Check out that attached video.   They shot a jacketed bullet and the medium was air.   The inside of the hangar was long enough that the bullet just fell to the ground and skidded to a stop

I haven't shot bullets into snow but know people who do.   They use snowbanks of relatively unconsolidated powdery snow, not the dense stuff that you can make a snowball from.  It needs to be quite cold to get those kind of snow banks, basically wind drifted powder.  I suspect it needs 30-40 feet of that stuff to stop a bullet.

Chris.

Bob here is the mythbusters video.  I thought I'd attached it but was wrong

This wouldn't really work for us, but it is interesting to watch:

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Chris.

Figure out how high it will travel. Then get a net and fly around above it until you see it, and snatch it in the net like a butterfly!

Schuetzendave wrote on Feb 20^th, 2019 at 11:32pm:


As a retired firearms examiner from a regional state crime laboratory, I have fired countless bullets into water tanks. Water is actually more damaging to a bullet than firing it into tissue, so it is not a good medium for capturing undamaged any bullet but low-velocity FMJ pistol bullets. 

When we fire JHP pistol bullets into a water tank, we take measures to minimize the deformation of a bullet designed to expand. We do not typically fire centerfire rifle bullets into a water tank, as even a 30-30 or 7.62X39 bullet at normal velocity will deform enough to make comparison of the barrel marking difficult to near impossible.

No, water is not a good medium for capturing undamaged a lead bullet traveling even at the relatively low speeds that we push our single-shot target bullets.

Cat_Whisperer wrote on Mar 1^st, 2019 at 11:37am:


With a .357Mag we were shooting tin cans at about 20 paces.  30-40 paces were where we started seeing a rift in the snow with a groove or hole in it.  Took another 10 paces for the bullet to cut a groove in the 1/2" deep snow and curve to the right - and then there it would be sitting on the top encrusted with a few crystals of snow/ice.

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VEry interesting.  I would not have thought light. fluffy snow would be so efficient stopping bullets.   

jy3855, How did they get a good HP or rifle sample?  Seems like you would have to load them down to where they just fell out the end of the barrel.

Gather up your Pope-barreled Ballards, the custom engraved rolling blocks and treasured Stevens schuetzen rifles and take them to the swimming pool. Shoot them into the water- submerged. That should let the slug out a few feet without hitting anything, then drift to the bottom for easy pick up. No need to thank me.