Great article on a vehicle as cover

[Pick187]

http://www.combatshootingandtactics.com/published/the_myth_of_cover_07.pdf

[Pick187]

From my experience with bullets and vehicle I see it as a total crap shoot of if it will provide protection or not. I have been lucky to have seen a number of vehicles shot during training as a test. I have seen bullets do odd things.

In two real world shootings that stick out in my mind I was lucky to be in charge of the crime scenes and got to really look over the vehicles. The first was an OIS where multiple officers shot a ford escort that was trying to run them over. The vehicle was being driven up a ramp backwards so due to the angle of the vehicle officers shot into the trunk area. All of the rounds that went into the trunk area were stopped by a metal plate in the rear seat of the vehicle. Once the vehicle cleared the ramp the officers were able to shoot into the passenger area of the vehicle. One round went into the driver seat and hit a metal bar inside the seat. The round continued and hit the suspect in the back, but the round had lost about all of its energy at this point and didn’t even penetrate the cloth of the seat. That round caused a small bruise on the suspect’s back. All of the officers were shooting 40 S&W. On another incident an angry ex-boyfriend drove up to his ex’s house and shot over 20 rounds of 7.62x39 into the rear of a Pontiac sunfire. Almost every round went the entire length of the vehicle and exited the front of the vehicle.