Video: How To Shoot Through Bullet Proof Glass

"How To Shoot Through Bullet Proof Glass | Marine Force Recon Technique"--Tactical Rifleman (6 min.)

       Some of you may be old enough to remember the Tootsie Pop commercial where the kid asks the wise old owl how many licks it takes to get to the center. This video brought that old commercial to mind.

       This video starts by showing what happens when you shoot through the safety glass on the side window of a vehicle (it shatters, as expected), and through the laminated glass of the windshield. The author is using an AR shooting standard green-tip 5.56. As you know, a standard windshield generally won't stop a bullet, although it may deflect the course of a bullet, or physically damage the bullet (it is not uncommon for a metal jacket, for instance, to be stripped off the core). (See, e.g., this video of an Oklahoma State Trooper shooting through the windshield of his patrol car to stop a fleeing felon).  So, if shooting through the windshield, it would ideal to try and make a hole and keep any follow up shots through the same hole.

        "Bullet proof" glass is typically just thicker laminated glass--that is, more layers of glass laminated together. However, concentrating fire on a specific point can still "drill" through the glass. In this instance, it took 5 or 6 hits to make a hole through the glass. Not too surprising though; I think it is the urban combat manual that has a table that lists the typical number of rounds of ammunition needed to break holes through different types of cover.

        Obviously, if you are the one shooting through the bullet proof windshield, you have to get the rounds concentrated in a small area, which means that you will probably need to stop the vehicle before you start working on shooting through the window, or expend a lot more rounds than shown in this video to weaken and destroy a larger area of the window. If you are inside, you can move away from point of impact so when the bullets finally make a hole, you are not in line with the hole. So, back to the guy shooting through the window, if you can get the vehicle stopped, you might be better to try through the side window because it will be much more difficult for the target to move out of the path of the rounds when they finally penetrate the glass.

        The larger lesson is, once again, a demonstration that a car is not a fortress.