To the Critics

Recently, there has been some critical reception to the idea of maximizing penetration using a projectile. The Smasher projectile has been designed to penetrate deeper than other round kinetic balls. We discovered that for any 68 caliber projectile, they can be too light and they can be too heavy. We tested balls of various weights; as light as 2.5g and as heavy as 20g. Balls on the outer edges of weight work much more poorly. How heavy should a 68 caliber ball be to provide maximum penetration? The Smasher is the answer.

Well, out come the critics! Here’s what they say…

  • 1. Penetration isn’t a thing in less lethal. Penetration is bad. If you penetrate you could hurt the intruder badly. Less lethal is all about deterrence not damage.

My response: Bull shit. If I have a home intruder, I want to maximize the amount of force I project into the guy trying to rape me. You don’t take a knife to a gun fight. I am not going into this situation with a hand tied behind my back. The gloves are coming off! If I can’t or don’t want to use a firearm, I want to maximize the damage coming from my CO2 launcher.

  • 2. Your physics is all wrong. A ball is a ball and the only way to get more penetration is with a shaped projectile.

My response: Bull shit. Use you eyes and your common sense. Different types of round solid kinetics hit the target heavier or lighter. It’s obvious all balls are not equal. How many damage videos have you seen comparing the damage created by different manufacturer’s balls depending on their weight and composition using the exact same launcher?

  • 3. Nerves are only in the skin. To get a home intruder to stop you must just hit the surface of his skin. There are no nerves past a certain depth once you get past the skin. Penetration serves no purpose.

My response: Bull shit. When the ball hits the skin, it will definitely wallop the intruder and cause pain at the surface. But additionally, as the ball penetrates below the skin, it will also trigger the nerves in the fat tissue too. The more damage the ball causes, the more nerves that will signal pain. Skin, fat and muscle tissue all contains nerves. Disrupt as many different types as possible I say.

  • 4. You are going to mess things up for less lethal. If you start hurting people with less lethal launchers the government will crack down and make less lethal illegal. Stop promoting damaging intruders.

My response: Sorry – not sorry. Lots of companies, shops and people tune their launchers already to get more power/joules out of them. There is a major industry converting 10 joule launchers to 50 joule launchers and such. How is that okay but maximizing the potential of your projectile is bad?

  • 5. You must hit and bounce off only. The force used must be regulated to cause pain at the surface. Do not penetrate.

My response: What about the clothing the intruder is wearing? If he has a leather coat or a denim jacket, more force will be needed to affect him than if he was just wearing a tee shirt. You have to use the deepest penetrating ammo possible because if he has protection on, the projectile may only be able to wallop the surface anyway. Penetration is a proxy for kinetic impact. If you are designed for maximum penetration, you will get maximum kinetic impact on the target regardless of his clothing.

Conclusion: Pressure is inversely proportional to surface area. This is why an axe penetrates greater than a sledgehammer with the same force. The launcher provides the fixed force. My projectile is a sphere at .68″ diameter just as other .68″ caliber spheres from other manufacturers. The surface area is exactly the same. So, if my sphere can penetrate deeper than another brand of sphere, what that means is we are hitting with more force than the other brand of projectile. More force means more impact and maximizing the joules imparted to the projectile from the launcher. Because the shape and surface area is the same, maximum penetration is a proxy for maximum impact. The Smasher wins.

–Glenn Conti, Less Lethal Ballistics