Ballistic Gel for Bullet Recovery

[rwj]

I want to collect some bullets fired from a rifle for inspection and display. How much distortion would be caused by shooting them into ballistic gel? Is there better material/methodology? I plan to shoot VLD hollow points.

 

[paperpuncher]

I think h20 would work swimming pool perhaps

 

[dellet]

Depends on the bullet design and the density of the gel. For the most part gel is designed to mimic flesh so depending on design, you’ll have anything from no damage to complete destruction. With a hollow point, expect some deformation.

If you want samples of intact bullets, instead of what happens in flesh, the way to do that is to drop velocity.

The slower the bullet sheds velocity, the more intact it will be, if that’s the goal. The problem is that with a rifle round at 3000 fps, it might take 40” of gel to stop the bullet.

An example would be, I shot a .308” 155 Amax through 24” of 10% gel and found the perfectly intact bullet about 20 yards behind the gel. 1500 fps. Yet it stopped in about 18” expanded at 2200 fps.

Kind of depends on what you want to display.

 

[wright brothers]

Old school was stacked soaked phone books.

 

[MTlager]

You can make your own gel from Knox Gelatine. Its time comsuming. I prefer big bundle of newspaper tied together and soaked overnite.

 

[Straightshooter1]

I think h20 would work swimming pool perhaps

High velocity bullets fired into a swimming pool would shatter into pieces. This was shown in an episode of MythBusters having to do with shooting at someone who's under water. Low velocity bullets out of a handgun was shown to be most effective at hitting or killing someone under water than a rifle bullet.

 

[Capt. Oblivious]

Soak newspapers in a cooler box for a day or so

 

[std7mag]

"VLD hollow points" lead me towards the Berger VLD.

Even 10% gel your not going to be getting an "intact" bullet.

They do exactly what they are advertised as doing. Go in 1-3 inches and come apart.

If you're planning on using them for hunting, they are devastating to internal organs!!

 

[MClark]

Most swimming pools are at a location where you should not be firing a rifle.
VLDs are going to be destroyed by any material that will stop them.

 

[rwj]

Thanks for the responses! I’m going to ask my local gunsmith to make a short section from a used barrel (including a long free bore) and I’ll slug some bullets thru.

 

[DaveTooley]

Thanks for the responses! I’m going to ask my local gunsmith to make a short section from a used barrel (including a long free bore) and I’ll slug some bullets thru.

I did this once. Threaded the barrel to fit my reloading press. Made a punch to push the bullets. It takes a lot of force to push a bullet into a barrel.

 

[hpshooter]

Consider using a hydraulic shop press with a close fitting mild steel push rod. You most likely will need short sections of the rod to prevent bending the portion that is outside the barrel.

Pushing a .45 caliber sabot and projectile out of a .50 caliber smokeless muzzle loader barrel (collision with the ramrod in the bore, not done by me) was all my hand pumped 30 ton press and I wanted to do. As Dave posted "it takes a lot of force".