Perma-Gel is the best-looking gel you can shoot. It is not a drop-in replacement for 10% ordnance gelatin, and we'd rather you hear that from us.
We make both. Our Perma-Gel blocks, torsos and full bodies use the same synthetic formula that forensic examiners Lucien Haag and Alexander Jason put through high-speed video and Doppler radar for a 2020 study in the AFTE Journal, the publication of the Association of Firearm and Tool Mark Examiners. Their findings line up with what we tell customers every day: synthetic gel is outstanding for seeing what a projectile does, and organic gel is what you want when the numbers have to hold up.
Here's what the study found, in plain English, and how to pick the right gel for your test.
The benchmark: 10% ordnance gelatin at 39°F
Every gel gets measured against one recipe: 10% 250A gelatin by weight, dissolved in water and chilled to 4°C (39°F). Army surgeon Dr. Martin Fackler settled on it in the 1980s at the Letterman Army Institute of Research, and later work showed bullets penetrate it about the way they penetrate muscle.
Two details make it the standard, and both make it a pain to work with:
- It's calibrated with a BB. Fackler and Jason found that a steel BB at 590 fps should stop about 8.5 cm (3.3 in) deep in a good block. Miss that window and the block is off.
- It's fussy about temperature. It has to be shot cold, it softens as it warms, and overheating it during prep weakens it for good. It also spoils, even in the fridge.
That's the gap synthetic gel was built to fill.
What Perma-Gel gets right (independently confirmed)
The study's authors confirmed every practical advantage synthetic gel claims:
- Crystal clear. Even the best organic gelatin has a slight amber haze. Perma-Gel doesn't, which is why it dominates high-speed footage.
- Shoots at room temperature. No fridge, no 39°F deadline, and far less sensitive to temperature swings on the range. Ours holds up to about 110°F.
- Doesn't spoil. No bacteria, no smell, and water doesn't affect it.
- Reusable. Melt it down (about 200°F) and pour it again, 2–5 times if done right. It can also be frozen without harm.
- Ready to shoot. It ships as a finished block, torso or body. No mixing day.
If you're filming, demoing, or running repeat shots, those advantages are the whole game.
Where it differs: density and snap-back
Perma-Gel is lighter and springier than organic gelatin, so the same round behaves differently in it. Two findings matter most.
| Perma-Gel | 10% ordnance gelatin (4°C) | |
|---|---|---|
| Density | about 0.87 g/cc | about 1.04 g/cc (close to muscle) |
| Max BB depth at ~550 fps, on high-speed video | 116 mm | 108 mm |
| How far the BB springs back from max depth | 29% | 12% |
Bullets go deeper
At handgun velocities, density does most of the stopping. Perma-Gel is roughly 15% less dense than organic gelatin, so bullets lose less speed and travel farther in it.
The study measured this with Doppler radar using a 95-grain 9mm FMJ through 6 inches of gel. Organic gelatin stripped 21–22% of the bullet's speed. A clear synthetic gel that the study found behaves virtually the same as Perma-Gel in BB tests took off about 18%. That gap matches the density difference almost exactly.
There's also no simple conversion factor. The two gels respond differently at every velocity, so you can't take a Perma-Gel depth and multiply your way to an ordnance gelatin number.
The track lies a little (snap-back)
Filming at 20,000 frames per second, Jason caught something no one had documented: the BB pushes deeper than the hole it leaves, then the gel snaps it back. In Perma-Gel the BB gave back about 29% of its depth. Organic gelatin did it too, but only about 12%.
The takeaway: in synthetic gel, both the visible track and where the projectile comes to rest understate how deep it actually went. It also makes for some of the wildest slow-motion footage you'll ever see.
One twist: at very low speeds (below roughly 300 fps), synthetic gel resists more than organic, so slow BBs stop shallower. Above about 500 fps it flips.
Which gel for which job
Pick Perma-Gel when you need to see it, and organic when you need to measure it.
| Your job | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| High-speed video, YouTube, TikTok | Perma-Gel | Perfectly clear; the camera sees everything |
| Range days, demos, trade shows | Perma-Gel | Room temperature, no spoilage, reusable |
| Comparing loads side by side, same day | Either | Fine for relative results; just don't mix gel types within a test |
| Penetration numbers against the FBI 10% standard | Organic 10% | Matches the density and behavior the standard is built on |
| NATO-protocol work | Organic 20% | Made to the 20% NATO concentration |
| Blunt force trauma | Organic | Responds more like tissue under impact |
| Knife, sword and cut testing | Organic | Cuts more like tissue; Perma-Gel's elasticity fights the blade |
One honest note on all of it: no gel, organic or synthetic, is a person. Skin, bone, hair and body shape vary too much. Our replicas are built for demonstration, training and comparative testing, not as proof of what happened to a specific body.
Check any organic block yourself: the BB method
You can verify an organic 10% block with a multi-pump BB gun and a chronograph. This is Haag's multi-point method, which beats a single 590 fps shot because you'll never hit 590 exactly.
- Condition the block. Ordnance gelatin is meant to be shot at 4°C (39°F).
- Set a chronograph right in front of the block.
- Fire standard steel BBs from a multi-pump air rifle (the study used a Daisy 880) at three or more velocities spread between about 260 and 800 fps by changing the pump count.
- Measure each penetration depth with a thin wooden skewer.
- Plot depth against velocity in Excel and add a straight trendline.
- Read the depth at 590 fps off the line. A good 10% block lands around 8.5 cm.
On Perma-Gel, the same test still tells you whether one block matches the last one. Remember the snap-back, though: your measured depth will read shallower than the true one.
The bottom line
Perma-Gel does exactly what it promises: clear, durable, reusable gel that makes every shot look incredible. It runs lighter and springier than 10% ordnance gelatin, so bullets go deeper and tracks read shallow. Use it to see, use organic to measure, and you'll never be surprised by your results.
Not sure which one your project needs? Email information@ballisticdummylab.com or request a custom quote, and we'll point you to the right gel. Every block, torso and full body is made in-house in Woodstock, GA.
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Source
Haag, L.C. and A. Jason. "Synthetic Gelatins as Soft Tissue Simulants." AFTE Journal, Vol. 52, No. 2, Spring 2020, pp. 67–84. Association of Firearm and Tool Mark Examiners.