Blasto-Smasho Range Day!

(All photos courtesy Denise Jackson for OUTDOOR CHANNEL)

This is one of our set-ups from yesterday's blasto-smasho day at the range for SHOOTING GALLERY's annual "ballistics" episode. After last season's orgy of ballistic jello we decided to do a follow-up show on penetration. We did a plywood "penetration box," wall segments, car doors, car windows, wheels (tire, rim, brake drum), the "box-o-steel" using mild steel plates, concrete blocks and, of course, the ever-popular gallon water bottles with colored water. All captured at 8000 frames-per-second. If 8000 frames-per-second had been available in the gory days of Haight-Ashbury, hippies would still be watching multicolored water jugs blow up and moaning, "Oh, dude! DUDE!"

For me, the most fun is putting rounds through the .500 S&W Magnum. We used 400-grain Winchester hunting loads and 275-grain Corbon DPX on various targets. There is nothing more fun that launching boomers, even if my hand is a bit sore this morning!

Gonna be a cool show. Last year's ballistic gel episode was tremendously popular.

As far as "what did we learn," that'll be obvious on the episode, but I would like to say that the endless Internet detractors of the Taurus Judge platform need to take a deep breath and get over it. With Winchester PDX1 or Federal 4-pellet buckshot, the Judge is a formidable short-range defensive weapon. Period.