Posted on Mar 19, 2018
How to Properly Interpret Ballistic Gel Test Results - The Firearm Blog
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So I am sure there are RP folks who have used Ballistic Gel, and know all about it. I freely admit that I have only seen it used in videos, and do not know the true value of using it.
How to Properly Interpret Ballistic Gel Test Results - The Firearm Blog
Posted from thefirearmblog.comPosted in these groups: 
Firearms and Guns
Firearms and Guns
Posted 6 y ago
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I've shot quite a bit of ballistic gel in the past. The advantage of it is that you have a repeatable test media for comparing the performance of bullets. I have a big problem with the following statement:
" But properly prepared and calibrated 10% ordnance gelatin does produce penetration, retained weight, and expansion/fragmentation results that correlate very strongly with wounds observed in actual bodies. It is near perfect for simulating those measurements in living muscle tissue and the results in other soft tissues do not tend to deviate significantly"
That is just not true. A given bullets AVERAGE performance in ballistic gelatin very closely matches the AVERAGE performance of that bullet in the human body. But the individual results, especially in the human body can vary greatly.
By that I mean if you take a given bullet, say a 115 gr 9mm JHP and fire it into 10 human bodies you could get penetration from 5" to 15" that averages 10". Then fire the same bullet in ballistic gelatin and get penetration from 9" to 11" that averages 10".
The author of the article really needs to go back and read the research of Dr. Martin Fackler and Duncan McPhereson.
The author does have this part right though:
"The purpose of using ballistic gel is to compare one load to another in relative terms. We can see that two bullets penetrate about the same but if one expands more, it can obviously damage a bit more tissue. Or we can conclude that a bullet that fails to meet the 12″ penetration standard is likely to be less effective than one that performs similarly but exceeds the 12″ mark."
" But properly prepared and calibrated 10% ordnance gelatin does produce penetration, retained weight, and expansion/fragmentation results that correlate very strongly with wounds observed in actual bodies. It is near perfect for simulating those measurements in living muscle tissue and the results in other soft tissues do not tend to deviate significantly"
That is just not true. A given bullets AVERAGE performance in ballistic gelatin very closely matches the AVERAGE performance of that bullet in the human body. But the individual results, especially in the human body can vary greatly.
By that I mean if you take a given bullet, say a 115 gr 9mm JHP and fire it into 10 human bodies you could get penetration from 5" to 15" that averages 10". Then fire the same bullet in ballistic gelatin and get penetration from 9" to 11" that averages 10".
The author of the article really needs to go back and read the research of Dr. Martin Fackler and Duncan McPhereson.
The author does have this part right though:
"The purpose of using ballistic gel is to compare one load to another in relative terms. We can see that two bullets penetrate about the same but if one expands more, it can obviously damage a bit more tissue. Or we can conclude that a bullet that fails to meet the 12″ penetration standard is likely to be less effective than one that performs similarly but exceeds the 12″ mark."
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PO3 Steven Sherrill
SSG Tom Pike He did mention the issue with every human body being different. I appreciate you sharing this information. I will have to look up the research you mentioned. As I said, I have only seen it in videos, never used it, and am not familiar with it as someone who has experience with ballistics.
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PO3 Steven Sherrill
SSG Tom Pike Guess this one will be in kindle edition only, holy crap that book is expensive.
https://www.amazon.com/Bullet-Penetration-Modeling-Incapacitation-Resulting-ebook/dp/B00L7CSV7E
https://www.amazon.com/Bullet-Penetration-Modeling-Incapacitation-Resulting-ebook/dp/B00L7CSV7E
Bullet Penetration: Modeling the Dynamics and the Incapacitation Resulting from Wound Trauma 2nd...
Bullet Penetration: Modeling the Dynamics and the Incapacitation Resulting from Wound Trauma - Kindle edition by Duncan MacPherson. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Bullet Penetration: Modeling the Dynamics and the Incapacitation Resulting from Wound Trauma.
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SSG Tom Pike
PO3 Steven Sherrill - You can find a lot of the research listed on the web without buying the book.
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It is my opinion that when testing ammunition and how the human body reacts to said projectile. That a pig is a much better analog than ballistic gel.
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Cpl Tom Surdi
Andrew White, Not really, when you consider that genetically humans and pigs are similar. But that isn't why they are a better analog. Humans and pigs are also constructed similarly, the ribs, how their flesh and muscle reacts to things, hell even a pigs heart, intestines and stomach are similar. It's why doctors have been able to transplant pig heart valves into humans
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SSG Tom Pike
PO3 Steven Sherrill - Mostly sausage, don't get a lot of good bacon off of feral hogs. Usually not enough fat.
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