What say you?....

stovepipe · Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2008 11:18 am Post subject: What say you?....

Bet a buddy half a beer (not crazy enough to bet a whole one!) his Mini-14 would grenade one of them 1-gallon plastic jug's of water. Ya know, like the kind ya see in the store in the translucent soft plastic jugs- Arrowhead, no-name etc...

I've blammed 'em with my 12ga, pistols, and they kabloooey pretty good.

Never hit one with a HP centerfire though...my buddy thinks the high-velocity will carry it trough and leave two clean holes.

I'm thinkin' this round is really hauling and since water cannot be compressed the bullet will be destroyed and the container will obliterate.

Neither of us have tried it with this rifle.

Am I in danger of losing half of one of Vince's beer's?

(note- NEVER shoot at STANDING water for any reason.....disclaimer added for the lawyer in none of us...)

What say you?

Dawgdad · Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2008 12:25 pm Post subject: Re: What say you?....

If you use the right bullet the results are spectacular. Set it up on a fence post to get the 360 effect too.

If you only get a glancing blow it just falls over and leaks out but if you hit it square on with a hollowpoint or tipped varmint bullet and you will be lucky to find the cap. I hit one with a 55gr V-max fired from a 30-06 accelerator pushing over 4000 fps.. vaporized!

If you read any of the many posts I have made about lethal distance , this is what I like to use for that exercise. Just fill up a bunch of gallon milk jugs and start dropping them off randomly from 50-350 yards. Good positive feedback when you make the "kill shot" on the jug. When you don't get a geyser... you have exceeded your lethal range.

Pumpkinslinger · Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2008 1:09 pm Post subject: Re: What say you?....

A varmint bullet will blow it up pretty good. Hydrostatic shock.

As an aside... Years ago I worked nuclear security. I took my Mini-14 to a firepower demonstration we did for the other security folks. One of the officers wanted me to shoot an I-beam with the .223. At first I told him he was nuts! Then, after some consideration, I angled the I-beam so that any ricochet would deflect back into the embankment/woods beside the range in a safe direction. Using 55 grain softpoints I fired three shots at 100 yards. I was surprised to see three perfect holes punched through the I-beam! Remember that the bullets weren't hitting straight on, more like 30 degrees. I wish we'd put up something behind it to see what the effect was but I can tell you that I was pretty surprised and impressed.

Dawgdad · Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2008 1:49 pm Post subject: Re: What say you?....

I made a home made spinner target with a piece of 4"x6" 1/4 plate as the target. When I shot at it from 100 yards with the SKS it clanged and flopped like I wanted it to with the 125 gr bullet at about 2400fps but did not spin al the way around. I then tried three shots with a 30-06 with 110 exposed lead hollowpoints pushing 3200fps. I knew the gun was zeroed but it just wiggled a little bit in the breeze when I fired. wtf

I went downrange to look at what was going on and had a nice cloverleaf of three holes in the middle of the steel with a bunch of dents that were nearly punctures from the SKS ammo. Shocked

I am also amazed at action pistol shoots where hardball and other jacketed ammo is thrown at the 5/8 steel knock downs and it barely blackens the paint!

Velocity is king for penetration...

TRBLSHTR · Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2008 2:02 pm Post subject: Re: What say you?....

Mini-14 and 55gr ball ammo(FMJ-not armor piercing) at 50 yards goes through 1/2" steel plate just fine.Upon examination it looks like it was burned through with a cutting torch! Entry and exit holes were about 1/2" diameter also-for some reason!8)

shrpshtrjoe · Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2008 2:26 pm Post subject: Re: What say you?....

I agree with the right bullet it'l blow it up Bomb

Joe

stovepipe · Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2008 2:31 pm Post subject: Re: What say you?....

Dawgdad wrote:

If you use the right bullet the results are spectacular. Set it up on a fence post to get the 360 effect too.

Radial Expansion....way cool.

fireball 3 · Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2008 5:45 pm Post subject: Re: What say you?....

Hey stovepipe, that sounds like fun.I got some 8mm fmj/ap's
they oughta work really good on a steel spinner..Dave

SingleShotLover · Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2008 6:04 am Post subject: Re: What say you?....

Like you have probably noted, the performance will vary depending on the density of the target. A .223 50-grain SX bullet from my XP100 will vaporize a water-filled jug at 100 yards, but will drill a hole in 3/8" steel at 50 yards. And yes...they look like they were cut with a torch.
The difference in effect between the two is that the water can expand violently outward (hydrostatic effect) while the steel provides enough resistance for the bullet to simply bore its way through.

By the way...you can safely bet all of Vince's beers on this one.