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Old 11-15-2018, 06:08 PM   #1
hal
 
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Default Reality testing bullets on a pine tree

Hello Folks,

I'm guessing that the range firing bullets from rifles into a tree capable (barely) of providing cover for a man standing sideways adjacent to the tree - was about 15 feet. Firing his bullets from .22 caliber on up to a .50 caliber, the shooter presenting the video asks "Which bullets would you expect to be able to penetrate the tree and hit "Bill" (the ballistics Geletin torso).

Pretty cool video if you ask me. Best of all, you get an idea of how much stopping power a tree has when it comes to certain bullets.

Not going to spoil it for you, but at a guess, assuming a 2' diameter tree, GURPS CAMPAIGNS page 559 gives a cover DR of .5 to 1 per inch of wood. Based on that, DR should be between 12 to 24.

Watch the youtube video titled Shooting THROUGH trees! PUBG in real life. Either search on that, or go HERE to view the video.

:)
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Old 11-16-2018, 03:25 AM   #2
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Default Re: Reality testing bullets on a pine tree

Interesting video, love how enthusiastic the guy is. :)

Also notable for trees as cover, the penetrating bullets deflected a lot. I guess because trees are not all that uniform inside depending on how good different years was (i.e. ring density)?
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Old 11-16-2018, 10:37 AM   #3
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Default Re: Reality testing bullets on a pine tree

I'd still rather have a tree between me and the .50 cal than no tree!

The intermediate riffles should be doing 5d to 7d in gurps, or just over 20 points of damage. High Tech doesn't actually list many .50 caliber riffles, but the TL8 .50 cal it does list does about twice that. I think the results agree mostly with the rules, though the tree is a little tougher or the bullets a little weaker.

The deflection on the bullets is crazy, I agree, and they won't be very aerodynamic afterwards.

I'm not surprised at how well the tree worked as a backstop. I was taught to make backstops from cardboard boxes stuffed with densely packed newspaper, and that's very similar to a tree. We but those in front of hills and were a lot more careful when shooting the big stuff, but I'm not surprised at the tree's star performance at all. Wood is a lot tougher than flesh.
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Old 11-16-2018, 06:47 PM   #4
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Default Re: Reality testing bullets on a pine tree

That was pretty cool, we are not allowed to do that in Australia (fire a 0.5 calibre).

When I was in the army we could fire 5.56 and 7.62 rounds through logs that size but they were dried out, which seems to make a big difference!
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Old 11-16-2018, 06:52 PM   #5
hal
 
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Default Re: Reality testing bullets on a pine tree

Quote:
Originally Posted by Boomerang View Post
That was pretty cool, we are not allowed to do that in Australia (fire a 0.5 calibre).

When I was in the army we could fire 5.56 and 7.62 rounds through logs that size but they were dried out, which seems to make a big difference!
Good to know - dried trees seem to offer less Cover DR. Now if only we could find someone on the internet to test this out empirically. ;)
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Old 11-16-2018, 07:03 PM   #6
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Default Re: Reality testing bullets on a pine tree

The 5.56 rounds would normally exit at weird angles, the 7.62 rounds would more or less go straight through.

The rule of thumb for the Australian infantry was if you could wrap your arms around the trunk of a tree then don’t rely on it offering enough cover.
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Old 11-16-2018, 08:23 PM   #7
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Default Re: Reality testing bullets on a pine tree

Hide behind a buloke maybe
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Old 11-17-2018, 12:24 AM   #8
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Default Re: Reality testing bullets on a pine tree

If any of these bullets penetrated more DR than their damage suggests they were capable of, perhaps they had Armor Divisors? Those do apply to cover DR.
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