From John Farnam of Defense Training International . . .
Regards
John
16 Jan 06
The Problem with Denim:
At a recent pistol course in PA, I witnessed a penetration demonstration in
which a variety of pistol rounds were fired into gelatin blocks. In bare
gelatin, all high-performance pistol bullets, from virtually every major
manufacturer, expanded fully and symmetrically, penetrating between ten and fourteen inches. It all looked good to me!
That is, until we placed four layers of denim on the front surface of the
gelatin block, so that bullets fired into gelatin had to pass through the denim first. In nearly every case, the cavity defined by the bullet's hollow point plugged with fiber from the denim. The result was that most hollow-point bullets failed to expand at all and subsequently passed through the gelatin essentially like hardball. Notable exceptions were Cor-Bon Powerball and Cor-Bon DPX. Both expanded monotonously, no matter what they had to penetrate first. Amazing stuff!
This was an eye opener for all of us. Clothing worn by felons really does make a difference, far more than I would have expected.
/John
Regards
John