My house has interior hollow core doors. I am considering replacing my bedroom door with solid wood, 1-3/8" thick hardwood. Type of hardwood unknown. Assuming the door is secured against being forced open, I'm curious about what rounds/type of bullet may likely be capable of piercing this door. Oddly enough, I found no you tube videos of any sort of testing of this issue. Has anyone tried to shoot through this sort of door?

Probably not a whole lot. Definitely not rifle calibers. The rest would depend on the type of ammo and the barrel.

Plastic actually does better believe it or not. I don't know if they make plastic door though
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A solid wood door will slow a bullet much more than a hollow core door, but I would still expect penetration with most types of cartridges.

The door you are considering would not stand up to anything including 22 lr.

These doors are to resist against being forced open or kicked in.

I don't know about stopping bullets but, I replaced the master bed room door with a solid core masonite door, so the door has a 1/4" sheet of masonite on each side and is filled with compressed and glued saw chips. I replaced the jamb also so I could use a 1 1/2" door ordered with 4 count 4" hinges and reinforced the strike side of the jamb with 1'4" steel, and a locking doorknob with a half deadbolt. I expect the jamb will fail before the door from battering.

The hope is to simply slow an intruder till we can grab a gun and get our wits about us. Plus it allows for less sound transference and just feels nice when you operate it.

I found this, looks like a 40 JHP goes right through, even at an angle.
http://www.crime-scene-investigator....nvironment.pdf
Still, I wonder if the doors are all wood, or some kind of particle board with a veneer.

A typical solid core door is particle/chipboard with a 1 1/4" solid frame around the outer edges and has a wood veneer

I lived for a while in a house with a fiberglass front door. I'm sure they make interior fiberglass doors as well.

Not sure if fiberglass is any better from the penetration perspective.

Another issue is, even if the bullet penetrates the door, does it still have enough velocity to do much damage?

Someone should come out with a line of reasonable looking Kevlar doors for just this purpose. Seems like there would be a (smallish) market for them.

Not at all.


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What's the point of getting a bullet proof door with drywall walls that won't stop a little .22 unless it hits a stud??? Then there's the lockwork. A couple well placed rounds will defeat the lock and let the intruder walk in anyway.

Sadly it will not stop a bullet. A 9mm 115 target rounds have amazing penetration.
Years ago I was preparing to demolish a hunters cabin on our place, so decided to do a test using a hi-power.
The rounds went through 2x4s , 2x6s, metal siding, and doors.
Hope this helps

Well, you could glue up some 2x2 or 2x3, maybe 5 or 6 feet long and 80% as wide as the door. Then just hang the ugly thing on the inside of the door. Now, I'm wondering if 2x3 (which would be nominal 2.5" thick) would stop a bullet.

All that said, there are far better places to spend time and money.

A few years ago I made up 16 targets with 3/4 in ply on front and back,
(total of 1 & 1/2")
12" of compressed foam rubber in between (an old mattress) and on the
front I had two layers of cotton, 1 layer of denim, and 1 layer of leather.
Then I rounded up 16 .38 Spl. loads and tested all of them from a Model
642 at 3'. Every one of them went clean through everything and kicked
up dust 40 to 50 feet down the trail. All "exit wounds" looked about
the same. Don't know if this helps, but it can't hurt.
P.S. The cotton, denim & leather was a 4" x 4" square on the front
plywood for my "target". Believe it or not, from 3' I hit the "target"
with all 16 shots.

__________________
In Omnia Paratus

Funny thing about penetration, seems like if I'm behind it things go right through, If I'm shootin' through it, seems the darn things hold up, But truthfully, bullets go through a lot of stuff. Maybe they should make doors out of 14" ballistic jet that seems to stop most projectiles.

Plastic absorbs an amazing amount of energy. I've seen rifle rounds stop by 4 IPhones.

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OK, but gluing 450 IPhones to your bedroom door could be expensive.

It might also be hard to sleep if they all rang at the same time.

The good news is the bullet will penetrate the door in either direction.

__________________
In Omnia Paratus

A .22 LR solid will penetrate 6 1/2" of pine.
I tried it on a 6 x 6 to see if solid wood is better than boards, and it went right through. Steel doors work much better.
A plain bullet only has to retain 200fps to penetrate a person.

Ballistic fiberglass panels inside walls and doors can provide up to level 3 protection and still keep a normal appearance.
They are commercially available.
Bullet Resistant Doors | TSS Bulletproof Glass

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Science plus Art

If you asked Oscar Pistorius, he'd tell you "not bullet proof at all".

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Barrier penetration depends on both the cartridge being used as well as the specific load/bullet used.

In wood here is some data I copy and pasted for somewhere about 15 years ago - sorry I can't recall the original source.

The loads in yellow are those that might be stopped by a 1.5" thick solid wood door (but it's very doubtful).

Plywood has a fair amount of glue in it, and each ply in the wood presents a new penetration challenge for the bullet as the wood won't just continue to split along the structure of the grain, so plywood is a lot more bullet resistant than solid wood - when the same wood is used in both applications.

As a comparative example, I've personally shot 73 gr FMJ .32 ACP rounds through 2 stacked pine 2x4s and shot 95 gr FMJ .380 ACP rounds through 3 stacked pine 2x4s. That's 3" of pine for the lowly .32 ACP and 4.5" of pine of for the .380 ACP. Having a .380 ACP shoot through 4.5" of pine, isn't a strong recommendation for solid wood doors made from pine.

Compare that 4.5" of pine with 1.8" of plywood noted below and it's an indication of how much tougher plywood is than soft pine.

Wood also varies a lot in density. A solid oak door for example will be more bullet resistant than one made of soft pine (there's a reason they used oak on ships of the line).

Bullet penetration table, inches of plywood (test blocks made up of 1/2" sheet ply).

.380 ACP (9mm Kurz)

95 grain FMJ 1.8"
85 grain Silvertip 0.9"

.38 Special

158 grain SWC 2.3"
125 grain JHP +P 1.7"
110 grain SJHP +P 1.4"
158 grain SWC-HP +P 1.3"

9mm Parabellum

123 grain FMJ 4.4"
115 grain JHP +P+ 3.0"
115 grain JHP 2.7"
115 grain Silvertip 2.5"
124 grain Nyclad 2.3"
147 grain JHP 2.0"
80 grain Glaser 2.0"
140 grain SJHP 1.7"

.357 Magnum

158 grain SWC 4.0"
145 grain Silvertip 3.0"
125 grain SJHP 2.5"
158 grain JHP 2.2"
110 grain SJHP 1.8"

.41 Magnum

210 grain JSP 3.4"
175 grain Silvertip 3.0"

.44 Magnum

185 grain JHP 3.7"
240 grain JHP 2.9"
233 grain Shot Shell 2.3"

.45 ACP

230 grain FMJ 2.8"
200 grain JHP 2.4"
185 grain JHP 2.4"
185 grain Silvertip 1.7"
135 grain Glaser 1.3"

12 Gauge Shotgun

1oz Slug 3.5"
00 Copper Shot 2.1"
000 Shot (LG) 2.1"
00 Shot (SSG) 1.9"
0 Shot 1.6"
No. 1 Shot 1.4"
No. 4 Shot 1.2"
No. 7 Shot 0.5"

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Steel is a different question with a host of different variables,a nd the mathematical models used to produce performance are pretty complicated.

Practically speaking, thin gauge mild steel used in metal residential doors isn't very bullet resistant at all and most handgun rounds 9mm Para or larger with FMJ or jacketed hollow point construction will penetrate them.

If the door has a solid wood core between the 2 mild steel plates, it might be a different story.

If on the other hand the door has 1/4" of mild steel plate, the odds of penetration with a handgun round are low.

Try to find a solid oak four or six panel door, it might not stop all pistol rounds but it will sure slow them down.

Even if you get a door made of AR500 steel, your walls are still just dry wall.

There aren't many solid hardwood doors. Hardwood shrinks and expands with humidity three times as much as pine, as much as 3/8" per foot cross grain. Most doors, even pine, are veneered over a lower grade of pine. Frame and panel construction allows at least 1/8" room for each panel to expand. The frame changes very little because expansion with the grain is much, much less (about 1%).

A .22 LR will penetrate 6-9" of 1" pine boards, spaced 1" apart, and at about half that in oak. A .357 Magnum about 18" of pine, a 7.62x51 rifle, FMJ. up to 72". A .45-70 will penetrate 2" of ballistic Lexan, and leave a 4" hole.

You would need 3/16" of M8 armor plate somewhere in that door for effective cover.

Add something like this to the back of your door (if you can get it to stick)
3M™ Safety & Security Film S140

Only if the lockwork is all that is holding the door in place. Part of the point is to know if I can shoot through it.
EDIT, not looking for a bullet proof door, looking for a door that someone can't punch through, and wondering whether it was bullet resistant to any degree. That's been answered, thanks.

Go to YouTube and find the Mythbusters show called Assassin. It shows just how easy it is for almost any type of bullet to penetrate walls, etc. It will certainly open your eyes about how little protection the walls in your home provide.

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Why duck?? It's a 9mm!

If I wanted to stop and or slow down most rounds....

I think, I fit a 1" sheet of Lexan to the inside of the door.


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__________________
"IN GOD WE TRUST"

Not if you use 1/2" AR500 steel walls.

Practically speaking brick or concrete walls work fine if you're building a house from scratch.

If you're renovating, you can always go with fiberglass ballistic panels like they use inside counters in banks. Level III panels will stop .357 Mag, .44 mag, etc are about 1/2" thick and weigh about 4 pounds per square foot. Level VIII panels will stop both 5.56 and 7.62 ball rounds, are about 1 3/8" thick and weigh about 14 pounds per square foot. Half inch is fairly easy to accommodate in a residential wall, the 1 3/8" panels end up being closer to the thickness of a 2x6 wall.

Regardless of what's used, there's nothing in the average residential city block that you can't chew through with a Ma Duece.

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On the other hand, if you just want to armor your front door so you don't get shot through the door, you can use the Level VIII fiberglass inside the frame of the door and sandwiched between plywood and wood veneer upon each side.

I guess it doesn't matter since I sleep with the bedroom door open since that the kids have move out. Same rule applies to the bathroom door.....lol

You can slow someone down with a solid door, forge about it stopping bullets.

Years ago they advertised penetration by the number of pine boards a bullet passed through. IIRC, 158 RN 38 Special penetrated more than 6 boards.

About 40 years ago, I knew some young and foolish guys plinking in an abandoned RR yard, they set up a target on the concrete block wall of and old signal shack, when they finished, they picked up their brass and went to retrieve the targets, they found the 124 gr FMJ 9mm they were shooting had been passing right through the concrete block.

__________________
Tony

I have a 4 Panel oak door slab, that I got stuck with. If anybody
wanted a 36" solid oak door I would give in to them. Unfinished
I don't think you would want to pay shipping on it must weight 75
lb. If you want to insure door is not kicked in, you have to build
solid between door frame and next stud on either side of door.

I own a custom door shop. I've used a wood called ipe and I'd put it up against a bullet. That stuff feels denser than aluminum!

Taking orders. Granddoorcompany.com

No guarantees against bullets though. It'd be so purty that a bad guy wouldn't shoot it anyway. You could take him out while he's distracted looking at the beautiful grain and rich color.


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Me too on both counts. Bed to bathroom is one trip I can make in the dark without stubbing my toe.
If the alarm goes off, the door is getting closed and locked fairly quick. At 4#/sq-ft, that ballistic fiberglass is going to add about 70# to the weight of a door. I learned a new term-"defensive architecture".
I have an idea for a pipe flange with a floor bar to prevent the solid door from being pushed open past a broken door knob, or torn up framing, so as not to have to reframe the door.

Personally, in my opinion, a bullet proof/resistant door only prolongs the conflict and gives an assailant time to think and figure out a different angle of attack. My plan is to hide in the dark with my ordinary unlocked bedroom door. When he opens the door, Bam! the 300 lumen light on my G19 hits him in the eyes a split second before 2 or 3 jhp's permanently blind him due to his brain turning to jell inside his skull. I like my gunfights one sided and over quickly.

Aloha,

A contractor I know has a full size gun safe door to his gun room.

Yep, looks like a door off a gun safe, but is same size as a regular door.

Also, a demo contactor I meet has doors off bank vaults that he was hired to demo.

Told me that bank vaults are overbuilt to prevent easy break ins.

Considering how heavy a vault door is, you'd NEED to overbuild your wall and door frame.

Don't forget to overbuild your floor joists as well.


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if a 40 S&W will shoot through several layers of metal in a car door I would think anything 9mm and above would shoot through a solid wood door no mater the type of hard wood used .. I wouldn't want to be standing behind it when anyone was shooting at it that's for sure !!

You would need to get it made from plate like metal targets are made up and the you would have a very heavy door .. hand dead bolts can stop locks being defeated if jam is built of same material as the door ..

The best place to invest in is outside, making it less likely than some will even want come to or enter your home. You want floodlights, a big fence, and a vile (at least sounding) dog. If they get to the door, you have already failed. If they get inside, you have really failed.

I doubt that any reasonable amount of money invested in doors, walls, etc., will give any real measure of bullet resistance.

__________________
NHI, 10-8.

Some years back, I did a wood penetration test with various ammo types.

1 X 10 X 12 pine plank (actual depth of the plank was 3/4 inch) cut into foot length pieces. I numbered the pieces and stacked 10 boards in a frame to hold them steady. This frame was secured to a stand.

The stand was placed 15 feet down range from the shooting bench.

Results:

.22LR - Federal Bulk Ammo - stopped at 5th board
.38 Special - WWB 130 gr. Range/Target - stopped at 6th board
.38 Special +P - Speer Gold Dot 135 gr. GDHP “snubbie load” - stopped at 6th board
.38 Special +P - Buffalo Bore 158 gr. LSW HC “FBI load” - lodged in 6th board
9mm Luger - Federal 115 gr. FMJ RN - lodged in 8th board
.357 Magnum - Remington 125 gr. JSP- lodged in 8th board
.45 ACP - Winchester SXT 230gr. JHP - stopped at 5th board
.45 ACP - WWB 230gr. RN - stopped at 8th board

FWIW

That, my friends, says it all!

Unless you're building a fortress, your doors and walls are for concealment, at best. They do not qualify as "cover".

I could go off on a tangent here about being ready day and night and being committed to pulling the trigger but I won't. I'll just say that your home is, unless you've done something special to it, your place to dwell in, with all that dwelling implies, family, alone, whatever. It is not designed to stop bullets.

Okay, brick walls will stop bullets, but that's outside walls in the normal home and not every home has brick. Even brick doesn't help with respect to windows and wooden doors.

If you're going to get into a home confrontation you can expect wall and door penetration unless you can end it quickly. That's just how it is.

a guy I'd had a disagreement with came looking for me when he got out of jail. He found my address on the tax rolls, drove on over, and cranked off a mag full of .45acp ball at my solid oak front door. The bullets (I kept one) came to rest on the carpet about 15 feet inside the door. He fired from about 50 feet out side.

That just ain't right.


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Hey Guys-I just put "Bullet proof door" on the net, and got a bunch of results.

I wonder how much of the wood door comes lose (splinters) on the inside when the bullet comes though and what happens to the splinters.

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Carpriver.

lots of splinters. They were pretty big though, as it was an oak door. The fartherest only travelled a few feet.

That guy could not wait to go back to jail, I guess. Was anyone home? Where were you while this was going on?


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Knowing what I know now, I would have titled the thread "how bullet-resistant is a solid wood door". I am also now aware that my soft wood waterbed frame is concealment and not cover. It has a standard mattress.


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I know someone who happened to be standing behind the front door of a nightclub a couple of years ago(had to be a strong commercial door,not hollow luan mahogany) when a disgruntled patron returned and fired a random shot at the door.
Odds favor the round being a 9mm.The shot was mortal.

actually, I was in the line of fire, sitting in my chair reading a book. after I got back up from behind the chair, I saw the rounds. Never fear, we got him the next day. Right back to the greybar Hotel for 17 more years.

Mongo like prison. But Mongo no like Lt JL.


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Peel-n-Stick Bulletproof Door