Bulletproof bar tables

[Dr. Whom]

Just saw your clip from Heavy Metal 2000. Surprising how many bars have tables that can stop a powerful handgun at quite short ranges. I suppose the investment pays itself back after a few fights.

[Ed, Ego and Superego]

I have always wante dto take different guns to differenttypes of material... tables, sandbags, plywood layers, sides of beef, sheet metal. And just see what actually works to stop bullets.  Once I was able to get a shotgun slug into a thick hardback book about 1.5 inches from about 20 feet away.   But I am curious just ghow far off base movies really are.  
-Ed

[Ash]

How about the bulletproof pool table that Korben Dallas & Ruby Rod use in 5th Element?

Those aliens must put around 1000 rounds into it but the heroes survive without a scratch.

[Andrew]

A lot depends on the round and the thickness of the material.  Sandbags are great at stopping stuff.  Plywood and wood are pretty terrible.  Metals can be great, again thickness matters a lot.

A side of beef?  Probably great for any pistol or submachinegun rounds.

With the bar tables in "Heavy Metal 2000" I can at least believe they would stop what was being fired.  The weapons were pretty much automatic pistols and maybe .45 caliber.  The tables looked like they were solid hunks of metal.  Since they are mining asteroids, I guess that could make the metal cheap enough.  If they had to bring it up from a planet the cost would be a factor.

I can tell you that a 5.56mm M-16 round will go through 6 of the old flak vests.  The ones without SAPI plates.

[Dr. Whom]

I always thought there was an unwritten rule about movie firefights: if they can't see you, they can't hit you. Any opaque material will provide full cover, no matter how flimsy.

[Jim H]

Been mentioned on here before, but the trick of diving underwater to not get shot actually would work in real life.  They tested it on Mythbusters.  

One thing is that in old westerns they'll flip the very flimsy looking wooden tables and use them as a shield.  However, this actually isn't a bad idea as even though they can shoot you through it in real life, at least they can't get an accurate idea of where your body is located.  And some protection is better than none.

[odinn7]

I have tried shooting various things.  One thing that was quite amazing was I shot through 2 layers of 1/8" steel (1/4" total for you non-math wizzes) from 100 yards with a 7.62x39 round as well as a 5.56 (.223 caliber) round. Both passed through it like it was nothing at all...from 100 yards...with jacketed hollow points.

[Shadowphile]

Diving into water to avoid being shot doesn't always work.  It alters the angle at which the bullet is travelling and being 80 times (or is it 800 times?) the density of air, slows the bullet dramatically.  But, as the opening of Saving Private Ryan shows, being underwater does not necessarily guarantee safety from bullets.

Granted Saving Private Ryan is not a solid scientific reference but it is culled from many eye witness reports.

[LilCerberus]

What about phonebooks?
I saw something years ago about ballistics testers using old phonebooks.

I once had this idea for one of those Mad Max rip-offs about a guy who builds a bunker entirely out of old phonebooks, & he has several shotguns which he carries around in a golf bag, & he wears those spiked golf shoes for kicking & stomping people, & then to top it all off, he wears a tennis visor, shorts, argyle socks, & a knitted sweater vest as he faces off with post apocolyptic warlords.

Not that it's his style, but rather it's all he can find, kinda like Phil & Marlowe's wardrobe in RadioActive Dreams.

That reminds me; I need to throw out all these old phonebooks... Even if they ARE classical reading.

[Ed, Ego and Superego]

Y'know, I knew Andrew would have some input, what with his day job and all.  But I must admit I secretly was wondering who else had tried shooting through various substances.  
Speaking of sides of beef, I saw an interesting broadsword demontration on TV where a guy took various swords to a side of beef,.  It was quite educational to see that sort of thing in action.
-Ed

[odinn7]

lilcerberus Wrote:
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>
> That reminds me; I need to throw out all these old
> phonebooks... Even if they ARE classical reading.


NO! Line your house with them for protection from snipers...one day you will thank me for this advice.

[Fearless Freep]

This sorta makes me wonder how much stuff we 'know' or have thoughts on, like a grendade detonation, bullet penetration, etc.. really come from just having watched movies and themovies only show what they need to show for the sake of the movie, but since we've never actually thrown a grenade in real life, our only impression of what they can do is what we've 'learned' from movies

[trekgeezer]

I've blown pine saplings in two with a sawed off shotgun.

[odinn7]

Ha! The saplings reminds me...our bowling alley sells used pins for $1. I went with my wife and father to the shooting range one day a few years ago and we climbed up to the shotgun area where we were shooting clays. There, someone had left some bowling pins that were shot up. We set them up and since nobody else was around, played around with hip shooting (not quite as easy as it appears in movies)...Well, my wife hit one of the pins and one of the pellets from the bird shot hit the pin just right and flew back and popped my father in the forehead. It stuck there for a second and dropped. Not much force behind it but it did hit him. The rest of the time my father was with us, my wife kept crying "I'm sorry I shot you dad"....it's funny because nothing serious happened but we considered ourselves lucky and have since then been very careful of what we shoot and what we shoot it with. I've considered saplings but always wondered if they would retaliate the way the bowling pins did.

[dean]

odinn7 Wrote:
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>I've considered saplings but always wondered if they would
> retaliate the way the bowling pins did.

Heh heh heh...  attack of the killer saplings, locked in eternal battle with the evil bowling pins.  What a mental image that was!

If only...