Ballistic gel

Intheshop

Banned
About 2 weeks ago our 20+ y.o. fridge died. Replaced it with a modestly priced sumthin or other brand.

Today was watching utube vids of home made ballistic gel. Learned a lot. First,there are some real dumbell men in kitchens..... like,have trouble boiling water stupid. And even these fellers were making a decent gel. So,it's pretty durn easy.

About 30$ which will include the price of a tapered,round,8qt plastic trashcan. Which is why the fridge comes in play. Didn't realize this stuff can spoil,so gotta make room in the fridge. It can be warmed and remolded.... but still needs refrigerator space. Haven't been shopping yet for the container.... it can be upright like a waste basket or horizontal like an overgrown loaf of bread.

Wife didn't seem to balk at the idea of either making it,and the expense or,storing it in the new fridge? Has anyone here ever made any? If so,did you store it in the fridge? Did it function up to expectations on the shooting side?
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
I have not made it, but there are relatively narrow temp ranges for accurate performance, too. And there
is a BB gun calibration deal, too, in order to validate the gel is in the normal range. And if you boil it
you ruin it.

I think that it is a very valid way to compare different bullets, but there are, of course, voids (lungs) and hard
spots (bones) in real animals, so while the results are useful for comparison of one bullet to the next, the results
on live animals will differ somewhat depending on exactly what it hit. Still, a useful measuring tool. If Bullet A
performs better than Bullet B in gelatin, it very likely will be the same in live animals.....unless Bullet A comes apart
on a bone more easily. Some testers, when using wet newsprint, have put cow bones or various simulants like
formica layers to try to see how easily a bullet might be fragmented by a bone.

Still - interesting stuff for the experimentally minded.
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
I don’t worry too much about expansion with most cast bullets. I am more concerned with them staying in one piece. If they do so in the berm then I figure they will on game.
Gelatin blocks would be neat to play with but not with the amount of work involved. That much gelatin is gonna start getting spendy too.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
gotta be somewhere to buy the stuff in bulk 5 gallon buckets for reasonable.
it'd cost 50$ using 50 cent packages from the wal-mart.
 

uncle jimbo

Well-Known Member
Go here.
They list a site that you can buy in 25 pound buckets for small users as well as 50 and 100 pound quantities. It would be fun to mess around with this stuff. Maybe someday when I grow up.
 

Intheshop

Banned
Yeah,buying in bulk..... don't have the patience to be opening a bunch of packets.

Calibration is a non issue,for me. Well as far as trying to satisfy a known(FBI) metric. As long as the recipe is repeatable,which shouldn't be that difficult.... it can be used as a direct comparison medium. Now,whether this product is easier to maintain quality vs say,wet newspapers could come into question.

One issue I do have though is tough to put into words..... here goes. Will say,the general shooting public dosen't really get into high velocity cast rifles. Consequently,the assumption is made that cast should drill a hole..... with whatever amt of expansion that user seems to warrant for the task. The use of gelatin therefore,"ain't" that big of deal in recording. Similar to shooting any other "solid". In my case( ha),am looking for explosive,extremely violent,"controlled" expansion. Not unlike handgun ammo except we're talking twice the velocity and embarrassingly longer distances vs SD handguns.

Not trying to "sell" anything or justify it. And in general would rather be shooting varmints.... just when pricing "store bought" ballistic gel vs just making the dang stuff I was shocked at the $$ and apparent ease of making.
 

Intheshop

Banned
Our weather here is such that,if I get the ducks lined up.....

There's a whole bunch of time/temperature during winter that storing a cpl waste basket molds of this goop won't need to be in the fridge.