Here's What It Takes To Disable A Car Or Truck With Bullets

Back in the day, we used to watch "The A-Team", a TV show that featured a mercenary squad of former Vietnam War commandos. The heroes were armed to the teeth with machine guns which they used constantly to fire at bad guys, yet somehow almost no one ever got shot. This had to do with what network censors would allow in early primetime. To get around this, the team would often shoot at cars. One good hit to a gas tank would blow the car up, and one shot tire would cause the vehicle to completely flip over — somehow.

Most are probably aware that physics and engineering don't really work like that, but even a Cybertruck isn't fully bulletproof. Couldn't a car theoretically be disabled by gunfire? It's possible, but a whole lot harder than you'd think, even if you were to shoot directly into the engine block. The people behind the YouTube channel DemolitionRanch took an engine out of a car and shot at it multiple times. They stopped the engine running with a .9 mm round, but it was still able to crank. The engine wasn't completely taken out of commission until they used a Raufoss high-explosive armor-piercing round.

What about shooting a tire or the gas tank? Well, there's no evidence that a gas tank will actually explode if holes are shot through it. And while a bullet can flatten a tire, that's not going to disable a car right away.

"Mythbusters" was great for testing whether the ridiculous things we see in movies could happen in real life. In one episode, a bunch of rounds from handguns were fired into the gas tank of a Cadillac, and it never exploded. That's because you need oxygen for fire, and there just isn't enough of it in a gas tank to start one. You also need heat, and the friction caused by common handgun bullets also isn't enough to ignite a tank. Now, if an incendiary (explosive) round is fired into it, that's a different story, and you could possibly get a fire. But it's not as if most police officers are carrying firearms loaded with incendiary armor-piercing bullets.

What about shooting out a tire? If you're a good enough shot to hit a tire on a moving car, shooting into the sidewall could poke a hole into it, which would cause it to deflate gradually. In the case of .9 mm bullet, it could take over a minute and a half before the rim touches the ground. Even then, it's not likely the driver is worried about ruining a rim when they are being actively shot at. Interestingly, one YouTuber found out that tires are harder to pierce when firing at the treads, due to their steel belts.

No matter how dumb an idea is, someone has probably tried it, filmed it, and posted it to YouTube. Richard from the FullMag channel decided to see what a .50 caliber Barrett M107A1 loaded with armor piercing incendiary rounds could do to his old Ford F-150. According to Richard, two of the eight cylinders in the truck had gone out, and it would cost more than the truck was worth to fix it. After firing two shots into the engine block, he figured he had taken out two more cylinders, yet the truck still started. It may have been barely running on four cylinders, but it was running. It's like Richard said: "You can't kill it!"

Meanwhile, Parker from the Yee Yee Life channel set a Jasper 350 Short Block engine on a shooting range and unloaded a variety of guns at it, starting with smaller calibers and working his way up to a .50 caliber sniper rifle. It wasn't until he got out his .308 Winchester that he put any holes in the engine, and none of the guns were able to pierce it all the way through. A car can indeed be disabled with bullets, but it's going to take heavier artillery than a simple handgun. And considering what it takes to make a car armored, that's probably a good thing.