Hollywood Mythbusting: CARS DO NOT STOP BULLETS

[Amsdorf]

As you get into firearms seriously you quickly realize how many myths Hollywood has ingrained into our culture about firearms. Cars immediately blow up when shot by a single pistol round, or everyone shooting a pistol will hit their target when it is 50 yards away, while running, while doing a roll, and .... of course ... the old, "Cars stop bullets" myth.

How many times have you seen cops or bad guys take up position behind a car door and watch the bullets just "spark" off the door.

Total myth.

So, if somebody refuses to believe that this is a myth, just watch this video.

We shot the snot out of a vehicle out at Asymmetric Solutions and set up the camera to capture rounds coming all the way through the car, left to right, in one door, through the vehicle and out the other door and they just kept on traveling.

We were shooting 5.56 NATO rounds and you can see the damage we did previously before this short clip.

Now, to be fair, you CAN take cover from fire behind the car's engine block, but that is a bit tricky too, for you can never be absolutely sure you are fully covered by the block, but it is way better than nothing.

Cars Do NOT Stop Bullets - Hollywood Mythbusting - YouTube

 

[GlassWolf]

I can tell you from experience that .40 cal and 9mm handgun HP ammo doesn't penetrate a car door.. our security team has on a few occassions shot at a car in a parking lot from as close as 6 feet away without penetrating with most rounds. The ones that did, went through the glass.

 

[JCliff]

Big, big difference between the penetration capabilities of a rifle round (shot through a rifle) and pistol round.

 

[telpinaro]

Everyone should watch the Mythbusters episode 139: Dive to Survive/Phonebook Freedom, think it's in season 8? They try to make a car bulletproof with phone books. And Kari gets to use the sniper rifle. It's awesome.

 

[S&W645]

I can tell you from experience that .40 cal and 9mm handgun HP ammo doesn't penetrate a car door.. our security team has on a few occassions shot at a car in a parking lot from as close as 6 feet away without penetrating with most rounds. The ones that did, went through the glass.

And in many cases, hollow points will not go thru a windshield. That is why ball ammo still needs to be carried.

 

[Rocketgeezer]

I can tell you from experience that .40 cal and 9mm handgun HP ammo doesn't penetrate a car door.. our security team has on a few occassions shot at a car in a parking lot from as close as 6 feet away without penetrating with most rounds. The ones that did, went through the glass.

I read your post and had to ck for myself so I went outback with two mags and my G-19 FMJ and HPs everything went through the outer skin of the door and out of 12 shots 6HP and 6FMJ I found holes for all but one rd on the inside, put two car doors next to one another and the 9HP did not go through both doors but two of the FMJs did, my G-23 in 40 seemed to go through both doors easly, they were FMJ, so just for grins I stacked up 4 car doors and gave them a shot with my 500 mag it went through all 4 doors and so far into the tree stump they were propped against I could not touch the rd with a bic pen, don't know how leathal the 9mm is after it did get through a door but I don't think I'd want to be a shot test dummy LOL.......

 

[mojoman]

This is nice to know for if I ever need to I would get behind the engine block.

 

[GlassWolf]