homemade ballistic media???

[Big joe]

I have this fascination with terminal ballistics. I would love to go out and test bullets out of my rifles (.243 Win, 270 Win, 300 Win.) into some type of media that I could make easily and cheaply. Does anyone in here know of something I could use for this. I would like to recover the bullets if possible.

Thanks in advance for your help...

[Jack]

You can usually recover bullets in water jugs. You have to line up a bunch of them, but empty milk jugs are free....
And, since it's water, you don't leave crud all over the range, once you pick up the jugs.
Bundled newspaper is another alternative.
Niether one is a true comparison to how a bullet performs in game animals, but for comparison purposes, it can be interesting.
BTW, you know those perfectly mushroomed bullets you see in the ads, and pictured in loading manuals? A lot of those are created by shooting them into swimming pools.

[LoneWolf]

Seems somewhere I heard about a recipe for a gelatin like substance. But it would seem to me it would have to be extremely thick to stop the bullet.
Years ago, when a buddy of mine just got out of the police academy and purchased his vest, they gave him a sample of the material. He had to soak a Yellow Pages book in water, then attach the material to it, and shoot it. It supposedly simulated your body as the back drop.

[gumpokc]

I've used water soaked ( and i mean soaked) yellow pages books before. works well for comparasion of bullet performance.

There was an article a _long_ time ago conering ballistic gelatin, in one of the big gun magazines. Can't remembe rit well, but i do remember that the same place that makes jello, at least then, made ballistic gelatin.

I believe they said more info could be found by writing to them, but it was quite awhile ago, and i have selpt since then so i might not be remembering everything completely.

[kt]

in a pistol forum that i frequent many people really like to use soaked telephone books as a medium, but with rifles that might take a few books.
kt

[Allen]

Can you buy ballistic gelatin like you see used on TV? Does it cost too much for the average shooter to buy/use?

Allen

[LoneWolf]

A couple of sorces I found so far.

http://www.recguns.com/Sources/XD3.html

http://www.steyrscout.org/gelatin.htm

http://66.34.242.201/tacticalbriefs/volume4/number2/toc.htm


The last one lists a site to purchase the mix