Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Hey all!

Finally got around to testing the terminal effects of the M1 Carbine. Unfortunately I don't have any FMJ military style ammo yet, but I thought it would be cool to see what it did with SP ammo in a self defense kinda role.

For our volunteer baddie I soaked some small pieces of printer paper in water for an hour and then firmly packed a hostile coffee can with it, until it was full to the top. Then I covered it with eight layers of denim to simulate clothing.

The results were a little surprising. I was expecting six, maybe eight inches of penetration, and to recover the bullet.

It exited the can. I only fired on it from 50 feet though, which is still a respectable self defense range, but I am lookin forward to trying some farther shots when the chance arises.

I fired two rounds at it, the first looking to strike rather high, so I compensated and fired the next one lower. It still hit high enough on the can.

Here's the thing. I am not sure if the first round popped the back end of the can open, because I didn't see it happen, and the can hardly reacted. It looks that way though. On the second hit, the lid of the can popped right off, paper spilled out, and blew out the back end of the can. It looked pretty nasty.

Here's the pics. Click on em to enlarge.



Our entry wound up there, along with the thickness of denim I used in the test.


There's a side view of our tango, with the full effect of the bulging and flap that blew open


Exit wound is about 1 inch in diameter.


The wound channel in the can. it is just shy of two inches in width and runs the length of the can.


There's a round, some of the paper showing denim that was blown into the can, and a piece of the jacket. Since blue jeans isn't a natual occurance in the human body, the surgeons would have some fun removing that. The copper piece of jacket says the round expanded violently, which explains the pressure signs and wound channel. It's impressive that it retained enough weight to completely penetrate the can!

Well...There's a quick and dirty non-scientific test if ever there was one. It sure doesn't look like using the 30 Carbine in combat is anything to worry about, with SP ammo anyway!

6 comments:

HeadCount said...

Hi Joel,

I thought the denim would absorb a lot of the impact.

That's one nasty wound for a perpetrator.

Well, rest in pieces, little can. We hardly knew you.

Any other cans waiting to be "tested"? I'm kinda wondering what a Winchester would do to that can.

later.

Joel said...

Hey Red! Good to have you here!

What kinda Winchester would ya like to see applied to the can? I can do another test soon.

My Win 94 30-30?

HeadCount said...

Well, you know me, I live an exciting gun toting life vicariously through you.

So any Winchester that goes boom is fine by me. I may have jumped the gun. I watched "a fistful of dollars" again and I'm hooked.

Also, I was going to suggest pouring Jello into a can, but for all your needs of the day, that paper with water works fine by me. It gives me a ballpark idea of what the dammage is.

Joel said...

Fistful of dollars eh? Best one of the trilogy! And you'll like the pistol I am gettin today then.

Jello...Good idea. Its a shame I can't eat the jello after the test though lol.

But a Winchester? Yep. That can be arranged!

Concerned said...

Never mind "Fistful of Dollars" although it was a good movie, you guys gotta watch "Winchester '73".
Now there's a classic. "One of a Thousand".

Joel said...

Sounds good to me! I'll check it out when I get the chance. I grew up on those Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns, but Winchester '73 sounds like a classic.