A Day at the Range

A Day at the Range

This is a bit more aggressive topic than many we will have on this blog. Firearms are a key part of most survival scenarios, whether for hunting or self-defense purposes.

Had the opportunity to spend a full day on the shooting range with a variety of shooters and weapons. The piece of 3/8” thick steel in the photo will be a focal point of much of this discussion. OK, this was what would be called soft steel. That is certainly an oxymoron – let me hit you upside the head with this piece of steel and then tell me how soft it is! For today’s discussion, we will just acknowledge that this is not armor type steel.

There seems to be an over-abundance of pundits discussing the effectiveness and fatality of different firearms. First, yes I have seen the studies showing little statistical difference in the fatality rates of being shot with different size rounds. With a background in statistics and research, I am pretty good at spotting problems in studies like these. We must be aware that these studies were based on people being found dead or dying after showing up at ER. The basic premise is that any hot piece of metal screaming through your body is going to do some real damage – perhaps fatal. This does not address time! Was the person able to keep going and complete their attack, then perhaps self-medicate for several hours prior to going to the ER?

That brings us to stopping power. To stop an attack, you want to take out structure (we are not going to count on the person attacking us having such a weak stomach that they will faint at the sight of blood). The studies that focus on this topic all concur that a larger bullet propelled into you with greater force is more likely to destroy physical structure – more effectively stopping forward movement.

While I will be comparing impact from multiple cartridges, I have no data on loads or which of these may have been hollow-point, metal plated, etc. No scientific testing here – just a day with real people showing up with the weapons they use loaded with the ammo they use. This is more real world than laboratory!

The steel was 12” x 12” x 3/8”. This size provides easy enough visibility and spotting from our shooting distances, and coincidentally provides a fair match to the kill zone on most larger mammals (two rifles were being sighted-in for deer season – what were you thinking?). Yes, the steel is significantly harder than skin. That said, it is not unusual for bullets to pass through other materials prior to hitting a body. As such, sheer destructive penetrating power is important to be aware of. And yes, be aware that more penetrating power also means the bullets can more easily pass through walls and claim innocent victims. Always be aware of your backdrop.

AR rifles are certainly one of the most popular series purchased in the U.S. today. With all of the available accessories I consider these to be Barbie dolls for shooters. Most people purchase these understanding that they are the civilian version of the current military rifles. So these must be great for self-defense, right? Let me quote a vet, “In Basic we were taught that when you shoot someone they die. You can’t believe how shocked we were in Afghanistan when we shot people and they just stood back up and kept shooting at us!”

This photo is the impact of a .223 shot from an AR at 100 yards. OK, probably not proper to call that splatter mark an impact. Active shooters tell me that the .223 should have penetrated this soft steel. Again, I don’t know what kind of bullet was actually being shot from the AR here but what I saw hitting the steel plate pretty much skittered off (technical term). Remember, there were no laboratory controls here. When these shots were made the post had worked a bit loose and the steel had shifted slightly which made impact less effective. However, that did not keep the larger rounds from penetrating.

Even with body penetration, understand that the round is small in diameter so a smaller hole will be created.  I have heard two reasonable lines of thought on issuing these rounds to our military. We will ignore the fact that these firearms and rounds weigh significantly less than their predecessors. Only an older veteran would call a younger vet weak! First, most enemies are shooting 7.62 rounds out of AKs. This is a round that has decades of proven destructive force fired from a weapon that is extremely reliable though not precise. Instead of meeting force-on-force, the AR shoots further more accurately than the AK. The idea here is that you can actually hit the enemy further out than they can effectively hit you.  OK, makes sense – though maybe not in an urban environment where many encounters are at close range and working around/through obstacles! The second reason I have heard proposed is one of strategy where a partner who has been killed may be left laying where he is while the fight continues but an injured combatant will more likely tie up one or two other fighters who are trying to get him to safety. The concept is to remove three people from the fight instead of just one. Sounds like a great theory. We will leave it at that.

Now look at these holes. They were made by .308 rounds shot at 100, 200 and 300 yards. As rifles were being sighted in for deer hunting, there is a combined reasoning that a destructive, accurate, long range shot will more quickly (humanely) drop the deer while ensuring you don’t have to track it for great distances after the shot. Fatality AND stopping power. The steel plate hardly wobbled as the .308 bullets created Swiss cheese! You can picture that steel plate as a wall, door, whatever you wish between you and a shooter a long way off. You are still going to end up with a big hole in you.

We wrapped up the day with some pistol practice at closer ranges – about 20 yards. Here is the impact of a .40 cal. We shot these rounds from three different handguns (full size and sub compact) and saw virtually no difference in the impact. Slight penetration is obvious and the bullets pretty much pulverized.

This image was from a 9 mil also shot from a handgun. The impact is a little less than the .40. More significantly, each shot from the 9 mil yielded a clearly visible ricochet as the bullet hit, lost speed, and bounced visibly in a variety of directions. I want to stress that the round slowed down enough to be completely visible on the ricochet so its impact energy had been essentially removed. No real conclusion here but it was certainly fascinating to watch!

As I noted in the beginning, this was not scientific - just casual observation from a fun day at the range. Beyond that we must remember, in real self-defense situations any weapon you have in your hand is the best one for the purpose! That said, I like the idea of more powerful (but accurate) weapons creating bigger impacts which vastly improves stopping power.

I will close with one more story. A person I worked with told me a man tried to break into his mother-in-law’s house. She shot the intruder in the shoulder with a .45. The attacker fell back and ran away. After that the bad guy proceeded to rape a woman who was not armed. He was later caught with the large hole in his shoulder. He was so high that he was somewhat oblivious to the pain. He was able to keep going because actual skeletal structure had not been destroyed. The .45 round is certainly up to the task but just missed the key targets. Remember in the case of self-defense, any target worth shooting is worth shooting twice (or more).