Great test. Hopefully, people keep this in mind when choosing defensive cartridges. It's very good to know how much energy your bullet has as it is passing through walls. Maybe a combined ballistics gel and wall test could be something to do next? :-)

How about .38 special ?

Good on you for keeping thing even and consisteny on the walls. SO many that do this don't, so there are integrity issues after. I do wish you would use a consistent round, i.e. XTP for all calibers.

👏👏👏 45-70 for the WIN! 😁👍

Keep in mind the pistol rounds out of a 16-18in rifle, you can add an other 300-400fps to the advertised speed on the box. Also bullet construction makes huge difference, 30-30 with a Barnes all copper will penetrate a long long way, same with hard cast bullets in any cartridge.

.45-70, for when you absolutely, positively, have to put really big holes in something.

38 hollow would be interesting to see how far it would go.

45/70 great round. However I always wonder when I see people set their 45/70 up for home defense? Very often a solid heavy slower moving bullet will penetrate better than a light weight high velocity bullet that will usually come apart on impact. If I had to use any firearm in my home I’d try to fire at the pelvic area. Firing at a downward angle will hopefully force that bullet in the flooring 3 or 4 feet behind the target rather than through every room in the house.

great video guys ,thanks!

Always have liked your videos- it’s obvious you and your dad put a lot of work into it- thanks for all the great info 👍🇺🇸

This was lots of fun and informative but if I were using a lever gun for home defense I'd use the .357 Magnum with a heavier bullet moving at a slower velocity say a 180 grain XTP and

Well i have a Marlin 45/70 Classic 1895 and love it! I also have a Henry Big Boy Brass, classic in 357Mag. Right now im looking into getting a cartridhe conversion cylinder for my 1858 New Army ,black powder gun into a cartridge gun,and change it into a 45LC from a 44Cal black powder, to go with my lever guns. I plan to use them for my truck/carry guns on my land in West Virginia. There is plenty of critters to worry about in those mountains!

Good stuff

Would have like to seen a meat or single ballistic gel in front of wall set. I think that is a more accurate representation of what we are looking to obtain information wise. Great series guys.

Cherish your time together I miss doing gun things with my father so much!

Seems like you should have shot them from the other side...it would be interesting to know if the rounds had enough energy to penetrate the OSB after going through the 2 sheetrock walls... Great series, BTW, I'm really enjoying it!

The numbers on a 30/30 and 357 aren’t that much different so I’m not surprised at all.

This was fun.

How about adding the .35 Remington next time, with some cast 200gr bullets?

Would like to see you do this with buckshot.

You should try separating the walls 10 feet apart

Obviously a 45-70 is not ideal for for home defense because of over penetration, but I would think you could make it less bad with dumbed down cowboy loads with 400 grain bullets traveling 1200 fps. or so. Going down the rabbit hole for another test!

You should get one of the Wild West guns co pilot with all three barrels the have and see how the wwg calibers do

The reason the spacing between the wall matters is because most of your rounds fragmented. The fragments have relatively little mass and will lose velocity quickly. This affects their ability to penetrate. So spacing the walls a more realistic distance might give the fragments more time to slow down and reduce their ability to penetrate. You saw this effect in your test with the car doors. Also, the over penetration argument is self defeating. It is circular logic. You're essentially arguing for sacrificing terminal effect to excuse violating multiple firearm safety rules, ironically, in the name of safety. If you're aware of your target and beyond, and you don't point a firearm at something you are unwilling to destroy, the amount of penetration you get doesn't matter a whole lot. There isn't a single firearm I would discharge towards a family member or an occupied residential structure, as this would be reckless, stupid, and a violation of basic firearm safety rules. This is why you should refrain from searching your domicile if at all possible, as this increases the chances that you are going to discharge a firearm towards innocent bystanders. It is safer for you to post up over a stair case or hallway where you can have something solid set up in your backstop and control the direction you are firing. In my house, if something goes bump in the night, my wife takes a CZ 9mm and a cell phone across the hall to the kid's bedroom and calls the police while I post up just outside at the top of the staircase with an AR15. At the angle I am firing from this position, any rounds that miss or make it through the bad guy and, worst case scenario, go through an exterior wall, trim some rose bushes, and land in the ground a couple feet from the house. I am never pointing a weapon towards a neighbor or a family member because I was smart enough to think about this stuff before it happened and care enough about firearm safety to not leave it up to my home defense ammunition's ability to penetrate drywall. Anything powerful enough to disable a determined human attacker is going through several walls. Drywall sucks at stopping bullets. Realistically, you have to accept that choosing effective ammunition means positioning yourself to be able to use it in a manner that does not endanger others. Set your house up and plan accordingly. If you kids are on the complete opposite side of the house than you, that probably isn't going to end well if you have to defend yourself. Put your family members close enough to you that you don't have to go through the entire house to get to them. Because no round you choose to defend yourself with is going to be safe and responsible to shoot towards family members or neighbors. Considering "over penetration" and sacrificing terminal effect to justify violating multiple firearm safety rules is self defeating, and foolish.

.38 JHP

Unrelated question - is your dad the brother of Keith Richards?

So in all actuality none of those in a rifle would make a good home defense choice! Way way to much over penetration.