Fun to watch, and you can see 5.56 rounds coming out the trunk of the car when they are fired into the front of the bad guy car, along with the "driver" having a very bad day;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkg4B4mvBdM
That Paul Howe article referenced above;
http://www.combatshootingandtactics....f_cover_07.pdf
Chuck thanks for the link.
Here's a really bad picture I made showing a standing 6 foot tall man about 10 feet from from the engine compartment of a Crown Vic. While it doesn't account for downward side slope of the hood, even at that range the engine block is useless and the tire may be of little help.
The other just shows standoff at 10 feet.
At the one (1) carbine class I have taken, the instructor told us that we should be careful taking cover behind vehicles for all the reasons mentioned here.
But he also said that in his experience, even if rounds that penetrate through don't hit you, they often cause bits and pieces of the vehicle to fly about. So I guess fragments of glass or plastic and metal might fly around loose, caused by the impact of bullets on the car. Thse could cause injury if they hit eyes or exposed skin. There's probably a technical term for that. Spalling, maybe?
His suggestion was that when using a vehicle for cover, don't get right up against it, but leave some space between you and it.
I don't know if a) this is true and b) if backing off would help. Any thoughts from the folks here?
You generally don't want to crowd cover, cars especially, for all of those reasons. Eye pro in a fight is a good thing to have. So is armor. I know of a few cases were concealable vests that weren't rated to stop rifle rounds stopped rifle rounds that had to get through cars parts first.
We do this block of instruction for various agencies / entities and just did one yesterday. Sorry cannot show any pics or video. While some cover is often better than nothing, I will make the comment that one should look at a vehicle as a bullet magnet and not something you want to get stuck inside of if you cannot evac an area quickly. When immobile, getting out of the vehicle quickly is imperative. While a common passenger type vehicle may have variables involved where through and through projectile penetration is defeated, one should primarily look at the common passenger vehicles as concealment. Projectile caliber and type play a role, however you are really playing the odds that the projectile will hit a side beam, engine block, window motor, seats, etc, to stop the penetration. Definitely inside the vehicle and your screwed quickly, outside of the vehicle and you are still rolling the dice and in my experiences the odds are not good enough in my opinion to wisely consider a vehicle as "cover".
Vehicular tactics and ballistic efficacy are often topics that are not fully, or usually accurately understood by most people and that includes most Police Officers unless if they have specifically received the training first hand. They often overestimate the ability of the vehicle to stop incoming fire. This is one topic that is one of those things that should be seen and experienced via first hand training as opposed to it being given in the form of lecture, even with pictures and video. Unfortunately time and resources often make first hand training for all employees prohibitive. Pretty much every single person who has gone through our courses, come away with a completely different outlook on vehicle's and can easily draw their own conclusions about cover and / or concealment. It is very enlightening to those who have never seen it first hand.
the college station texas shoot out is a great example if you can get the info
an officer was pinned down for approx. 20 minutes taking fire from heavy caliber rifles read as 762x39 and 51 and never got a scratch he used the engine block area of the car
he had 4 malfunctions if i recall correct with his M4 a citizen with a handgun was also killed but managed to drive the shooter back into the house
having shot so many freaking cars the past few years there is no absolutes other than sooner or later one is getting through its a matter of which one it is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k74HqEPxePY
at about 2:19 watch the door and paper
I'm no guru but I don't consider a standard vehicle cover but if it were all I had I would use it.
https://www.facebook.com/dave.bateman.311
kimbers have more issues than time magazine.
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