Range Report: Penetration Testing of Residential Brick Walls (Pic Heavy)

[GREEN607]

A very informative post and an interesting test. Indeed it must have been quite a bit of work to plan and prepare for the testing..... but I'm pretty sure you were all more than happy to participate in performing "the tests".

If you ever do a similar test in the Box-o-Truth.... I'd like to see what rounds like .22Mag; 7mm Mag; and .45-70 would do to 'the wall'.

Very well written and documented, guys! Thanks for that!

+ Reps incoming......but I expect a brownie or two. I'll PM my addie, for delivery of same. -Lee

 

[Rookie]

I'd be interested to see this done with brick and mortar. Would mortar seams stop a round. Would a mortar filled brick fare better.

 

[HamsterStyle]

Hamsterstyle,

You and I must be kindred spirits when it comes to food! Your description made me think of an excited 12 year old boy describing the meal.

I know that some of my favorite memories have an element of food in them!

Haha. I'm definitely going to be picking up some good mugs to frost for the summer, whether it be for milk or beer, I now know I need a few.

Rookie, as far as the mortar goes we did wonder that as well. Maybe another day. I don't thing that bricks filled with mortar would make much of a difference, but if they were completely contained in a mortared wall that may. The amount of force that th bricks took and dissipated I don't see them being solid would make the difference. Make sense?

 

[Rookie]

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the work involved in the test. I just think it leaves a few unanswered questions.

 

[lovemywoods]

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the work involved in the test. I just think it leaves a few unanswered questions.

Most good experiments do!
That's one of the aspects of testing that I enjoy.
Thanks for reading and thinking about the test.

LMW

 

[DaKruiser]

You guys are awesome! Thanks that was a great read!

 

[sgreen3]

Very nice report! Man.. I would have thought the Mosin would have made it through to the water jugs for sure. Your just gonna have to get one of the members that own a .50 bmg to bring it out to show them water jugs hiding behind those brick who's boss

 

[esrice]

I'm gonna bump this back up for those who have joined INGO in the past year.

I'm still shocked at the results.

 

[Kedric]

I must have missed this the first time around. Thanks for the bump of a good test.

 

[HamsterStyle]

That was a heck of a good time. And really cool results.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Thanks for the bump! I hadn't seen it. Makes me feel good about my limestone over cinder block house!

 

[RandomName]

When I was a boy I worked as a house framer in the summers. I remember we ran "brick freeze" around the house, the brick wasn't sitting right against the wall, as it had to have room to expand and contract with temperature shifts. The brick freeze was, if I remember right a 1x4 and a 1x6 with a little block of 2x4, ending up being about 5" wide.

There has to be some brick masons here who can confirm, but I don't think paver bricks and building bricks are the same. Pavers are solid and building bricks have holes through them. I would guess clay content and whatnot are different as well, but again I'm not a mason. Hopefully someone who is/was can chime in.

There's also plenty of guys here who've seen this in real life, I'd say. Soldiers, cops, whatnot, that have seen bullets hitting real walls and the results. I've seen concrete walls take some real abuse and be fine after, but I don't know that I've seen much in the way of brick walls taking fire. Surely someone here has, though.

 

[HamsterStyle]

These bricks were in the ground but I'm sure they were leftovers from when the house was built. They definitely weren't actual pavers.

 

[WOLFEMAN]

Very professional format and good demo. And on top of that,
I know you guys had fun making it.

 

[lovemywoods]

These bricks were in the ground but I'm sure they were leftovers from when the house was built. They definitely weren't actual pavers.

Your memory is good Hamster!

The bricks had holes in them. House siding type, not solid pavers. See pics in the OP.

An example:

 

[HamsterStyle]

I had to dig a ton of those things out of the ground. I'm not going to forget what they look like for a long time. . There were actually a couple different hole designs as well.

 

[jmdavis984]

REALLY cool test. Ballistic gelatin can only tell you so much.

 

[Fordtough25]

I enjoyed this thread the first time around and now a second! Well done Sir's!

 

[Jeremiah]

The drywall and backerboard were indeed held in place by the grooves. The bricks, however, were stacked and then compressed with shims, as to be imoveable and replicate (somewhat) a wall structure. They could not bounce vertically or move laterally. We did recognize that bullet impacts could impart enough energy to push the broken pieces out the side of the box, however.

If our tests had shown that bullets could zip through these bricks, then I might've suggested that we test further, implementing those things you touched on, like using an actual mortared wall. But, since we found them to be quite resistant as they were tested, I see no reason to try an even tougher, more resistant structure.

Unless, of course, you surmise that perhaps the more-rigid structure would allow enough energy to remain that the bullet would pass through. We considered that as well.

This is the great take away, it will be harder for bricks that are mortared in place to fall away as they fracture, necessitating multiple hits to get through.


Let me know next time you plan something like this, I have 3-4 different loads for my .41 mag, and a couple for my 10mm that would be fun to try.