I get asked a lot of questions in this job. Everything from what type of strange old gun someone brings me to what happens if you shoot in outer space. One of the most common questions I get is about ballistics. The Internet is filled with data and opinions regarding how powerful or deadly a certain gun and/or cartridge is. Since AR15's are so common, people often want to know about 223 Remington. Well, I had one of these questions myself a few weeks back so I decided to arrange a small test. Rifles, watermelons and video cameras make for a good trip to the range. On this day, we brought 2 guns I know very well and a third cartridge I had never fired, the 450 Bushmaster. I'll post the video and then later I post some comments and observations we had after reviewing the carnage close up. It took about 2 hours to get these few seconds of decent video.

Tim


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeEJ-Ehw6-8[/youtube]

One of the shots that didn't make the video due to a technical error with the camera was the 6.5 Grendel. The 450 Bushmaster shot left just some wet grass. If you didn't know a watermelon was just there a minute ago, you wouldn't believe me when I told you I just vaporized one with a single shot. The 6.5 Grendel gave a similar result. The 223 Remington was a surprise too. Finally, I didn't catch the 30.06 dead on, but it seemed to want to pass through the watermelon easier than the other rounds. The 30.06 ammo was mil surplus FMJ that was designed to shoot through barriers and gear and keep delivering a punch after initial impact. On the other end of the spectrum, the 450 Bushmaster round is designed for ranges of 250 yards or less and is designed to deliver all of its punch by driving a 250 grain hollow point into the target and not over penetrating. The 223 was a typical 75 grain bullet that mostly uses its high speed to deliver energy and the type and density of the target has a lot to due with how well it performs. Watermelons are really its thing. The 6.5 Grendel was the best mix of all of the rounds. It pushes a 120 grain bullet at a very high speed. Like the 223, it isn't the best for punching through something to get to its target like the 30.06, but unlike the 223, the heavier bullet delivers a ton of kinetic energy to target. I wasn't all that suprised by the results, except for the level of destruction by the 450 Bushmaster. The cloud of purple mist was about 30 feet in diameter and it seemed to rain watermelon juice without any large peices of watermelon to be found. I think the 30.06 would be best tested by lining up 5-10 watermelons and seeing how many of them a single round would continue to shred before it finally ran out of energy.

Most of the customers we deal with today are highly interested in ballistic performance. However, until you have been on the receiving end of rifle fire, it is hard to understand just how devastating and terrorizing it can be. We don't normally hear the round impacting the berm at the range. We are going to repeat some of these test at 200 and 300 yards with the camera behind the target to see if we can communicate a little better as to what people are unleashing when they pull that trigger. I've watched several 30.06 rounds chop limbs off of pine trees during High Power matches. Its impressive to see a 147 grain bullet completely cut limbs off of 2 or 3 trees before losing its energy.

We are also going to build some interior wall structures to show how different calibers perform when fired into "cover" in a typical building structure. I think everyone will find the demonstrations very interesting.

More to come

I love the smell of powder and fresh fruit in the air.