I am planning on conducting some ballistic tests with some Jellatin(sp). I'm not sure of the consistency to try for, or the size. Has anyone tried this at home? I want to capture bullets up to .338 Win Mag. How much jello to buy, how big to make it and what consisency are my biggest questions. I realize that I'll need Knotts(?) I think it's called. It's a commercial, flavorless jello. Any help would be appreciated.

Use Google search, key words "ballistic gelatin", you'll find all kinds of info on the subject.

To get enough to use would be spendy. Much cheaper to make a water box. 18"x48"

Water's been used more than anything by the ammo manufacturers for bullet testing.

Yeah, jello would be expensive and messy. Use cardboard boxes. Line them with trash bags and fill with water.

The problem there is that I drive a little ways to the range and can't really take more than about 25-30 gallons of water with me. I guess my buddy and I could drive seperately and carry as much water as we could. At that point just finding containers is a problem.

If you just want to catch them use a cotton box. Use a sheet of plywood to make an 8" box with a hinged top. It will be a little under 2' per side. Get some bailed cotton. Fluff it up and put it in the box. When the bullet strikes the cotton it makes a wad the size of a baseball. The wad has lots of resistance. A rifle bullet will penetrate about 6" in packed cotton. Pistol stuff less than 3". The drawback is that the cotton needs to be re-fluffed between shots. Another is that the cotton can be ignited if you put the muzzle too close to the box, so, don't do that. Bullets captured in cotton will not expand. The surface will be protected by the cotton ball. The surface is actually petter preserved than water capture. Lead bullets, captured in forensic applications, are microscopically more detailed and less damaged than the same bullets fired into water.

or, if you live where I do... just fill a big bucket with water and let it stand overnight... instant bullet-trap!

pick up a recent copy of Rifle shooter, or handloader. There was an add for a company that sell the stuff. I thought it was cheap.Let me know if you need the phone #. I can look in my copy.

Wet newsprint or wet phone books give a realistic comparison of expansion between diff. bullets. Field results are very close to what I have seen in recovered bullets from game. Soak the phone books thru & stack them front to back, I use cardboard boxes that copy paper comes in, put them out @ the distance you want to test & bang away. If you shoot well & calibers aren't too big, you can get (5) hits before you need to change. 36" will stop just about any expanding bullet. Solids will need 48"-60" to be safe. It's easier than hawling water & you need to do something w/ those old phone books!

What are you trying to ascertain?? If your looking for a bullet to do "whatever" from say a .338 mag, I'll bet someone here can give you that information.
Unless your hunting water filled plastic bags.

FN in MT

The most desirable characteristic of a water box is: consistency. Water is water. Jello can be made to different densities. Also, water is cheap. A box can easily be made from scrap plywood found at the dump, or go by a lumberyard and you'll get enough it won't cost anything.

The bottomless, fruitless pit of despair called "replicating a bullet impact", I will not go into, but by using a water box and its inherent 100" consistency will yield an excellent relative understanding of the bullet impact in question. Such nice things like: does it fly apart all at once? This gleaned from the little scraps of copper and lead within 18" of the front fo the box. Or: how far will the shock radiate? This most easily seen from the nicely crushed visqueen liner you used.

A waterbox can be the basis for a very scientific appraisal of the projectiles being considered.

Frank, the good thing about hunting water filled bags, or wet pack even, is I ALWAYS come home w/ a kill?

I have an internal ballistics lab I designed myself, and the best combination bullet trap/test media uses Litter Clean Cat Litter from Walmart/Sam's Club. 40 lbs is $7 and it is a dehydrated clay pressed into small granules that are slightly plactic under high pressure and allow normal bullet expansion while providing enormous stopping power.

This is heavy, dense material, close to sand in specific gravity, but allowing progressive, rather than abrupt resistence as does sand. To find the tissue penetration of any bullet just measure the distance traveled in the litter in inches and raise that quantity to the 1.4 power. Start out using the plastic containers that it comes in...these are about 9.5 inches across and will stop anything penetrating up to 2 feet in tissue. just duct tape over the holes as you shoot and pour the litter into another container when you are finished. Your fully expanded bullets will be in clumps of clay powder and hot if you do it immediately.

The litter can be reused indefinitely, but I toss it when it gets more powdery than granular. Expanded bullets can be dusted off and dropped into a glass jar full of water to remove the residual clay. Note that tiny amounts of this will be powdered lead and it is important to get it wet before taking it inside.

For the big boomers, get Rubbermaid 8 gal wastebaskets and fill them, still using duct tape to seal holes. These are 13.5 inches across in the wide dimension and will hold 38 inches of tissue penetration.

the stuff i mentioed is from corbin. It is called Sim-Test.Used by forensic labs.12x7x2.5 inch block $24.5 plus s&h. Carton of 6 (60#)$98 +s&h.click here http://www.corbins.com/sim-test.htm