Water jug testing?

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

Does water jug testing deliver any practical real world data, or is it just cool to blow up jugs and capture bullets? We have a 3 gallon water cooler at home and I have a bunch of empty water jugs I was thinking about shooting at various distances. If nothing else it would be cool to capture the bullets. Thoughts?

 

[JFK]

It’s fun. Not sure it’s worth much more than that. It probably shows the maximum amount of expansion you could expect, or best case scenario, but doesn’t replicate an animal.

 

[Huntman777]

Can’t really see it being useful for comparison of different cartridges but maybe useful to compare a cartridge at different distances. I think it provides crude comparisons at best. It is fun though! So no harm in that!

 

[ozyclint]

Anyone know how many jug/lbs a 223 with 77tmk's has at 600 yards? And what is the jug/lbs to wallop ratio?
Asking for friend.

 

[TaperPin]

If you fill a Rubbermaid tote with tidy cat kitty litter it will stop anything including heavy monos from belted magnums when shot lengthways. It’s easier on bullets than water and bullets are easy to find. I never shot any lightly constructed bullets, but partitions, Interlocks, Barnes X, etc. come out nicely mushroomed. I called it my Kitty Poop Penetration Test.

It does stop things faster than ballistic gel, decelerating bullets in about half the distance, but it’s fun comparing one bullet to another. For reduced loads to simulate longer distances, the cast boolet guys have powder data for all cartridges.