Ballistic gelatin

Ballistic gelatin is a testing medium designed to simulate the effects of bullet wounds in animal muscle tissue.

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.

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.

In either case, a 1988 research paper by Martin Fackler recommends that the water should not be heated above 40 °C (104 °F), as this can cause a significant change in the ballistic performance.

This method can also be used to compensate for error within the allowed tolerance, and normalize results of different tests, as it is standard practice to record the exact depth of the calibration BB's penetration.

The more expensive synthetic substitutes are engineered to simulate the ballistic properties of natural gelatin, whilst initially being colorless and clear.

[8] Since ballistic gelatin mimics the properties of muscle tissue reasonably well,[9] it is the preferred medium (over real porcine cadavers) for comparing the terminal performance of different expanding ammunition, such as hollow-point and soft-point bullets.

The US television program Forged in Fire is also known to use ballistics gelatin, often creating entire human torsos and heads complete with simulated bones, blood, organs and intestines that are cast inside the gel.