How Bulletproof is a Mattress?

In this new video, Paul Harrell talks about taking cover in your home in the event of a home invasion in which you must protect yourself from gunfire (hopefully while returning it). It opens with a king size mattress standing up between him and a soda jug.

“Here’s a mattress, and behind it is you.”

At the 1:11 mark, we watch as the mattress predictably proves to be 100% NOT bulletproof to his dinky 25 ACP pistol with a full metal jacket (FMJ) round.

With the mattress lying down with some covers on it, he fires some 38 Special ammo from 5 yards with jacketed hollowpoint (JHP) bullets followed by some 9mm FMJs. This time the mattress was much more effective, which I found mildly surprising.

Moving on to 45 ACP Golden Saber JHP, we find similar results. But what about an AR with 223 Rem 55-grain pointed FMJ ammo? Well, that kinda changes everything.

Just for variety, Paul then drags out a Taurus Judge revolver loaded with Hornady 410 “handgun” 3-inch magnum ammo loaded with 000 buckshot (5 pellets per shell), which fails to send even one of the 25 total pellets through the mattress.

So, is a mattress good cover? Not really, but it’s certainly a lot better than nothing.

Enjoy the video.

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.