The aim of this contribution is to highlight the difference in the behaviour of beams with and without stirrup reinforcement under hard impact loading. A comparison is drawn considering the cracking and damage process, the deformations and accelerations, the support forces, and the strains measured on the reinforcement bars during the impact. It was found that the cracks of the stirrup-reinforced beams were finer distributed than in the case without stirrup reinforcement. Especially the crack between punching cone and residual section had a smaller crack-opening width, meaning the specimen remained one solid body. Above that, the burst mass that spalled off on the top side of the specimen was generally smaller for stirrup- reinforced beams. The support forces of the stirrup-reinforced beams were higher. The strains over time also varied between beams with and without stirrup reinforcement as the latter had a longer strain plateau and residual vibrations were recorded after the impact.