Shooting Thinking Putty with A Gun

I was reading about the body armor used in Iraq, which is made out of a ceramic. The problem is that the ceramic doesn't bend, which limits where it can be used. They are developing a new body armor which sounds a lot like your "Thinking Putty", which can flow slowly like a liquid but be hard and even shattered when stressed over a short period of time (it will bounce if dropped, but will shatter if thrown off a building).

I got to thinking "What would happen if I shot it?" Would it shatter? Would it stop the bullet? After setting up in a safe place with many safety precaution, I took the following video. It used a 135 grain 38 caliber +P Speer Gold Dot hollow-point bullet fired from a 357 S&W snub nose revolver from 15 feet away.

I was worried I was going to miss the putty ball on camera! I set the ball down, ran back the camera to start it rolling, and ran around a tree to get the revolver and get ready to shoot. Meanwhile the ball is starting to spread out and make itself a smaller target. I positioned the gun and camera so a tree would block the concussion from the revolver and maybe save the camera's microphone.

Putty shot with Bullet
AVI - 9MB

Besides the bullet, I found some putty in the dirt behind the ball. I think the putty did get hard in front of the bullet, but just got pushed out of the ball. Maybe I should have backed up the putty ball with wood to trap the putty between the bullet and the wood. Maybe next time.

As you can see, the bullet went right through, taking some putty with it. I think the putty probably shattered in front of the bullet, and was pushed out ahead of the bullet. Like the last Terminator movie, the putty healed itself. The bullet was recovered from the dirt behind the putty. The "hollow-point' was filled with putty.

Conclusion: This is not body armor.

Respectfully submitted,
Bill Heathorn