Harrell: Bullet Resistance of Stuff in Your Pockets
Russ Chastain 09.15.20
(Image: Screenshot from video)
In this video, Paul Harrell endeavors to demonstrate whether some random stuff that people may carry in their pockets can slow or stop a bullet.
His first example is a pocket calculator. Who knew this was even still a thing? Although I do prefer calculator keys to the sometimes-unreliable touch-screen version on my smart phone. Spoiler: Don’t rely on a calculator to protect you from even the lowly 25 ACP.
After a bit of other testing, he finds something that does stop bullets: a Ridge wallet. And for wallet testing, he conjured up a different sort of meat target. Most folks carry a wallet in their back pockets, so he bought a butt roast to serve as a butt cheek. Brilliant!
After this, he takes a stroll down memory lane to 1912, when someone attempted to kill Theodore Roosevelt and failed. The bullet passed through a steel eyeglass case and a 50-page speech and didn’t get far after that, apparently lodging in a rib.
Harrell simulates the conditions by using 50 pages of paper and a glasses case with glasses inside, and his firearm of choice is an old revolver chambered for 38 S&W (no, not 38 Special). He fires a pair of bullets at the “bull moose meat target” from 5 yards, and his results were pretty dang close to historical accounts…
Next he concludes that an old school flip phone will save you from buckshot! Er, kinda.
Enjoy the video.
