.44 Special water jug test today.......

[Mus408]

Was doing some bullet test with my Charter Arms Bulldog today shooting the Speer 200 gr. Gold Dot.
Bullet speeds where recorded at 820-840 FPS using either 7.5 gr. of Unique or 8.1 of Power Pistol.

Now I was using 1/2 gallon milk jugs instead of the normal 1 gallon size.
Bullet stopped in 4th jug and had great uniform expansion measuring .700 diameter.

As far as penetration...4 half gallon jugs equals 16 inches of water penetration including the plastic jug walls. One gallon jugs if going thru 3 would be equal to about same 16 inches.

How does this equate to gelatin tests?

 

[WIL TERRY]

NOT much as water is much denser and produces about 60% more expansion and shallower penetration that you'll find in real meat/flesh.
And so it goes...

 

[NikA]

Ballistics gel is very nearly the same density as water (slightly more than 1g/cc). Bullets should expand more in water, but that doesn't mean that they will penetrate less. I've seen multipliers from 0.5 to 0.75 as a conversion from water penetration to ballistics gel.