[kalimus]

So awhile back we were talking about wall penetration, rifle vs pistol (maybe someone included a shotgun as well).

I found an interesting site that I had never seen before where some guys ran some tests with various pistol rounds and rifle rounds. I thought I would share.

http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot1.htm

Basically, we were all pretty wrong as far as what was "safe" to fire in a house. By that I mean specifically just how much penetration some rounds would make. I would not really have imagined a round like a .22 making it through 3 interior walls. The only part I didn't really care for in the test, was comparing 9mm/.45 rounds with some version of a HD round (hollowpoint of some variation), but using XM193 ball for the rifle instead of a HD round as well. I think later they used a frangible ammo though... maybe in a different test, but I can't remember.

The first piece of write up surprised me the most...

First, we loaded the box with 12 sheets of 5/8 sheetrock, which is also called wallboard in some areas.
Since it takes 2 sheets per wall, this is the thickness of 6 interior walls.

Why twelve? It seemed like a good number and I thought it might stop most rounds.
I was about to learn something.

First, I shot it with my M-17 S&W, .22 LR HP. It penetrated 6 sheets and bounced off the seventh sheet.
That would be the equivalent of 3 interior walls.
And that's only a .22 pistol.

Long story short, we proceeded to shoot several rounds and they all penetrated all 12 sheets and exited.

Anyway, there are lots of tests/articles on the site. Take a look!