Shooting A Solid Block Of Sapphire - One Of The HARDEST Minerals In THE WORLD!!! 

My son and I met Matt this morning at Bunker Branding. He is down to earth and we had an amazing experience. Keep it up!!

Anyone else thinking that Matt should get a bunch of those silencers and see how many he can screw together?

Since the sapphire is so clear it would be cool to set up a 100k frame a second high speed camera up a couple inches directly behind the sapphire block to see what the bullet looks like coming head on at the block and the point of impact from the target’s viewpoint.

The reason you can see scratches on the rough side but not feel them is because it's actually acting as a grinding surface, the scratches are a very thin layer of your knife steel. I've dealt with plenty of very hard materials because of my knife working hobby and sapphire is the only one that continues to surprise me again and again.

Hundreds of years from now someone is going to wonder WHAT happened to that section of Texan woods. Obsidian, glass, lead, sapphire, brass, and random shrapnel all over the place.

I'm studying to become a geologist, and I remember studying Sapphires at some point. The main way Sapphires obtain their incredible hardness is because they are made of a mineral known as Corundum. Sapphires are categorized as a high grade metamorphic rock, meaning that its formation takes place at temperatures above 320C. Sapphires require rare conditions to form, such as a low silica content and high aluminum content in the host rock. Sapphires form in rocks that are Under-saturated, which means that there is no spare quartz in the rocks it forms in (Silica is Quartz just to clarify). Corundum on the Mohs Hardness Scale has a rating of 9, second only to diamond. The main chemical makeup of Corundum is Aluminum Oxide. Sapphires are generally found in Igneous, and Metamorphic rocks, with some examples being Granite, Schist, Gneiss. Corundum can vary in color depending on the elements present in the host rock. The distinctive blue coloration of a Sapphire comes from Titanium being present in the host rock during its formation. That's all a Sapphire really is, Corundum with Titanium impurities. (Petra replied and made a very important point. Corrundum is a mineral, not a rock. I referred to Corundum as a rock quite a few times in this comment, and that was incorrect). A mineral is an aggragate of inorganic elements or compounds that have an orderly internal structure, or some other form of characteristic, such as crystal structure, or special properties. A rock is usually a composition of two or more minerals, or unidentified minerals.

Honestly so nice to see Demoranch has been thriving for years, i remember watching him when i was like 13 i’m 22 now. Thank you Matt

Matt needs to invest in one of those insane slo mo cameras that the slo-mo guys use. Would be so sick

The reason you could see the "scratches" on the side is because sapphire made a pencil of your knife. Sapphire is way harder than steel, so it acts as a sharpening stone, blunting the metal by rubbing away at it and leaving a trace. Pretty cool!

The clarity on that thing is incredible.

Matt's yearly budget for plastic tables is probably more than I make in a year. 😂

pretty damn cool. felt super anxious about the ricochets. would be interesting to see a 50 cal on a fresh block - the block probably already took some structural damage from the previous shots - chips, etc.

You should definitely make Mere a sapphire ring out of that big chunk that was leftover.

A slow-motion camera behind the sapphire to see the bullets explode would have been genius.

So fun fact about that sapphire. I used to work for a company, not gonna name it, that made a version of sapphire ballistic glass mixed with other ballistic materials. It's rumored that it's the same glass that the presidents limo, the beast, has in it. Capable of stopping any small arms up to a 50 BMG repeatedly or long enough for the vehicle to get out of the ambush zone. Edit: it's not that it's super hard, it's super dense. The molecules of the sapphire are tightly packed together due to the extreme pressure it takes to create it, hence the 30 day cook time. Just like a diamond (duh...)

The problem with using sapphire for armour is that, in the right circumstances, may turn into some pretty gnarly shrapnel that would slice you to ribbons.

The combination of laser straight edges and perfect corners, paired with the clarity through only two sides is basically hypnotizing me.

Takes "scratches at a level 6, with deeper grooves at a level 7" to a whole new level.

Subsonic with the suppressor sounds crazy

Watching Demolition Ranch for their experiments ❌️ Watching Demolition Ranch for their intros ✅️

I love that Matt basically does for a living what I used to do in my backyard with an air rifle as a kid, but with actual guns. You’re livin the dream brotha and I am here for it!

The "scratches" on the side of the block are actually the metal knife being sanded down on the frosted surface rather than scratches to the sapphire itself.

I love the subtle pink colour of the sapphire

The shattering of the screen protectors is actually a feature. The glass shattering absorbs a lot of energy, saving your phone’s glass.

Synthetic sapphire is such an interesting material and they use it for a lot of military applications too, like helicopter optics.

If you covered the sapphire in a thick layer of polycarbonate and then placed it in a steel frame, i think it would probably keep together even if it shatters with 50 cal, and may be able to handle more than just one shot.

Don't tell mare. Love your channel I have watched you grow and you are awesome . I would like to see you shoot adamantium

I feel like if that was laminated sheets (maybe 10mm thick) of sapphire it would have performed a lot better as it would stop the cracks from propagating through the thickness.

Can we just appreciate how smoothly and straight faced he said erection multiple times without breaking into laughter?

That "scratch" on the matte section was actually the sapphire removing metal from your knife.

love how Sappire refracts light, like looking through ten inches of sapphire looks like 1cm of glass. doesnt warp image behind at all.

Matt, you are an amazing video author. I love all of your videos and keep up the good work!

I'm super impressed with Matt for keeping a straight face through this one.

I really think if Matt invested in one of those insane super slow mo cameras he would get some crazy clips with it

Looks like such a solid gun. I love these things

I can't get over the optical clarity of saphire. It's 3 inches thick but it's like looking through a regular window.

My company grows sapphire. It's used for little windows for sensors and stuff on the outside of fighter jets, among other things. It's a pretty insane material. Edit: just saw your question about humvee windows. Yes, it would be wildly expensive, and like you saw, wouldn't be able to withstand multiple hits. When they mentioned "30 day furnace cycle" or whatever, that's referring to how sapphire is actually grown as a single crystal. You have to melt aluminum oxide at ridiculously high temperatures, then seed a single crystal, and slowly draw out that single crystal from the melt over weeks to months, depending on the size of the crystal. It's extremely finicky, and the larger you want to go, the more difficult it gets. To get chunks of sapphire big enough for a window would probably be possible, but my gut says they'd cost somewhere on the order of hundreds of thousands of dollars up to maybe millions per window. Part of that too is that you'd basically be taking up a whole furnace for several months just for one window.

This is actually genius advertising by them. Kinda wanna see one of their screen protectors on a phone vs 22

At 20:55, I'm pretty sure small pieces of the sapphire are glowing red from heat or something

One of the best skits you’ve come up with Matt hahaha

I miss these type of videos. I remember when you used to shoot different type of metals and finding out which calibre goes through. I used to love those videos.

I think the "scratches" on the side of the block were actually metal from the knife. Since it wasn't polished smooth, it was abrasive to the metal.

This is pretty awesome here at 9:56, you can see the projectile traveling about halfway

i really enjoyed the quick montage at the end .

the lines you saw on the side of the sapphire from the knife weren't scratches, they were where the steel in the knife got 'rubbed off' into the texture of the sapphire. that 'coarse' edge is basically a honing stone.

that first 15 seconds is exactly how I've always imagined Texas hunting works. All that was missing is the yell "It's comin' right for us!"

as soon as he starts to flex his new gun, you know there gonna be that EPIC MONTAGE later in the video. Keep goin dude I love your channel

These are also used on watches- while super strong and almost scratch proof, it can shatter. They can easily break when pressing the crystal into the watch case. Impressive to see how it holds up to bullets hitting it!

The ideas never end for this channel

That's a new form of art

Love the montage

I had chills running up my whole body while Matt was scratching the sapphire with the knife tip 😂

For the sapphire pieces that came off, have you considered taking a small run to a jeweler to get cut and polished for jewelry? That could be cool.

Understand the fear of bullet coming back. Side shooting deflects so much energy. Hence slopping armour. Shoot straight on from now on and use protection. Great video

Sapphire is usually used as a transparent window for experiments or aparatuses that would normally have a really hostile environment that would destroy other materials. High pressure vessels I believe are a common use. And/or high temperature are the usual applications but I'm sure they're used for other things.

Matt is shooting even better than usual, with an invisible target...

in the scratch test, it was actually the knife that got scratched and left residue on the sapphire block, not the other way around.

REALLY surprised at how shatterproof that sapphire block was! Decent quality watch crystals are made of sapphire (Hardness 9), lower quality are made of 'mineral glass' (synthetic quartz) with a hardness of 6. Less scratch resistant, but better shatter resistance.

By far, the best advertisement for a screen protector company I've ever seen.

For those who don't know, both ruby and sapphire are varieties of corundum, which is crystallized aluminum oxide. Corundum is also used as "emery", an abrasive used in certain kinds of sandpaper.

I feel like a frame around the sapphire block would strengthen it a lot and make it hold up to more shots and possibly a bigger caliber

I liked the part where you were trying to scratch the rough edge and said you could see the scratches when in reality the metal from your knife was probably just getting filed off and stuck in the roughness.

7:38 I don’t know how he said that with a straight face 😂

Thanks for the info... Now i know which gun and bullet to use now❤❤

i love how matt dised that surpressor

Fun fact: RUBY and SAPPHIRE are made from the same mineral CORUNDUM. Sapphires are available in many colors, that is why this block is colorless and transparent. Some sandpaper is coated in ruby crystals. Rolex watch crystals are also made from lab grown clear sapphire.

Love your videos. Keep doing them. Or else.

I was really hoping you would use .5 cal, I am so glad you did!

Video Idea: "How many screenprotectors to stop a bullet"

The fact that the sapphire can stop the almighty lung blower just goes to show how hard that stuff is

The lines on the rough side of the sapphire is actually micro dust from the knife. Basically like a super fine sand paper

respect the 22. lr my man

The edge of that block of sapphire is great for touching up knife edges. The visible “scratches” on the side of the block was metal left from the knife’s point.

I suppose now the question becomes "how many sapphire screen protectors does it take to make your own body armor?"

Matt, have you heard about sapphire scalpels? They’re one of the sharpest objects known to mankind, the edge of the blade is so thin and fine that incision will heal significantly faster than those made by a normal stainless steel scalpel.

All I can say is this is cool (especially the first weapon and it's suppressor). And I don't say that much anymore. Thanks!

Quote of the year goes to Matt for this gem: You didn’t say we couldn’t explode them!

I think you might find that the "scratch marks" at 03:18 are really bits of metal rubbed off your knife point, sort of like a crayon on concrete. Synthetic sapphire is aluminium oxynitride, after all...

They use sapphire on the optics for the f35, if you look at the bottom of the nose, you'll see the sapphire lenses that hold the imaging suite.

Cool man! My eyes turn purple! Danny Hall!

Going on a week now with low to no fule , food ,and water. Your videos help keep my wife and I going so we can keep out kids right during this stupid hurricane situation. Please pray for us here in DeSoto County Florida

God, that scratching sent shivers up and down my spine

Subsonic with that silencer sounded cool

my mind didnt want to laugh at the opening skit, but my body knew it was hilarious😅😂

The sapphire is harder than the knife, the "scratches" you're seeing are metal residue from the knife tip, on the smooth surface there is nothing to scratch the knife

23:17 In the epic montage... Watching the barrel. Pop forward with each shot... That's pretty cool.

A combo of layered acrylic and sapphire sheets? Lots of fun shooting and blowing things up.

17:12 actually, that's good hypothesis, glass and crystal, and other ceramic type materials are often very hard and strong, but also brittle, which means they are hard to break, but when they do, its spectacular.

If you can afford all these guns, you should invest in an ultra slow-motion camera! Would be great to see the bullets smack up and tear apart against the sapphire or other hard materials.

Think of your trigger hand as pushing up and out, then other down and in. Will keep the bounce down much more than just pushing it straight out from you in sling.

I love at the 10 minute mark that you can see the bullets fly in real time.

Very cool that they were able to manufacture that piece, truly a marvelous achievement.

Sapphire is awesome stuff. The aerospace industry uses tons of the stuff for when you need to see in very hostile environments. It is also used as the crystal on a lot of high end (and nowadays not so high end) watches. Because it is so scratch proof and tough. Another fun one is silicon. The crazy thing with that is if you get an IR camera you can see through it, but with visible light it's totally opaque.

Such a good experiment!

GHM9, the weapon you get when you glue the top of a sawn off Thompson onto the bottom of an MP5. I approve. ❤❤

that laugh when he says “you didn’t say we couldn’t explode them.”

Had no idea Sapphire was so strong. Also diamonds aren't as rare as people think. The amount in circulation is strictly controlled to keep the price high.

Another geologist fan of yours here. You could have a lot of fun with a video shooting through the whole Moh's hardness series. A BB gun might take out hardness 1 stuff, but it would be neat to see what it would take as you get up to 8! (Since we just saw what happens at 9 and you're sadly unlikely to get any diamonds from folks to shoot) It would be, dare I say, gneiss!

That spider on the back of the spec sheet was holding on for dear life one second, and sky diving the next.

18:25-- Humvee glass also breaks easier because it isn't one solid piece. It's thin sheets backed by laminate layers. Cracks easier, but harder to bust all the way through. Cracked one with a pebble back in the old E3 days. My E7 was just a little...upset...