Dain Bramage
Member
My friend and I decided to do some punkin' chunkin' this weekend out in the woods. I told him that I would supply most of the guns and ammo (his Century FAL is on the disabled list), if he brought the pumpkins.
Well, when we met, I was surprised to see he brought a bunch of MINIpumkins, and shotgun clays for targets, all about the same size. And here I had decided it was going to be commie day and brought my Yugo SKS, AMD-65, and Tokarev pistol. My accurate guns had stayed home. He brought his Ruger P95.
We set up targets from about 25 to 125 yards. After some crappy shooting, we actually got the SKS sighted in to pop them regularly at the longer ranges from offhand, and almost every time from rest.
Anyway, my friend decided he wanted to try a six-pack of MagSafe rounds in 9x19 he had bought for his Ruger. We set up the survivors at 10 yards, to not waste the expensive ammo. I was surprised to see my first shot hit directly at POA. My pumpkin shuddered. I shot it again at COM. It slid a little, and slowly rolled down the berm. My friend hit his two, and then popped off a double tap at some other stuff.
I was impressed with the accuracy, four-out-of-four aimed shots, better than we had been doing with Winchester White Box, but somewhat underwhelmed at the effect. I wasn't expecting pumpkin goo to hang from the trees, like with the Wolf 154g SP from the SKS, but I wasn't expecting it to just sit there either.
My shots had hit right next to each other, shredding maybe a square inch or so of the skin surface. We cut our targets open, and found the expanded rounds inside the pulp, maybe an inch or two inside. None of the rounds had reached the far side skin of these 4 to 5 inch diameter pumpkins.
This is not scientific. I don't know if pumpkins act like flesh, or the sheet-rock these rounds are designed NOT to penetrate. My gut reaction confirmed my bias against frangible rounds. My friend actually liked the fact that they wouldn't penetrate walls with his kids in the house. I have kids too, but in a defensive shooting I want my rounds to stop the threat. To each his own.
Well, when we met, I was surprised to see he brought a bunch of MINIpumkins, and shotgun clays for targets, all about the same size. And here I had decided it was going to be commie day and brought my Yugo SKS, AMD-65, and Tokarev pistol. My accurate guns had stayed home. He brought his Ruger P95.
We set up targets from about 25 to 125 yards. After some crappy shooting, we actually got the SKS sighted in to pop them regularly at the longer ranges from offhand, and almost every time from rest.
Anyway, my friend decided he wanted to try a six-pack of MagSafe rounds in 9x19 he had bought for his Ruger. We set up the survivors at 10 yards, to not waste the expensive ammo. I was surprised to see my first shot hit directly at POA. My pumpkin shuddered. I shot it again at COM. It slid a little, and slowly rolled down the berm. My friend hit his two, and then popped off a double tap at some other stuff.
I was impressed with the accuracy, four-out-of-four aimed shots, better than we had been doing with Winchester White Box, but somewhat underwhelmed at the effect. I wasn't expecting pumpkin goo to hang from the trees, like with the Wolf 154g SP from the SKS, but I wasn't expecting it to just sit there either.
My shots had hit right next to each other, shredding maybe a square inch or so of the skin surface. We cut our targets open, and found the expanded rounds inside the pulp, maybe an inch or two inside. None of the rounds had reached the far side skin of these 4 to 5 inch diameter pumpkins.
This is not scientific. I don't know if pumpkins act like flesh, or the sheet-rock these rounds are designed NOT to penetrate. My gut reaction confirmed my bias against frangible rounds. My friend actually liked the fact that they wouldn't penetrate walls with his kids in the house. I have kids too, but in a defensive shooting I want my rounds to stop the threat. To each his own.
