Does anyone have any info on the Mag-Safe or RBCD or Glaser Safty slug ammo n the .380?
How does the gelatin compare with one gallon water jug shooting?
Ringman... at this same seminar we shot a bare gelatin block with a 9mm Glaser Safety Slug. The "slug" fragmented explosively on contact with the gelatin and the particles penetrated only 2-3" into the gel. Against clothed gelatin penetation was less than an inch. In a human, these results would mean superficial injury at most.
I've tested Glaser and Mag-Safe ammo in gelatin in the past and found that Mag-Safe (the old stuff that Joe Z used to hand-assemble himself!) penetrated much better than Glaser. Neither one would pass FBI test minimums.
As for shooting water jugs: I know some internet sites have correlate them, saying that one water jug is equal to so many inches of gelatin, etc. It's really rather pointless to do so. The plastic material of the milk jugs doesn't equate to any component of a gelatin test and DOES affect bullet expansion or lack thereof.
Ballistic gelatin was developed as a tissue simulant by Dr. Martin Fackler 30+ years ago because shooting into the thigh muscle of anesthetized pigs, his previous ballistic medium, was expensive and ethically problematic.
Ballistic gelatin is not the best or even the only tissue simulant possible. It is no more and no less than the STANDARD ballistic testing medium accepted by all terminal ballisticians. Certain comparisons can be made between flesh (muscle tissue only, really) and gelatin, but that's it.
