Water jug tests ...

[Bill in Oregon]

How about 55-gallon drum tests?
To think we fired this ordinance at each other makes me sick at heart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPwLrc-NXkY

[gamekeeper]

Well I don't think milk jugs are going to look so spectacular now.....

[Ysabel Kid]

Well I don't think milk jugs are going to look so spectacular now.....

I'll say!

[Grizz]

How many barrels of water will 50 BMG penetrate ?

https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/stop- ... ter-video/ > in for a treat on this one

some time ago there were videos of someone shooting under water in a swimming pool, including 50 BMG.

[jeepnik]

Not surprised at all. Two things to consider. The plastic used for drum, particularly the tops is both very dense and much thicker than water jugs. The other is the density if water is much greater than folks think.

[GunnyMack]

How many barrels of water will 50 BMG penetrate ?

https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/stop- ... ter-video/ > in for a treat on this one

some time ago there were videos of someone shooting under water in a swimming pool, including 50 BMG.

Mythbusters were shooting INTO water (swimming pool)checking to see how deep a person needed to be to be safe from bullets wounding/ killing. Even the mighty 50BMG was pretty much safe at about 3 feet deep.

[Bill in Oregon]

Used to find those steel .50 BMG cores washing out of the berms at the range in La Luz, NM. Most were in excellent condition. I wonder how a depleted uranium round would fare in the 55-gallon drum test.

[AJMD429]

.
I think I saw a water-jug comparison of 45-70 and 50 BMG, and the 45-70 penetrated more (maybe 9 or 10 versus 5 or 6). Various theories were put forth but the best velocity for penetrating water-jugs seemed to be around 1,100 or 1,200 fps regardless of what gun it was fired from.

Ii wonder what the velocity of those cannon balls tended to be...

[Grizz]

.
I think I saw a water-jug comparison of 45-70 and 50 BMG, and the 45-70 penetrated more (maybe 9 or 10 versus 5 or 6). Various theories were put forth but the best velocity for penetrating water-jugs seemed to be around 1,100 or 1,200 fps regardless of what gun it was fired from.

Ii wonder what the velocity of those cannon balls tended to be...

I remember that. PLUS the nose shape makes a big difference, the flat meplat sets up a bow wave that reduces friction (?), AND the 50 outruns it's damage zone and the water acts as a brake (?) that's what I recall, but I bet there are discussions about this somewhere. The high pressure revolver guys were working this out.

I remember the videos about shooting into swimming pools too. It's how forensic labs capture bullets...

[GunnyMack]

Had a guy at school that built a single shot 50. One day at the range he was shooting a a railroad tie plate, thosev750 grain bullets were pushing the plate into the berm. I hit it with a 25gr from my 17 Remington just about bored a hole through it.

[Grizz]

Had a guy at school that built a single shot 50. One day at the range he was shooting a a railroad tie plate, thosev750 grain bullets were pushing the plate into the berm. I hit it with a 25gr from my 17 Remington just about bored a hole through it.

makes me wonder if 50 BMG was engineered to be effective at the range airplanes were engaged, and trains blown up, and ammo cargo blown up. You can see lots of that on the history channel. it would be fun to shoot stuff at varying ranges to see what happens on the business end. OR just down-load them so the muzzle velocity is at the mid-range velocity. something like that.

it would be fun to shoot the 50 any old way

[GunnyMack]

I think what was happening was all that energy from the 50 was pushing the plate whereas the 17 was fast and small enough to do more damage.
We would also shoot rocks out on the flats and the 50 really did damage, could see hunks go flying ! It's a relativity thing, bigger the mass of shot object more the 50 would do to it. The 17 would toss a prarie dog but against at rock at 500 you wouldn't even know ya hit it. Man I miss prairie dog towns!