An old myth from the vietman era was that bamboo which is still alive and growong, is bulletproof due to it's almost perfectly circular cross section. Any comments?
I guess a good retort would be to ask any NVA or VC soldier who happened to be standing behind a bamboo wall, but then again, there may not be any, lol.
Seriously though, even though it's a grass, once it's picked, dried and tempered by fire it's extremely strong. Just asked any Viet Nam Vet who had a sharpened bamboo stake penetrate his boot & foot.
Bulletproof? Maybe, maybe not. I don't like the term "proof." "Resistant" might be a better word. At close range, hmmmmm. At distance with a 5.56mm coming at it, I think it would probably deflect it. Now I'm talking a wall here, like the side of a hut, not one stalk (anybody trying to use one stalk of bamboo as cover deserves to get shot anyway.)
I wish we had some growing in the [continental] U.S. Sounds like a good project for a retired coot like me. If I tried to order some from overseas, I'd probably get a visit from one of those 3 letter organizations thinking I was going to use it to make pipes or bongs out of it.
I see you posted this back at the end of Feb. and no one replied, so I figured I'd offer my $0.02.
