Parker Smith wanted to answer a question that sounds simple until the shooting starts: how many cast iron pans does it take to stop a bullet?
In a video for the firearm YouTube channel Yee Yee Life, Smith lined up a stack of cast iron skillets and tested them with everything from a small .22 handgun to a massive .50 BMG rifle. The goal was not complicated. He wanted to see which rounds would punch through, which ones would bounce off, and whether cast iron could hold up better than other pans the channel had tested before.
“My name’s Parker,” Smith said at the start of the video. “Welcome back to Yee Yee Life. We take anything and everything and we shoot it with guns and we see what happens.”
Standing nearby was Zach, who helped Smith talk through the tests and react after each shot. At the end of the line was “Fred,” the channel’s battered dummy, who Smith joked would be smiling if he still had a face.
The test began with a lighthearted setup, but the results turned surprisingly interesting once the bullets started meeting the iron.
Starting Small With A .22
Smith began with a Ruger Mark IV and a tiny .22 round, the smallest cartridge in the lineup.
He said this might actually create the biggest ricochet risk because he did not expect the small round to go through even one pan. Since the skillets were curved, he wondered whether the bullet might come back toward them, go over them, or somehow pass through.
“I do not think it is,” Smith said when Zach asked whether the .22 would make it through the pan.
Smith joked that if the .22 did go through, he would be surprised and a little let down because movies and television had made cast iron look like something that could stop a bullet.
The .22 hit the first pan and did not pass through.
Smith pointed out the silver impact mark where the bullet struck and said it looked like the bullet powdered outward against the curved part of the skillet.
“So the .22 goes through zero pans,” he said.
It was an expected result, but also a useful baseline. Cast iron easily handled the smallest round, though the ricochet concern reminded viewers that “stopped” does not always mean “safe.”
Handgun Rounds Make Their Mark
Next, Smith moved to a Glock 19 loaded with 9mm, one of the most common handgun rounds in the country.
Zach guessed the 9mm might go through two pans and bounce off the third. The actual result came in lower than that.
The 9mm punched through the center of the first pan, then bounced off the second. Smith said fragments of the bullet appeared to scatter around the edges of the second pan.
“9 mil, one pan,” he said.
Then came the .45 ACP from a 1911 pistol.
That round made a much larger entry hole in the first skillet, but it also failed to pass through the second pan. Smith found a piece of the bullet in pan number two and called it another one-pan result.
“So 9 mil and 45 ACP, one pan,” he said.
That was one of the early surprises of the test. The .45 made a bigger, more dramatic hole, but it did not beat the 9mm in total penetration. It looked more destructive, but cast iron still stopped it at the second skillet.
The result is a good reminder that bigger does not always mean deeper. Bullet speed, shape, weight, and how the round breaks up all matter when it hits a hard target.
The Magnums And The Desert Eagle Step In
Smith then brought out a .44 Magnum, setting up the shot with a clearly fake story about fighting off a bear in Alaska with a cast iron skillet and the same round.
Zach did not buy it.
“That definitely did not happen,” Zach said.
Smith kept the joke going, but the .44 Magnum test was real. When he fired, the round finally broke the one-pan barrier.
The .44 went through two cast iron pans and bounced off the third. Smith noted that the third pan showed only a tiny bulge or crack.
“44 Magnum went through two cast iron pans,” he said.
Then Smith moved to the Desert Eagle chambered in .50 AE, with Brian arriving to set up the slow-motion camera.
The .50 AE also went through two pans and bounced off the third. Smith was impressed because, in a previous stainless steel pan test, the Desert Eagle had gone clean through three.
“Cast iron is no joke,” Smith said.
That moment gave the video its first bigger finding. Compared with stainless steel pans, at least in this setup, cast iron appeared to hold up better against a hard-hitting handgun round.
It is easy to think of cast iron as old-fashioned kitchen gear, the kind of thing people use for cornbread or steak. But in this test, the thick, brittle metal showed real resistance before cracking, fragmenting, or throwing debris.
Shotgun Slug Takes The Lead
After the handguns, Smith turned to a 12-gauge shotgun slug, calling it a “ginormous round.”
He and Zach expected the slow-motion footage to look dramatic, and it did. Smith said they could see fire around the slug as it entered the first pans, with fragments spraying as it continued forward.
The slug ripped through three pans and bounced off the fourth.
Smith said it created the most destruction so far, knocking over several skillets and leaving a larger exit hole in the third pan than the second.
“So the slug, when it comes to cast iron, had more penetrating power than the 44 Magnum or the Desert Eagle,” Smith said.
That put the 12-gauge slug in the lead.
It also showed how different kinds of ammunition can damage the same material in different ways. The slug was not neat or surgical. It hit like a heavy hammer, breaking and tearing its way through more pans than the handgun rounds.
Rifles Push The Test Further
Smith then moved to the first rifle of the day, an AR loaded with green-tip 5.56.
He jokingly said he had lost the magazine, so he loaded the rifle one round at a time “like the founding fathers” would have done. Zach corrected him when he stumbled through a George Washington joke, but the shot itself was clean.
The 5.56 went through two pans and left a large divot and cracking on the third, but it did not make it through.
“Green tip 5.56, our AR goes through two pans,” Smith said.
Next was an AK-47 firing 7.62×39.
This round did better. The AK ripped through three pans, and the bullet appeared to break apart before bouncing off the fourth.
“AK-47, three pans,” Smith said.
That tied the AK with the 12-gauge slug.
Smith then brought out a gold SCAR chambered in .308, wondering whether it could finally punch through four pans. It could not. The .308 went through three and bounced off the fourth.
A .30-06 bolt-action rifle followed, with Smith and Zach expecting it might break the tie. It also went through three pans and stopped at the fourth.
By that point, several serious rounds were stuck on the same result.
“Nothing has beaten three pans,” Smith said.
The .50 BMG Finally Breaks The Tie
The final test was the big one: a .50 BMG rifle against nine fresh cast iron pans.
Before firing, Smith took a short break for a joke about a “shrink ray” and a miniature .50-caliber toy tied to the channel’s merchandise launch. Once the real rifle came out, though, the test returned to the main question.
Smith loaded the large round, lined up the shot, and fired.
The slow-motion footage showed a huge flash and what Smith described as an orb of light between the pans. The .50 BMG punched through the first five pans before bouncing off the sixth.
“Five pans for the 50 cal,” Smith said.
Technically, he explained, it took six pans to stop it.
That made the .50 BMG the clear winner of the day and the only firearm in the test to move past the three-pan mark.
“50 is back on top,” Smith said.
The final result was simple but not quite what the early expectations suggested. Cast iron could stop a lot more than some viewers might assume, especially smaller handgun rounds, but it was not invincible. At the very top end, the .50 BMG tore through five skillets before finally giving up its energy against the sixth.
Cast Iron Held Up Better Than Expected
Smith’s test was playful, loud, and full of jokes, but the results were still easy to follow.
A .22 did not make it through the first pan. The 9mm and .45 ACP each passed through one. The .44 Magnum and .50 AE each made it through two. The 12-gauge slug, AK-47, .308, and .30-06 all managed three. The .50 BMG went through five and was stopped by the sixth.
The surprising part was how often cast iron held the line. Several powerful rounds struck the third or fourth pan with enough force to crack, dent, or spray fragments, but not enough to keep going.
Of course, this was not a safety recommendation. A line of skillets is not armor, and shattered cast iron and bullet fragments can be dangerous in their own way. The video was a controlled test for entertainment, not a plan for protection.
Still, as backyard science goes, the answer was memorable.
Cast iron may be made for the kitchen, but in Smith’s test, it proved tougher than expected. It stopped the small rounds easily, slowed down the heavy hitters, and only truly lost the fight when the .50 BMG showed up.
Mark grew up in the heart of Texas, where tornadoes and extreme weather were a part of life. His early experiences sparked a fascination with emergency preparedness and homesteading. A father of three, Mark is dedicated to teaching families how to be self-sufficient, with a focus on food storage, DIY projects, and energy independence. His writing empowers everyday people to take small steps toward greater self-reliance without feeling overwhelmed.
