What you will need:
You will need three to four telephone books, each one being about
5cm thick, to give you a total paper thickness of between 15-20cm.
If your phone books are much thicker or thinner, just adjust the
quantity until the total thickness is in the region of 20cm. Stack
the books on top of each other, so that the spines alternate.
This is most important, as the open side of the book absorbs water
much quicker than the "spine" side, leaving you with
a totally uneven, lopsided wetpack.
With the books in "portrait" orientation, put a band
of packaging tape (don't use masking tape, it *will* come undone
in the water) around the books, about 3cm from the top. I usually
use two layers of tape. Place another band around the bottom,
again about 3cm from up from the bottom. Finally, orient the books
in "landscape" position, and place a last band around
the middle. Ensure that the ends of the tape are stuck down well,
otherwise they will come loose in the water. It does not seem
to matter how tight the tape is, but I usually tape the books
up quite tightly.
Now, this is where the tub comes in. You need a really large tub,
possibly your bathtub, because the water has to be deep enough
to totally cover the books once they have finished expanding,
and they expand to about double their unsoaked size. I just throw
the pack into the pool. Initially it will float, but that's fine,
because eventually, as water is soaked up, the books become heavy
enough and sink of their own accord. Only once the books have
sunk are they sufficiently soaked. Do not use them if they still
float, the paper is still too dry. I have found that they usually
take in the region of 18-24 hours to soak up enough water to sink.
When you are ready to shoot the pack, take it out of the water,
pop it in a tub or plastic bag, and rush to the range as soon
as possible. I have found that the books are still soggy enough
to shoot with good results up to about half an hour after being
removed from the water.
When you get to the range, place the books upright in portrait
position, about 5m away from the barrel of the gun (this is a
realistic self-defence distance), and start shooting as soon as
possible. At most, you can test nine bullets at a time (three
rows of three).
My experience shows that the results from a wetpack are extremely
consistent. I usually fire at least three of the same bullets
into the wetpack, and they *always* expand identically. Penetration
is also extremely similar. Assuming that you have used three books,
you can expect almost all hollow point bullets to stop somewhere
in the third book, sometimes in the second book.
Some observations:
All non-jacketed or prefragmented bullets will penetrate the entire
wetpack, even the .22LR does. Some very heave jacketed hollow
points like the 275 grain and heavier bullets will penetrate three
books. If you are going to test these, make a bigger pack. Generally,
as they do in humans, high velocity .357 Magnum and .44 Magnum
loads break up, and often separate from their jackets. High velocity
+P loads for the .45 ACP also break up almost every time. Very
high velocity bullets like the THV range leave a very big entry
hole. An interesting experiment to perform is to shoot a selection
of your favourite loads, and set them aside. Then shoot those
same loads through a couple of layers of denim in front of a new
wetpack and compare the results. A word of advice, when you shoot
through the denim, prepare two wetpacks, and put one behind the
other. Its amazing to see how bullets that otherwise would expand
perfectly, suddenly start behaving like round nose bullets!
You may find some of you bullets separate from their jackets,
which is not a good thing. Most people see the jagged jacket and
think that it will enhance the damage done by the bullet, but
they are wrong. A bullet that looses its jacket looses mass, and
thus you are left with a bullet with less energy and less momentum
to carry on its way. It also looses structural integrity, causing
any remains of the hollow point cavity to fold in on itself and
deform into something even less effective than a lead round nose
bullet. Bullets that loose their jackets in wet paper will almost
certainly loose their jackets in human flesh, and they *will*
break up and be rendered ineffective if they have to pass through
glass, doors, or car body panels before hitting their target.
Avoid these loads.
According to Marshal & Sanow, and also to the Strasbourg Test
results, bullets that expand and *then* fragment (but still keep
their jacket intact), however, are generally more effective than
bullets that just expand. Thus these bullets would be more effective
than others in an unobstructed shooting, but again, if they have
to pass through an obstacle first, they will be largely ineffective.
This is often the case with light weight bullets in 9mmP, .40
S&W, very light .44 Magnum, and most .357 Magnum loads.
Just for fun, try shooting a single wetpack with a 12 gauge solid
slug, or a .30-06 rifle - the results are quite explosive, especially
with the rifle!