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Disabling a Vehicle with a Firearm

14K views 86 replies 41 participants last post by  blue fox 
#1 ·
Let's play a game just for 'playins' sake! I know, you should never shoot a vehicle! But lets say you bugged in with your crowd and your bug-in place is in the middle of the a field with an open quarter mile in all directions. You have all worked very hard to create your little oasis, but there are some rough people who have found out about it and made comments that they intend to take it and kill everyone in the process.

A couple of days after hearing this story, you are spending your shift in the armored crow's nest with the 338 Lapua Magnum, when all of a sudden, a Mad Max suburban comes flying out of the woods right toward your abode! Heavy steel plate covers the drivers side window so shooting the operator is not an option. Also, you are in an elevated position and the vehicle is on the ground so shooting out tires is not an option either.

WHERE DO YOU SHOOT THE VEHICLE TO STOP IT???

Please refrain for the 'You're an idiot!' comments, please. LOL
 
#3 ·
If we're talking full-on apocalypse, Mad Max style, the whole world fell decades ago, and there are no laws...you just wait for the conveniently placed caltrops and claymores you placed to do their job. And if they didn't the hidden deadfall you concealed in the road under sand and a weighted tarp, should.

In all fairness, It would not be easy to stop a vehicle with small arms. A buddy of mine got shot up in a Hum-V he was driving in Iraq. The engine was full of holes, part of the frame was buckled, the radiator was gone, and that thing still made it all the way to the safe zone miles away. It died just past the checkpoint, and never moved an inch again under its own power, but he didn't know any of that until he woke up in Germany after several weeks in a coma. Neither he nor the vehicle should have been able to function as long as they did.

You'd almost need some AP or AP-I to do much good. Even steel core would be iffy at actually stopping it quickly.

In WWI, British and German soldiers would pull their bullets with a pocket knife, reinsert them into the cases backwards, and use those to defeat light to medium armor. An 8mm bullet inserted this way could penetrate a half-inch of armor. Since the Brits never did it in the field officially, I am not sure their effectiveness.

According to the Wikipedia article there, it was seemingly as dangerous to the shooter as the vehicle.
 
#4 ·
Operators (knock out the brain of the device). That’s the only way I know of (assuming an incapacitating shot to the individual) to knock it out quickly.

A hole in the oil pan will eventually result in the oil running out and the engine seizing. A hole in the radiator or hose will eventually result in the coolant running out and the engine overheating and stopping. Shot out tires will put the car on the rims. But any of these can take a long time before the vehicle becomes inop. Perhaps you could get a lucky hit on a fuel pump, wheel or power transmission bearing of some sort, fuel line, ECU or ignition (or any of the myriad of engine control electronics) but I’m not sure how you’d target these. So it’s more of a spray and pray thing.
 
#8 · (Edited)
A round through the Power Control Module should do the trick.
But where is that on every kind of vehicle?
On my F150, from the right side, that would be a shot through the "F150" emblem on the fender aimed diagonally towards the driver. From the front, it would be through the right, upper grill, just to the left side of the right headlight, aimed towards the glove box. I don't know how tough it would be to penetrate a few layers of sheet metal plus the case of the PCM but if I were to try it, I would use a 30-06 or larger.

For other vehicles, you would need to know where the PCM is.

Another F150 soft spot (older ones - not sure of the location on newer ones) would be the Security Module. That is a computer module located in back of the right rear passenger seat, the back rest. It's actually a "soft spot". Shoot through the passenger side bed right about where you would hit a passenger in the back. You have to penetrate the bed headboard, an airgap, then the back of the cab. The sheetmetal isn't very thick.

If there were armor added to the vehicle, I think you would have to shoot the driver somehow.

(I think an RPG would be even better....)

The rear pumpkin cover would take out the rear end if you can hit the ring gears hard enough to break some teeth off.

But I would go for the PCM first on the chance that the BG's didn't think to protect it. That should. stop everything pretty quickly.
(I think an RPG would be even better....)
 
#13 ·
Cars are like people, the only one shot stop is through the brain. I've spent a lot of time at the race track, and have witnessed our car run with a hole in the block (the size of a silver dollar) from a connecting rod letting loose. It still managed to finish the lap and limp back to the pit. We've also pulled the oil drain plug on a mustang, and threw a brick on the accelerator pedal. It still ran for close to 10 minutes.
 
#14 ·
Before you go disabling cars though, you might wanna think about your follow on strategy. Lester Gillis (aka "Baby Face Nelson") was known to turn on (and engage) FBI (or then "Bureau of Investigation") cars. When HIS car got disabled (by a shot through the radiator which eventually overheated the engine) it didn't turn out well for the 2 guys chasing him (or Nelson for that matter). It was a sort of land-based BFM engagement and would look really interesting if re-enacted authentically:


I do know if the 'war wagon' gets hit by some miscreant or prankster there's a hornet's nest of whoop-azz awaiting downline.
 
#18 ·
Just a thought...wouldn't the obvious weak point be the carburetor? It sits up high in the center and would be easy to penetrate the hood. Kill that and you have an instant stop right? Small target but best chance I would think. Your thoughts?
 
#24 ·
With a .338 i dont think it would be too hard to stop it. i'd start with the engine block, screw the raditator.

I have considered this actually. my house and street are situated to where i'd have a pretty good line of sight from an angle of the entrance to my street, and im pretty confident that with my mosin nagant and some steel core, I could stop a vehicle before it got in front of my place.

this is of course a regular commercial type vehicle, not any sort of mrap or apc or humvee even.
 
#25 ·
I’d chuck the Lapua over the edge and pull up with a mosin. Game over, bogie.


In all seriousness, with a serious caliber such as a Lapua, I’d go for the engine block. Lighter calibers would go to the tires and radiator.
 
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#27 ·
If I had a set up like that, I'd assume I also had access to the equipment that goes with an open field a quarter mile around my stronghold and I would have plowed up the ground in a couple circles around me. Probably 50 yards 100 yards, and 200 yards out. Just to stop wheeled vehicles.

May be even mined a couple choke points at the least with tannerite shaped charges and anti personel tannerite in cans full of gravel.
 
#28 ·
I would get them drunk with the help of a combination exotic mixologist and masseuse and card shark, give them a high dollar cigar, let them win a few hands of black jack while a stealthy buxom redhead sugared their gas tank. And just to be sure, I would put 2 rabid porcupines in the Mad Max vehicle...
 
#29 ·
How many rounds do you have? If I am elevated and have an AR10 or better and only 10 rounds, I am putting all 10 on top of the motor on a frontal assault. There is the injector system, there is a turbo of some type, and wiring harnesses going from one side to the other. It is moving so most rounds will be centered on the top of the hood. Also, know that all of them will keep moving downward unless they impact the block and then they will splatter to the sides.
 
#30 ·
An Old Timer I knew was a dedicated poacher. He drove an aged Dodge 4X4. His old Mdl. 70 .300 Mag. rode tight by his side muzzled down. One cold dark night high in the foot hills he emptied his Hip Flask of Kentucky Whisky. It was only a short time before he spied a 3 year old dry cow elk. He grabbed the old Winchester Mdl. 70. It fired accidently thru the floor of his truck. A .30 Caliber slug of 180 grs. took out his transmission. That was way before cell phones. 😥
 
#39 ·
Haha Jim that reminds me of a vehicle we had in the service department back in the early 1980's. The then brand new GM transmission was the THM 700R4 and replacement parts were almost nonexistent for any type of repairs including warranty work or any other purpose for awhile following their release. So we had a Chevy Suburban that was brought in there on a rollback wrecker that had been put out of commission by a bullet hole thru the floor board into the transmission. It took awhile to round up all the parts/pieces to fix that little snafu.
 
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