo. Specifically:
Lake City M193 55-grain FMJ and some foreign NATO-stamped M855 62-grain steel core FMJ. We'll be shooting this out a 20" barrel. I also moved the target out to 100 yards.

Bang Bang! Let's go for a walk.

Both rounds punched thru like, well, rifle rounds thru "bulletproof" stuff. They kept right on going, and were not recovered.

Here's the back side.

Lesson learned here: Don't bring a handgun to a rifle fight!

I didn't bring (or need) the .30-06 AP. But I did bring some 7.5x55 Swiss. If you don't have a gun in this caliber, you should get one. Swiss rifles are accurate like laser beams. They're ballistically pretty similar to a .308, and they use regular .30-cal bullets. We have one factory FMJ round left, and a couple of my reloaded 165-grain Nosler softpoints. Here's how they compare to the .223's. Good stuff!

I'll spare you the bang-bangs and just say that they're all on target. Here's the target:

And here's the back. Note how much bigger the exit holes are.

And it's getting delaminated. Guess it's taken its last bullet.

I hope you found this entertaining! I did.

55_grain

 

[Brian5582]

Very cool, and entertaining. Thanks for the review of how it works/ doesn't

 

[R1ch]

Cool! thanks for sharing! It looks like you had some fun doing this.

I wonder how it would handle my 460 Rowland?

 

[Twigg]

Entertaining and informative.

 

[Blitz1]

Nice!!

 

[Dirtypacman]

Great little write up and pics thanks for sharing with us

 

[GraftonNH]

Excellent info, thanks for taking the time and effort to document and post!

 

[cockpitbob]

Reps for taking the time to educate and entertain us.

 

[MisterHappy]

Excellent post. The idea of "Bulletproof" is a realtive thing....my theory is that if it won't stop a .30-'06 AP round, it's meerly resistant.

I actually did my own one-shot test. At our club we swithced to steel for the Trap range, and put a layer of 3/4 PT plywood up to prevent bounce-back from the concrete trap house in the event of a ND. I took a cutoff from the project and hit it with Number 7 shot at 15 yards. Zero penetration.

I'll not stand behind it versus 00 Buck, though!

 

[Blitz1]

Excellent post. The idea of "Bulletproof" is a realtive thing....my theory is that if it won't stop a .30-'06 AP round, it's meerly resistant.

I actually did my own one-shot test. At our club we swithced to steel for the Trap range, and put a layer of 3/4 PT plywood up to prevent bounce-back from the concrete trap house in the event of a ND. I took a cutoff from the project and hit it with Number 7 shot at 15 yards. Zero penetration.

I'll not stand behind it versus 00 Buck, though!

But surely just the sound of You racking the shotgun would destroy it right?

 

[WaldoOneFive]

Great thread / write up. Thanks!

+1

 

[calsdad]

Great write up.

Where can you buy some of this stuff? I'm starting to have thoughts of lining my house and car with this stuff!

 

[calsdad]

Great write up.

Where can you buy some of this stuff? I'm starting to have thoughts of lining my house and car with this stuff!

Never mind - missed the link in your post:

http://www.pacificbulletproof.com/products/bullet-resistant-fiberglass/


Anybody know what the pricing runs on this stuff?

 

[55_grain]

Reps for taking the time to educate and entertain us.

Thanks!

Anybody know what the pricing runs on this stuff?

I don't know, but it can't be cheap. At 4.9lbs/ft2, a 4x8 sheet should run you about 160 pounds. That's a lot of fiberglass. Probably a good insulator around the house, tho. Think I'll need two layers, at least.

Cool! thanks for sharing! It looks like you had some fun doing this.

Anything for science!

I wonder how it would handle my 460 Rowland?

The panel is supposed to handle 3 rounds of 240-grain lead SWC's from a .44 @ 1375fps. So I bet it would stop a couple of .460's using lead or JHP's. If you had some good hard FMJ rounds, tho, all bets are off. Either way, I'm not going to stand behind it!

55_grain

 

[ItalianBostonian]

Thanks for the write up!

 

[MisterHappy]

But surely just the sound of You racking the shotgun would destroy it right?

Well, we used a semi-auto....so it only trembled in fear....

 

[55_grain]

One month bump!

Did any other karma winners test their bulletproof panels?