(YouTube Link)
This 10-minute video shows the impact of bullets on various targets at 1 million frames per second. It was made by Werner Mehl, an engineer noted for his development of high-speed photography:
Germany’s Werner Mehl is the talented engineer who created the PVM-21 infrared chronograph, in many respects the most sophisticated ballistic speed-measuring system currently available to the general public. Werner runs a company, Kurzzeitmesstechnik, which specializes in high-tech ballistic measuring systems and ultra-high-speed photography. Werner has engineered camera and lighting systems that can literally track a bullet in flight, millimeter by millimeter, with eye-popping resolution. Werner employs digital cameras that record up to 1 million frames per second, with effective shutter speeds as fast as 1.5 nano-seconds. The videos produced by Werner’s systems are amazing. Below are two short samples. The first shows a 7mm bullet penetrating cardboard. Note you can clearly see the engraving of the rifling on the bullet.
Link via Hell in a Handbasket | Werner Mehl's Website
The flat-fronted variety are used to punch very clean holes in paper targets to reduce ambiguity when scoring. As you can see from the film - they work, too!
What amazes me from the clips where you see the same kind of shot over and over again (like where they hit a bullet from the side, or where ty hit an edge with the half of the bullet) is that nowadays they can control a shot so accurately as they do.