Blastic gel tests appear to be pure controlled science: a handgun shot strikes a block, a channel is drawn, a number is written down. The findings are disseminated, discussed, and even acted as a form of certainty.
The purpose of the gelatin standard developed by the FBI is somewhat more limited: it is a standard that generates repeatable measurements to aid in estimating whether a duty bullet is capable of reaching critical anatomy through common obstacles. Approaching the knowledge of what the standard does and what it does not do begin with the knowledge of the medium, the yardsticks, and the obstacles which attempt to disperse the modern hollow points.
1. 10% Ordnance Gel is a recipe not a vibe
The FBI standard is constructed on 10 percent ordnance gelatin that is well calibrated by weight and stored in low temperature before testing. It is consistency: the same projectile launched in the same conditions will achieve similar penetration and expansion results in labs. Gel, which is why it became as repeatable, had ousted more improvisational media, such as wet phone books or clay, which were older. Practically the gel block is a tissue simulant, not a small person. It is unable to reproduce skin stretch, bone impacts, or the multilayered sophistication of organs, but it can give constant figures on which to compare loads.
2. Calibration is the realist that renders data real
Gel is only counted when it is validated. A popular one is a BB shot at a small acceptable penetration range and at a narrow range of acceptable velocities. Density is in spec, one of the published calibration procedures is to load a.177-inch steel BB at 590 fps -15 to penetrate 2.953.74 inches into the block. This step of calibration is important as an almost softer or harder block will tend to be seen to penetrate less or more, rearranging the conclusions without altering the ammunition at all.
3. The fundamental pass/fail measure is neither expansion nor expansion
In the case of defensive handgun ammunition, the most popular standard that the FBI uses is 12 to 18 inches of gel penetration during the events of the protocol. The window is a mere necessity: the bullet must strike vital structures despite not arriving to its destination in a perfect trajectory angles, limbs, and intermediate matter all vary the meaning of deep enough. The expansion is still quantified yet the penetration is likely to be the nonnegotiable. The same thing that causes a wide bullet to fail at the job early may cause a narrow bullet never to get where it is supposed to get.
4. The FBI examination is literally a barrier examination clad in a gel costume
Designs are stressed at the gelatin block where measurements occur. The most popularly outlined protocol will consist of bare gel and heavy clothing, followed by tougher barriers such as steel, wallboard, plywood and angled auto glass. The existence of every barrier is due to its manifestation in actual shooting and its ability to alter the behavior of the bullets predictably. The clash of marketing statements and physics of this world leads to a barrier testing: hollow points may get clogged, jackets may shear, and expansion well-designed may go wrong and become mere drilling.
5. Clogging is a problem of heavy clothing and not a problem of warmth
The massive dressing code is deliberately unaccommodating- the layers designed to hold cloth in the center of the hollow point and form it to keep it closed. The definition of the standard by Lucky Gunner stresses the fact that the FBI applies to the clothing stack the worst-case composite and not a fashion prediction as this can demonstrate failures in expansion which would not be seen in bare gel. A plugging hollow point that fails to expand tends to penetrate more, and may leave the bullet still moving, which is likely to injure someone.
6. Hollow points can be solidified using drywall and plywood
Partitions such as wallboard and wood often come in between to disrupt the mechanics of making hollow points work. Barrier project testing summaries characterize how drywall dust and wood fibers fill into the hole, slows or impedes the expansion and changes the degree of penetration. It has not only more or less penetration, but a different shape of bullet going through gel than the designer wanted to have. That is, the number of gels in barriers is in part a measure of the degree to which a projectile has retained its construction after having been broken on the path.
7. The separator is the auto glass as it may destroy shape and direction
The FBI protocol angled laminated windshield glass and positioned it in such a way that the bullet has to go through it then go through gel. The geometry is important, and protocol descriptions published give a 45 degree stance with the compound offset that is intended to be a shot into a car. The obstacle is punitive as it may severely deform bullets, peel jackets and decrease regular expansion. A second danger is also reported in barrier test write-ups: as bullets become deformed, or part ways, they may alter course, and become uncertain, something that cannot be measured by gel.
8. Temporary cavity sounds dramatic, though handguns usually win using depth
Gel testing can be found with high speed footage of a block balloon being out of shape. That temporary cavity may come in handy as a descriptive observation but, according to seasoned gel testers, handgun velocities seldom produce similar tissue-tearing effects as those caused by faster rifles. What is most steadily measurable and that most referrent to uniform incapacitating processes is the permanent crush path and its profundity. It is that focus which makes penetration occupy the center of the FBI standard despite the superb expansion on paper.
9. Gel is the tool of comparison, not the promise regarding bodies
Even gelatin proponents note a weakness: gel is homogeneous whereas living targets are stratified and discontinuous. A bullet may act differently when it hits a bone, when it hits at an oblique angle or when traveling through an anatomy which is impossible to replicate with gel. Gel results are useful since they allow one to compare apples with apples, not because they give predictions with confidence. Gel in the FBI structure is not a crystal ball, as much as a yardstick, which is used to separate loads that are always capable and those always not.
However, one reads it as intended, the FBI gelatin standard is a rigorous method of posing a constrained question: will a handgun bullet consistently penetrate to a useful depth despite ordinary impediments, and will it still act like the designer says it will act? It leaves not all the arguments regarding the stopping power. What it does provide is a repeatable language penetration, expansion, retained weight, and barrier performance for describing what handgun rounds actually do when the variables are controlled.
