Steel thickness to stop bullet?

[Nelson]

Does anyone know off the top of their head what thickness of steel is needed to stop a 9mm bullet, and also what thickness of steel is needed to stop a 45 cal.?

Thanks [IMG]/idealbb/images/smilies/1.gif[/IMG]

[Rope]

Date: 6/29/2005 12:58:15 AM Author:Nelson Does anyone know off the top of their head what thickness of steel is needed to stop a 9mm bullet, and also what thickness of steel is needed to stop a 45 cal.? Thanks [IMG]/idealbb/images/smilies/1.gif[/IMG]

Too many variables, what hardness of steel, from what range will the handguns be fired, what load are the bullets being fired i.e. hand loads, factory ammunition and what grain bullet???



Rope Dude

[Nelson]

Date: 6/29/2005 1:06:45 AM Author: FrozenRope Date: 6/29/2005 12:58:15 AM Author:Nelson Does anyone know off the top of their head what thickness of steel is needed to stop a 9mm bullet, and also what thickness of steel is needed to stop a 45 cal.? Thanks [IMG]/idealbb/images/smilies/1.gif[/IMG]

Too many variables, what hardness of steel, from what range will the handguns be fired, what load are the bullets being fired i.e. hand loads, factory ammunition and what grain bullet???



Rope Dude



Man, that''s a lot of questions. The range should withstand a shot from 3-10 feet. Handgun and ammo would be stock store bought stuff (forgive me, I don''t know enough about this). Base it off of police issue 45''s perhaps.

As far as the hardness of the steel, well that can be grouped in with the thinkness. Basicly, what would be best to stop a range of handgun bullets? If in doubt, go thinker and harder.

[dentman]

dont expect much from a 9mm .

[berlioz7]

I know absolutely nothing about this stuff myself, but I dont think that it would take very thick solid steel to stop a handgun bullet.

[IrritateGuy]

Multiple layers of thin steele will work better than a single thick layer of steele.

 

Why do you need to be able to stoop a policeman''s bullet? Are you opening a Meth lab?

[akula]

Date: 6/29/2005 8:58:44 AM Author: berlioz7 I know absolutely nothing about this stuff myself, but I dont think that it would take very thick solid steel to stop a handgun bullet.

Not exactly. Contrary to what Sarah Brady might tell you, handgun bullets are fairly weak by comparison (to a round exiting a rifle). Handguns are used only because they are easy to carry on a person; for serious stopping power, you want a rifle or shotgun.

Very few police issue guns in .45ACP anymore, but the "standard" loading would be 230 grains moving at about 850 fps. As for the amount of steel needed to stop it, that depends on whether it is a JHP (Jacketed Hollow Point) for FMJ (Full Metal Jacket, or "ball"). JHP won't penetrate as much as ball, but neither would go very far. I would think that 1/4" of even pot metal would be sufficient. 9mm has more flavors available (weights & speeds), but it won't penetrate steel in a much better fashion. If you got into .357 Magnum, .44 Magnum, or .357SIG, things would change a bit.

They make metal "popper" target for firing ranges- you hit a metal circle, the plate falls down. I would look at some commercially available poppers in order to make any major determination.

[Masherbrum]

Date:6/29/2005 1:13:01 AM Author:Nelson Man, that''s a lot of questions.  The range should withstand a shot from 3-10 feet.  Handgun and ammo would be stock store bought stuff (forgive me, I don''t know enough about this).  Base it off of police issue 45''s perhaps. As far as the hardness of the steel, well that can be grouped in with the thinkness.  Basicly, what would be best to stop a range of handgun bullets?  If in doubt, go thinker and harder.

Maybe 10 Law Enforcement Departments in the Country use 45''s.  Only ONE off of the top of my head are the Montana State Troopers that carry Les Baer 45''s.  LAPD is now authorized to carry the round as well. 

45 ball ammo can go through a 1.25" thick piece of Aluminum.  Steel, I don''t know about.  45 would have a MUCH better chance.  The 9mm round is purely reliant on expansion. 

Masher

[AllenW]

Are you just trying to stop a bullet or make steel targets to shoot over and over?

Neither of the rounds will penetrate 1/4" and I''d bet 1/8" would to, but never tried it.
But neither of them make a good target to shoot on a repetitive basis.

Also standard steel that you''d buy at your local scrap metal place is a poor choice for targets.
Most of the target manufacturers use an stronger steel, also this steel needs a different welding rod over the basic one as the regular rod will crack after time.

Trust me on this one, I had a garage full of targets with cracked welds a ways back to repair, for someone who didn''t use the correct rod/wire.

Most plates I''ve seen or made for shooting have been 5/16" or thicker, 1/2" standard plate would probably work, but they are not very portable.

Getting a little techincal, T1 steel has been used fairly often for targets and it had a brinell rating of about 230 to 300, give or take a little and would be a decent choice for recrational shooting.
Getting a bit more serious, you may want to use T6 (I think) or whatever has a brinell rating of close to 500, going by memory so not sure on the T6, but the higher the brinell the better...for the most part.
Maybe ask your local welding shop what they reccomend for welding these things together, bolts don''t usually work very well.

Also give some thought to having your local welding shop do the welding, best results I had was preheating the work and cooling slowly, without an oven it gets to be a pain.

Either way, good shooting.

Maybe check this site out.

http://www.isishootists.com/scsa/

Al

[Mort]

If your application is indeed for targets, shooting steel targets with jacketed bullets is not the best of ideas IMO.

Mort