The most commonly used formula is an FBI-style 10% ballistic gelatin, which is prepared by dissolving one part 250 bloom type A gelatin into nine parts of warm water (by mass), mixing the water while pouring in the powdered gelatin. The FBI introduced its own testing protocol in December 1988 as a response to the 1986 Miami shootout, and it quickly became popular among US law enforcement agencies. Ballistic gelatin is used rather than actual muscle tissue due to the ability to carefully control the properties of the gelatin, which allows consistent and reliable comparison of terminal ballistics.
While ballistic gelatin does not model the tensile strength of muscles or the structures of the body such as skin and bones, it works fairly well as an approximation of tissue and provides similar performance for most ballistics testing however, its usefulness as a model for very low velocity projectiles can be limited. Ballistic gelatin closely simulates the density and viscosity of human and animal muscle tissue, and is used as a standardized medium for testing the terminal performance of firearms ammunition. īallistic gelatin is traditionally a solution of gelatin powder in water. It is calibrated to match porcine muscle, which is itself ballistically similar to human muscle tissue.
It was developed and improved by Martin Fackler and others in the field of wound ballistics.
243 projectile.īallistic gelatin is a testing medium designed to simulate the effects of bullet wounds in animal muscle tissue. Photo of synthetic ballistic gelatin showing terminal fragmentation of a.