Stopping a Bullet

[Kellemora]

I started seeing all kinds of info on-line again, about how much paper it takes to stop a bullet.

I know from experiments we did while I was in the service, a bullet does not penetrate as far as I've seen on some you-tube videos of late. It does depend on the type of paper, caliber of the bullet, and charge behind it of course.

Phone books are made from newsprint paper, so is less dense that the paper used in normal books.

Using handguns from .22 on up to .45, we never could get through but about 8 inches, and that was with a .38.
The .22 only made it about an inch, and all the rest of the weapons were between 4 and 7 inches.
Then we switched to rifles. At best they gained about 2 more inches, except for some super high power rifles which made it to 19 inches. A .50 caliber made it through all 24 inches.

However, that is not why I brought up the subject.

We tried another experiment.
We placed sheets of paper once inch apart on a clothesline.
Unfortunately I don't remember how many sheets of paper we put up, I think it was around 120 sheets, because the clothesline was a little over ten feet long. Stretched from a window out to a tree.

I tried looking on-line to see if anyone else had tried this, because it was so many years ago, I can't remember for sure how many sheets a bullet went through before dropping to the ground, unable to penetrate the next sheet of paper.
I paid attention to the .38 pistol, since it made it the farthest in the stacked books.
But it seems it dropped to the ground around the 30 sheets of paper point.
We never fired the .50 caliber at this setup, because we had to reload the sheets of paper for each test.
Also, the CO was getting on our case.

Oh well, perhaps I'll find more info if I keep searching.

[yogi]

So ... were you in the Engineering Corps, or did you just have a lot of time on your hands?

[Kellemora]

No, I was in Special Ops, and at the time it was a top secret project I was assigned to.
There's no such thing as 'time on your hands' in the service, hi hi.
But we did have our three free hours every Saturday, unless we were on a mission.
I was an LCAC pilot, but spent most of my time in the failed submersible SEC endeavor.
We lost one heck of a lot of men before they abolished the project.

Here is my assignment record:
United States Special Forces.
Tier 2 Grey Special Operations.
5th Special Forces Group.
US Army Command.
Marine Amphibious Unit.
Low Intensity Conflict.
Special Operations MAU (SOC).
Project Delta (SEC). (SEC is Surface Effect Craft)
SDS Facility (SDS stood for Seven Devils Swamp).
Phoenix Program LCAC support for Sigma and Omega Initiatives.

[pilvikki]

so, what did all that mean?

[yogi]

nobody knows for sure

[Kellemora]

It means we used top secret experimental craft to rescue injured soldiers and get them out of Nam and to a hospital ship.
The goal was to do it without getting ourselves killed.
Unfortunately, about 60% to 70% of our three units never made it home alive.
Not killed by the enemy, but by the faulty experimental equipment we tested and used for the rescue missions.
Although we successfully rescued many soldiers, the entire mission was scrubbed due to our own heavy losses.

[pilvikki]

ouch.