Will An Exterior Door Stop A Bullet?

I had an extra door sitting around so I decided to see if it could stop a .22, 9mm, 40 S&W, .223, and 7.62x54R. The results were interesting...not really the caliber, but the caliber of the typical big box store door.

Pretty amazing really.

In that you actually needed to do a test like that.

Common sense tells most people that a bullet is going to pass straight through.

At least you learned something by going through the motion I suppose.

Next time try 5mm steel plate and see what those reults are.

reply to post by LibertysTeeth


No commercially produced, domestic standard door is going to stand up to even the most pedestrian of firearms. I am a locksmith, so security is my bread and butter, its what I do all day, every day. I have, therefore, seen an awful lot of front and back doors.

Most domestic doors in the UK come in one of the following types:

1)PVCu around a steel frame.
2)Aluminium construction, usually hollow.
2)Solid wood of varying density dependant on wood type (e.g. ash, oak and so on).
3)Wood pannels, enclosing an eggbox like inner for heat loss prevention.

Of these, the only one which would have a hope in hell of stopping even the lightest round, at the lowest power, would be the solid wood door, preferably something heavy like oak, and even then the door would have to be a fair bit thicker than the average to accomodate the impact damage without getting penetrated.

The trouble with the idea of stopping a bullet with a door, is that unless you either use specifically adapted materials, and design the thing from the ground up to be a slug catcher, or make the door many times heavier by adding layer after layer of different standard materials, there will not, generally speaking, be much bullet resistance offered by it. I have been thinking about these things for some time however.

I have had multiple interesting ideas about how one might go about assembling an optimal bullet resistant door system. For instance, a door made from layers of kevlar mesh, with bullet resistant liquid armour composite in between them. Or Kevlar again, but sandwhiching several layers of ballistic foam in between.

General purpose, mass manufactured doors however, are never going to stand up to bullets, not without heavy, and well thought out modification at any rate. Perhaps thats something you should be advising people on, LibertysTeeth?

When I was a kid I had a big industrial metal door I found. Took it home to shoot at.

After the third .22lr came whizzing back past my head at about ear level I re-purposed the door.

reply to post by magma


I did this because most folks don't know.

Originally posted by LibertysTeeth
reply to post by magma

 

I did this because most folks don't know.

Be honest....you did it because it was fun.

Most modern homes offer little to no protection against bullets, including the doors. Most homes today are layers of vinyl siding, styrofoam, fiberglass batting and drywall. Your best bets for cover indoors are the basement, a bathtub or the corners of the house where there is at least a layer of OSB under the siding.
If the door is your only protection, hit the floor and fire multiple rounds through the door at the opposing shooter.

Originally posted by butcherguy
Most modern homes offer little to no protection against bullets, including the doors. Most homes today are layers of vinyl siding, styrofoam, fiberglass batting and drywall. Your best bets for cover indoors are the basement, a bathtub or the corners of the house where there is at least a layer of OSB under the siding.
If the door is your only protection, hit the floor and fire multiple rounds through the door at the opposing shooter.

Yeah
That was going to be my response also,.
Unless you live in a concrete walled home the door is useless but for temporary shielding.

Originally posted by butcherguy
Most modern homes offer little to no protection against bullets, including the doors. Most homes today are layers of vinyl siding, styrofoam, fiberglass batting and drywall. Your best bets for cover indoors are the basement, a bathtub or the corners of the house where there is at least a layer of OSB under the siding.
If the door is your only protection, hit the floor and fire multiple rounds through the door at the opposing shooter.

It's funny when you consider all the building codes that exist today that never existed before covering things like fire, quakes, hurricanes, etc... yet new homes are cheaper (in quality hot cost) than so many older homes.

I've been through new developments that would have me thinking four walls of stacked hay bales and a particle board roof would offer more protection than a modern home.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere

Agreed,
I sadly laugh at new home construction. nothing but cheap materials.
I just never understand people in the tornado ally region would opt to build
a conventional style particle board and stick home,. and pay a well over billed
price for that construction,. Then they cry when a 150 mile an hour storm blows it apart.

Or those in hurricane zones on the coast did nothing to enforce the stability of their
foundations or exteriors.

Anyone notice how many homes in the war zone in Iran, Iraq, turkey,ect ect are made
from concrete?

an all concrete home is not that expensive when you consider the cost of rebuilding
and potential loss of life

You showed in a previous video how to stop bullets easily and inexpensively. To survive any number of round coming through your walls and doors simply build a small circle of sandbags enough courses high for you to lay behind with no part of your body above.
It would be like the movie the Gauntlet where at the end the entire frame of the house falls, the walls tumble outward and you poke your head up from inside your sandbag fort (after they've run out of ammunition of course).

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


My friends father was a telecoms engineer for many many years until his retirement about ten years ago. He was often sent to oversee large installations in newly built office and domestic buildings. On one occassion he was overseeing the installation of a building wide system, because the buildings management had let all the unfinished property already, and all the prospective tennants had required phone lines, and they had also been asked to wire in the connections for the intercom system.

My friends father had also been doing some restorative work on his own property, and therefore had reason to know a little about building codes and regulations pertaining to the period. This was fortunate, as he saw something which worried him somewhat. Basically there were fellows there from another company, responsible for installing something else... I forget what exactly, but they had intended to use these gas powered bolt drivers to apply things to the walls. The only reason my friends father realised this, was because one of the bolts went screaming past his head after passing through one wall, then promptly penetrated the one behind him, and went through that as well. After a quiet word in the bolt driver operators ear, and a thorough inspection of the damage, it turned out that this driver had pushed a bolt clear out to the external wall of the building, in which it had finally lodged.

Realising that something was clearly amiss with the solidarity of the walls, my friends father contacted the building firm, and had a less than quiet word in THIER ear as well. Happily , all was then resolved to the satisfaction of the regulations and the peace of mind of engineers on site.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


Yes, I remember in the aftermath of a Southern Florida hurricane (Andrew, maybe?) The building code was changed be caused it allowed shingles to be stapled onto roofs.
Staples, from a staple-gun.

reply to post by LibertysTeeth


Could you do one to see if your shades would stop a bullet , keep them on though.

now that would be worth watching.

Originally posted by tombangelta
reply to post by LibertysTeeth

 

Could you do one to see if your shades would stop a bullet , keep them on though.

now that would be worth watching.

Wow.
That is pretty mean.

A lot of people don't know the terminal ballistics of bullets, especially when dealing with a house or a vehicle.
It wasn't news to me, but maybe other people learned something.
I appreciate that he posted the thread.

reply to post by Lil Drummerboy


What you say about building in natural disaster prone locations is true. On a flood plain ones house should be built so it can be pressure locked like a submarine, so that even if it ends up submerged it never gets flooded itself, or so that it can rise afloat on pontoon poles many feet taller than the house, driven deeply into the ground, and solidly secure. It should, one way or another, be as water tight as an ocean liner, if not better.

In hurricane , and tornado prone locations, houses should be built to the geodesic method,out of steel reinforced concrete, because the shape of them would break up the winds around the house, rather than offer masses of flat, vertical surfaces on which would naturally accumulate vast tonnages of force from the insane winds. They should also feature solid basements, with all mod con survival systems, including pressure sealed doors (in the event of a storm surge during a hurricane in a coastal or river side area), a couple of weeks to a months worth of non perishable rations, hardened outside monitoring cameras so that you can find out when it is safe to emerge,as well as emergency beacon, and an air recycling plant to prevent CO2 build up in the event of an extended stay in the basement.

The fact is that these relatively simple measures would negate HUGE amounts of the risk involved in living in effected areas, and despite perhaps being costly in and of themselves, would drive the price of insuring in these places down significantly. Some people might look at these measures and say "But TrueBrit, these are not simple measures!". My only response to that is, if I thought them up, chances are they are as simple as they can be, given the reason for thier necessity!

Here is one gun that you hope someone isn't shooting at you thru your door....

Pretty sure a door won't come close to stopping this beast...

Maybe a kevlar filled door would be light enough to be undetectable as a bullet catch?
Other than that theres that new material they make on a old disc reader its strong and light.....

Even if you construct a door to resist bullets, then there's the COPS-type battering ram to consider. They usually force the door open pretty quickly. Then, if you devise resistance to bullets and battering rams, there's the odd explosive charge that could knock a door off its locks and open it. So, give up the dream. The front door of your home only protects against some threats, but certainly not all. Just my opinion.

reply to post by smyleegrl


id do it for fun