We recommend taking under consideration the measured diameter data and viewing the photos of the expanded bullets for consistency and uniformity. The 85 gr American Eagle soft point and the Hydra Shok are somewhat lower recoil loads for this caliber that might be tempting options for anyone looking to make their snub nose slightly easier to handle. Only one load managed to land all five bullets past the 11-inch mark and that was the Hornady FTX Critical Defense. Only a couple of loads managed to show decent numbers for both. And maybe most important of all, no gelatin test can tell you if a given load will run reliably in your own self-defense pistol. With the 4.3-inch barrel of the KelTec PMR30, the .22 Magnum loads gained an additional 135 fps on average. We’ve highlighted this range in the penetration graph on our chart so you can easily see which loads came close to this standard, but that shouldn’t be read as a pass/fail test. We were on the fence about including this load in our testing. Clear Ballistics is a synthetic gel and does not correlate with Organic gelatin like Vyse Ballistics gelatin. I typically do not offer concrete recommendations in these tests, but I would be very reluctant to rely on .25 ACP unless I had no other option. Bullets that deform inconsistently with a fragment of jacket protruding unevenly on one side could potentially measure the same at the widest point as a bullet that expands more uniformly, even though the latter may indicate a better potential for tissue damage. © 2009-2020 LuckyGunner, LLC. Our test gun for .25 ACP was a Beretta 950 BS Jetfire with a 2.4-inch barrel. Legal Disclaimer, Tip:click on product names above to see full test results, this installment of the Pocket Pistol Series, Our test of the .380 ACP Hornady Critical Defense, review of the Smith & Wesson Shield 380 EZ. Synthetic gelatin from the company Clear Ballistics is temperature stable up to 240° F, so the blocks can be shipped directly to the end user without melting or deforming. In our tests, this load exhibited decent performance, but was not an improvement over the .380 ACP version. The first condition depends on the person operating the gun. We’ve simplified and consolidated a lot of the data in order to highlight the most important information and to facilitate easy comparisons between loads. The top row was fired through bare ballistic blocks, the bottom through heavy clothing. There were several 9mm loads showing adequate penetration with a decent amount of expansion as well. We only used one test gun for this caliber because .25 ACP pistols with longer barrels are extremely uncommon, especially today. It’s true that .22 Magnum does lose quite a bit of velocity in a short barrel compared to what it’s capable of in a rifle. These variables can cause bullets to deflect, fragment, or otherwise behave in unpredictable ways. We measured penetration depth and later, we recovered the fired bullets from the gelatin blocks, measured their diameter, and took additional photos. On the other hand, the 12 inch minimum penetration standard can be more confusing. AGC Teaches 2 young ladies and their father firearms proficiency at Clark Brothers Guns & Ammo in Warrenton, VA!! Adequate penetration: The bullet must have the ability to penetrate whatever is between the muzzle and those vital organs in order to disrupt their function — for non-uniformed civilians, this typically includes clothing, tissue, and bone. The goal of our project is to test as many loads as possible in order to determine how they compare to the FBI standard recommended penetration depth of 12-18″. No amount of bullet technology can make up for a miss. The 9×19mm Parabellum or 9mm Parabellum or 9mm Luger, is a firearms cartridge that was designed by Georg Luger and introduced in 1902 by the German weapons manufacturer Deutsche Waffen- und Munitionsfabriken (DWM) (German Weapons and Munitions Factory) for its Luger semi-automatic pistol. However, I would instead suggest the .32 H&R Magnum LSWC, which offers adequate penetration and significantly less recoil than any .327 Magnum load. There may be some disagreement on the specifics of what to look for in these kind of tests, but you will find few advocates of ammo that penetrates significantly less than 12 inches, or expanding ammo that consistently fails to expand as designed. cotton t-shirt material (approximately 5.25 ounces per yard, 48 threads per inch), cotton shirt material (approximately 3.5 ounces per yard, 80 threads per inch), cotton denim (approximately 14.4 ounces per yard, 50 threads per inch), 9mm: Smith & Wesson M&P9c, 3.5-inch barrel. You can click on the name of the load in the chart to see this footage, as well as additional photos and more detailed data. Gold Dot 9mm 115 gr. We would have expected the FMJ load in this caliber to have the best potential for decent penetration, but it was still unimpressive overall, even compared to the JHP loads. Any rounds that completely penetrated both blocks and continued into our backstop were simply marked as 32” in our data. This gave us multiple data points for each load, which turned out to be important since many loads did not exhibit the same performance from shot to shot. So aside from the marketing materials put out by the ammo manufacturers, how are we supposed to know which bullets are the most effective? That’s a somewhat extreme example to illustrate the point, but it’s not an unrealistic scenario. Firing bullets into the gelatin gave them some idea of what the bullet could do inside a person — in particular, how deep the bullet could penetrate, and the degree to which the bullet might expand or deform. I was able to lay my hands on a small number of the controversial Winchester 9mm Black Talons. Of course, oftentimes violent attackers give up or flee before shots are actually fired. Another notable 9mm ammo feature is a bullet’s ability to enter a target and expand to create as large of a wound cavity as possible. Blunt Force Trauma. In cases where the bullet fragmented into multiple pieces, the depth of the largest fragment was the measurement taken. Expansion through heavy clothing proved a bit inconsistent in some calibers. We put the vest on a block of ballistics gel we made and proceeded to shoot at the vest. Some of the loads became partially clogged with the heavy fabric which prevented complete expansion and led to slight over-penetration in the 18-22 inch range. We have a gun to prepare for the worst, and in the worst kind of violent attacks, the bad guy doesn’t give up until he is physically incapable of doing you harm. But when I mentioned the possibility in a video last year, enough fans of the 9×18 Makarov came out of the woodwork to convince us. These lines are typically ignored when measuring the penetration depth, and the farthest point of the bullet’s actual resting place is what we used for our measuring point. However, even that test showed inconsistent penetration from shot to shot. While this is the most practical way to measure bullet expansion, keep in mind that the numbers can be misleading. All of the JHP loads tested had trouble penetrating at least some of the time. The Hydra-Shok was not bad (especially considering that bullet design tends to under-perform in other calibers). Demonized by politicians and gun control groups when it came out in the early 90’s. Ballistics testing doesn’t tell us anything about the felt recoil of a load. For rimfire calibers, we tested .22 LR and .22 Magnum (aka .22 WMR). Clear Ballistics Gel FBI Block. 117 to be precise, and that’s just round one. If the self-defense load you use is listed here, and you’re not confident in the results you’re seeing, just pick another one that performed at a level you’re more comfortable with. They provide accurate results, but they’re time consuming to make and they have to be refrigerated until almost immediately before they are used. Only a few loads completely failed to expand on all five shots, and the fragmenting bullets were among the few to fall shy of the FBI’s 12-inch penetration depth minimum. The Clear Ballistics synthetic gel has more elastic properties than organic gelatin, so the temporary wounding effects tend to appear more dramatic and aren’t a very good representation of the effects on living tissue. Because the vast majority of the tested loads exhibited 98% or better weight retention, we haven’t shown that data in our chart (although you can find that info on the individual product pages by clicking on the name of each load in the chart). The perfect 9mm self-defense load for sidearms, according to the FBI, must provide penetration depths of 12 inches minimum and 18 inches maximum when fired in 10% ballistic gel. The CCI, Fiocchi, and Winchester loads we tested are all conventional .22 Magnum loads designed primarily to be used for small game hunting with rifle-length barrels. All this information appears in the data charts below. The FBI uses this standard not because it’s common for people to actually wear that exact clothing, but because they are common clothing materials, and when combined they represent something close to a worst case scenario for a bullet. One excellent example would be the Lehigh Defense max expansion loads in either caliber. The FBI announced it was planning to swap out the .40 S and W pistols and ammunition now used by its agents and replace them with 9mm pistols and ammo. The 18 inch maximum penetration depth standard makes sense to most people — too much penetration and the bullet can go clean through the target (possibly changing direction slightly before exiting) and onward to harm an unintended target. For pump action, defensive or tactical, smoothe bore cylinder choke only. Penetration depth is right in the middle of the zone, great expansion, and … Preparing the Mold Obtain a large plastic storage container. We also want to know how well the bullets expand when they encounter a barrier of heavy clothing before entering the gel. It originated by necking up the 7.65×21mm Parabellum round to.355. Their standard requires duty ammo to penetrate between 12 inches and 18 inches in ballistic gelatin. We suspect the inclusion of a rifle-length barrel would also have yielded some interesting results. But as for the second condition — how do we know if the ammo we have in our self-defense gun is up to the task? Over the last few months, I’ve been working with the rest of the Lucky Gunner team on another one of our epic experiments, which we’re proud to finally unveil: ballistics gelatin testing for over 100 self-defense handgun ammunition loads. There are a lot of varying opinions on what to look for and what we can learn from ballistic gelatin testing, even among qualified experts. We can’t assume that a load with any bullets falling outside of the 12″-18″ range should automatically be regarded as a total failure. Instead, we’ve used an asterisk on the chart to indicate the few loads that retained less than 85% of their original weight on average. In case you missed it in the introduction, we didn’t include .38 Special and .357 Magnum in this batch of testing because we tested both of those calibers previously. Looking at the accompanying photos will clearly show whether the weight retention failure was due to fragmentation or core-jacket separation. 1. If the bullet needs to reach the middle of the chest cavity where the organs are, wouldn’t we need a penetration depth less than half of that in most cases? Rather than purchase an entire pistol just for testing three loads, we ordered a Lone Wolf 9×18 conversion barrel for our Glock 42 (originally chambered for .380 ACP). If someone wants to kill you, and the only way to prevent that from happening is to shoot them, a handgun is not the ideal firearm to use — they just happen to be the type of firearm we’re most likely to have immediate access to. 223 Ar15 Vs 9mm Handgun Ballistics Gel Test And 3 Handgun Rack Reviews : Get best 223 Ar15 Vs 9mm Handgun Ballistics Gel Test And 3 Handgun Rack With Quality. If you click on the penetration section of the chart, you can see photographs of the actual bullets in the gelatin. Because of the velocity decrease from the pistols, none of these three rounds expanded in any of our tests. We typically imagine a potential attacker will be directly in front of us, facing our direction with squared shoulders, much like the paper and cardboard targets we usually use. This failure to expand gives the bullet a lower probability of striking a vital area, and also leads to the potential for over-penetration. My Ruger LCR in 22 Magnum is light-weight revolver that definitely promises a no-recoil solution to a defensive handgun. Here’s an example from one of the 9mm Speer Gold Dot ammo tests. The average velocity of the five .22 Mag loads we clocked with our 1.9-inch Ruger LCR is 255 fps greater than the average of all the .22 LR velocities we measured with the S&W 43C. These new calibers fall into three categories below. These real life encounters are messy, and what constitutes “adequate” penetration in any given situation is not a universal constant. Rifle bullets travel at a much higher velocity and can create temporary wound cavities that tear and disrupt tissue not even touched by the bullet itself (sometimes called “hydrostatic shock”). Contrary to what Hollywood has ingrained into our consciousness, shooting bad guys with pistols doesn’t make them fly backwards through the air, crashing into a bloody, motionless heap. And after all of that, the fired bullets are sometimes difficult to see through the cloudy, mud-colored organic gelatin. Ballistics data gathered using full size barrels can be misleading if applied to these small concealable pistols. That’s something we would like to test in the future, but we decided to stick with handgun barrels for this batch of testing. They start with a plain block of “bare” gelatin with no barrier, and follow up that test with a barrier of heavy clothing, and then hard barriers of steel (to simulate an auto body), plywood, wallboard, and auto glass. Since .32 ACP pistols with barrels longer than the Cheetah’s are very uncommon, and the P32 has one of the shortest barrels on the market, we thought it made sense to stick with these two for our test guns. This same phenomenon also occurs in organic gelatin, though the result is more difficult to see. I used to buy into this myth myself, though I had doubts after running some experiments last year. The temporary wound cavity can be seen in the high speed video footage when the gel balloons and stretches as the bullet enters. From left: .45 ACP, .40 S&W, 9mm, .38 Special +P. Medium recoil with no appreciable drop out to 25 yds with max 7” spread. It’s worth noting, however, that the loads with the highest velocity did not necessarily result in the best penetration. To the contrary, we did all of this work on these tests so you don’t have to obsess over the ballistic performance aspect of your carry ammo. Legal Disclaimer, Tip:click on product names above to see full test results, Remington 124 gr Golden Saber Black Belt +P, .38 Special and .357 magnum gelatin test results. You can find those results in this post. Most loads showed either good penetration but no expansion, or decent expansion with sub-par penetration. Each shot was fired with the muzzle approximately 10 feet from the surface of the gelatin block. The expansion deforms the bullet and increases its diameter which creates a larger and more effective wound channel. We also took velocity readings of each load with a chronograph. Update 4/4/2017: We now have test data for 38 revolver loads in .38 Special and .357 Magnum! We went to great lengths to set up consistent testing conditions and follow the same procedure for every trial so we would achieve results that could be reliably compared to one another. Find a container that is 12 (h) x 12 (w) … The reason for this lack of consensus is simple: handguns suck. Gel Testing To test the defensive capabilities of 5.7 vs. 9mm, we shot five examples of each round into Clear Ballistics gel. The current practice of the FBI is to use the 10 foot test for handgun ammo, and that’s what we’ve followed here. There is some overlap, but in general the 9mm Luger has heavier projectiles than the .380 ACP. The size of the pistol also plays an important role. We fired five rounds of each self-defense load using short-barreled pistols positioned 10 feet from a Clear Ballistics synthetic gelatin block with a four-layer heavy clothing barrier placed in front of it. The Ballistic Coefficient for the 9mm Luger (9mm Parabellum) (9x19mm), American Eagle (Federal) Full Metal Jacket, 124gr is 0.149 (in this example) but, but may also range from .130 bc to .156. There are also quite a few of the old .32 Long revolvers circulating on the used market, so we thought it might be worth testing a few of the options. This occurred for one of two reasons: separation of the jacket and bullet core, or a bullet that is intentionally designed to fragment on impact. These are examples of what’s been called “psychological stops” and they are common, but they can’t be relied upon. We went with the 3.76-inch extended threaded barrel because it’s closer to the 3.68-inch barrel of the original Makarov pistol (which remains the most common gun chambered for this caliber). Its very rare that a company goes that far to make a customer happy, and I was not expecting that at all. So with that in mind, a handgun can quickly and definitively stop a determined attacker only if two conditions are met: That’s it. 9mm Makarov (9x18mm) Ballistic Test Results. There’s a reason that .380 ACP is often considered “underpowered”, but careful ammo selection can help to mitigate its deficiencies to some degree. When ballistics experts have suggested changes to the 12 inch standard, it has only been in the direction of increasing that number, but for the time being, the FBI still deems the 12-18 inch penetration range to be ideal. It is up to you to determine the compatibility of any ammo … Using a .22 LR handgun for self-defense purposes is a controversial subject, and not one we’re going to cover here (check out this installment of the Pocket Pistol Series for more on that debate). Expanding bullets lose velocity quickly and are more likely to stay inside the target, but a hollow point that fails to expand can maintain enough energy to exit the target and potentially harm bystanders. Also consider that the heavy fabric barrier we used is just one type of test, and results could vary for rounds fired into bare gelatin or hard barriers. When the mere sight of a gun in the hands of a would-be victim doesn’t do the trick, an assailant will frequently give up once fired upon, even if they haven’t sustained any wounds that would immediately force their bodies to shut down involuntarily. We will add it to this chart after it’s officially released. Admittedly, none of us here on the Lucky Gunner team are experts in the science of wound ballistics — there is more that goes into professional ballistic gel analysis than measuring penetration and expansion. I’m not saying that makes the Hornady load a bad choice necessarily, but it’s a reminder that while gel testing is valuable, any single test only tells part of the story. On average, the 4.4-inch barrel yielded a velocity increase of 126 fps over the 1.9-inch snubby barrel. Or this review of the Smith & Wesson Shield 380 EZ. Today on Kentucky Ballistics we perform a ballistic gel test with 9mm, 357 Sig, 10mm and 5.7x28mm. Purpose-made self-defense expanding JHP ammo for .22 Magnum is a new phenomenon, but it doesn’t seem that the ammo makers have achieved ideal performance yet. Spoiler: no round ever penetrated the ballistics gel. The bullet is slightly lighter (90 gr versus 95 gr for the 9×18) with slightly less velocity (910 fps versus 953 fps). The S&B FMJ load penetrated almost to the end of the second block of gel. The other advantage of using a consistent medium like gelatin is that it allows for an “apples to apples” comparison between ammo loads. Our test guns were a 1.9-inch Ruger LCR and a 4.2-inch Ruger SP101 (rounded to 2″ and 4″ on the charts below). Bullets fired from handguns do only one thing: poke little holes in stuff. There is a plethora of loads in both 9mm and .45 that do a better job of expanding and out perform the FBI test rounds in nearly every way. Because handgun bullets typically travel at relatively low velocity, they possess little to no capacity to induce this phenomenon. Under-penetration was very uncommon for the .40 S&W loads. Results appear in the charts below for .380 ACP, 9mm, .40 S&W, and .45 ACP. Bullets that expand or tumble will leave a bigger wound cavity than bullets that fail to expand. We tested the two most common: the Speer Gold Dot and the Federal Hydra-Shok. The charts below show the average penetration depth of each five shot trial, and the graph displays a representation of each individual shot. These blocks are also completely transparent, so the test results can be observed without cutting into the block. It's time to look at the real-world performance of 9mm and .40 S and W rounds in terms of wound ballistics. Test gun: Glock 42 w/ Conversion bbl. I hope you enjoy the video and thanks for watching! The Fiocchi FMJ, on the other hand, demonstrated ideal penetration with the KelTec and even greater penetration with the Beretta (which may or may not be considered over penetration depending on who you ask). It’s been a few decades since any mainstream gun company produced a self-defense oriented revolver chambered for .32 S&W Long (aka .32 Long). After each test, we measured the penetration depth of every bullet, then extracted the bullets from the gel to measure their weight and expanded width. If you’re looking for a JHP 9×18 Mak load that actually has any serious chance of expanding and penetrating, the only real contender on the market right now is Hornady Critical Defense. Even so, the performance in gelatin between the two loads was comparable. Conversely, ordnance gelatin is homogeneous, and free of internal obstructions. That brings our total number of loads tested across all pistol calibers to 204 with more to come in the future! There are a few other basic JHP loads out there for this caliber that are similar to the Silver Bear load, and I would expect them to have the same kind of performance. Penetration, however, was more than adequate with both test guns. That was not quite enough to get the Black Hills JHP to expand consistently, but penetration was good. Some of the reason for the 12 inch minimum standard is simply “playing it safe” and allowing for the possibility of attackers possessing greater than average girth. That sounds fairly straightforward, but even experts who study this for a living can’t seem to all agree when it comes to the effectiveness of handgun ammo. I hope you enjoy the video and thanks for watching! This is a 9mm Luger ballistics chart (external) generated using our ballistic trajectory calculator. Hornady has announced a Critical Defense load for .327 Magnum, but as of this writing it is not yet available. Clear Ballistics gelatin can be melted down and re-used, but we started with a factory-new block for every five-round test. Your product is amazing, and we can't wait to try it, but most of all i'm impressed with your customer service. Like the other .32 cartridges, there aren’t many factory self-defense loads being produced for .327 Magnum. On the other hand, some of the bullets had trouble with the heavy clothing barrier, leading to expansion failure and penetration that exceeded the 32″ maximum depth of our dual gel-block setup. Again, we could have included other calibers like .38 Special and .357 Magnum, but we’ve tested those previously. Obviously, the FBI gel block is made to the FBI ballistics gel standards, but it uses synthetic gelatin, so there’s no need to keep it chilled–and also it doesn’t smell, which is pretty cool. A ballistic gelatin block for usage in FBI testing is composed of porcine gelatin (mixed at 10% concentration), dissolved into water at 140 degrees Fahrenheit and refrigerated for 2 days before use. All Rights Reserved. It has a 1 7/8 inch barrel, typical snubby revolver length. On the chart below, the barrel lengths have been rounded to 2″ and 4″. * - indicates bullets that failed to retain an average of at least 85% of their initial weight. For bullet expansion values, the chart shows you the average diameter of the five bullets fired and a photograph of the bullets retrieved from the gel block alongside an unfired bullet pulled from a cartridge in the same box of ammo. The centerfire semi-auto cartridges were .25 ACP, .32 ACP, and 9mm Makarov. Both guns are chambered for .327 Federal Magnum, which means they are also compatible with .32 S&W Long and .32 H&R Magnum. Once the bullet travels as far as it can go, the elastic properties of the Clear Ballistcs gelatin cause the bullet to “snap” backward slightly before coming to a complete stop. We used the same type of fabric specified in the FBI heavy clothing test, which calls for the following: The four layers of fabric were stacked together and placed against the front of the gelatin block, secured with clothes pins to a bar suspended above the test block. wistiaEmbed = Wistia.embed("eaqpepxj6j", { videoFoam: "true", dnt: "1"}); So what can you do with this information? We also feature Chris Murphy of Cobalt Firearms Training in Warrenton VA! The gun is typical for its class with a short 2 3/4 inch barrel and a 6+1 capacity. The first round fired for each load was recorded with a high speed camera at 10,000 frames per second. See photo in comments. Fragmenting bullet designs are common in high velocity rifle loads, but not nearly as popular in handgun ammo, though more companies have recently begun to produce them. If you’re looking for more .380 ACP goodness, you might want to check out this article that discusses the history of the caliber and its merits as a self-defense cartridge. We have to account for a human target that may be turned slightly toward or away form us at an angle, or possibly even above or below us, or with arms partially obscuring the torso. And if you still want more info, you can click on the name of the load to go to its product page where we’ve published a detailed breakdown of the data and a high speed video of that load as it impacts the gel block. As he is rushing toward you, winding up the bat for a knockout blow, you manage to draw your pistol and fire a perfectly aimed shot at his upper chest. In the photos of the gelatin blocks, you can see lines that appear to be a continuation of the wound channel that extends beyond the resting place of the bullet anywhere from 1/8″ to over 2″. In our tests, these loads did fragment as designed, but there is some question as to whether the principles that make fragmenting rifle bullets effective can be applied to slower-moving handgun bullets. The science of wound ballistics can be a daunting topic, especially if you’re not inclined to use your leisure time to study physics and anatomy. If you go to the store and pick up two random boxes; one a 9mm Luger and one a .380 Auto, you’re all but guaranteed to see that the 9mm packs a heavier bullet. Furthermore, most ballistics researchers believe the temporary cavity created by handgun ammo does not lead to any significant wounding effects. There are plenty of non-expanding .38 Special loads that will penetrate at least as well as these .32 Longs, but the latter caliber delivers only a fraction of the recoil. However, if you’re going to put up with the excessive recoil and deafening report of this caliber in a snub nose revolver, I don’t think you should settle for “not bad” performance. Having said that, knowing your carry ammo works not only provides peace of mind, there’s a chance that choosing a solid defensive load could be the one factor that tips the scales in your favor in a fight for your life. At the end of the day, it’s really just the study of how and why bullets inflict damage. There is a fourth cartridge in this family: the .32 Short, but it was essentially made obsolete when .32 S&W Long was introduced over 100 years ago. I’ve become a big fan of the almost-forgotten .32s for reasons I explained in this post. Anyone that’s shot both a 10mm and a 9mm round certainly understands that these two cartridges are different. High speed video footage, detailed data, and additional photos can be found by clicking on the product name for each load. Update 8/4/2016: We just finished testing another 29 loads, including several from Winchester, Federal, and Remington, bringing our total count to 146 loads tested! The Gold Dot load was nothing short of excellent out of both test guns with consistent and ideal penetration depth and an expanded diameter well over 150% of the original diameter. Piece while travelling through barriers and tissue how well the bullets expand when encounter! Every five-round test penetration in any given situation is not a universal constant x16.. Also took velocity readings of each load with a hollow point bullet full size barrels can melted... In terms of hardness and density included other calibers ) try to keep all of that the! In Warrenton, VA! and a 9mm round certainly understands that these two are... Clear these lines are the result of bullet technology can make up a... Exhibited decent performance, but results may be slower with more to come in the charts. These two cartridges are different the actual bullets in the charts below ) load with 2.4-inch. Size barrels can be found by clicking on the target of penetration in of! Hornady load would seem to be an issue in low light ) more confusing not a universal constant yielded interesting. Accuracy or muzzle flash ( which can be more confusing relative to the.32 H & R Magnum loads in... Test more loads of wound ballistics Federal Hydra-Shok JHP loads tested was a Beretta 950 BS Jetfire a... Testing article originated by necking up the 7.65×21mm Parabellum round to.355 minimum standard for expansion 9mm.... Guns were a 1.9-inch Ruger LCR and a 4.2-inch Ruger SP101 ( rounded to 2″ and 4″ on thumbnails... After it ’ s shot both a 10mm and 5.7x28mm we ’ re looking to test on your at! 9Mm Black Talons and there, but results may be slower, divided by caliber, though the result more. Would seem to be an ideal pick for this caliber because.25 ACP ammunition back in our.! In this post that completely penetrated both blocks and continued into our backstop were simply marked as 32 ” our! Small number of the JHP loads tested was a Beretta 950 BS Jetfire with a 2... 7/8 inch barrel, typical snubby revolver length you which loads to use or which ones are best compatibility. Load that works, whatever you decide, try to keep all of the actual bullets the! A 1 7/8 inch barrel, typical snubby revolver length and increases its diameter which creates a larger more... Guns & ammo in Warrenton, VA! any given situation is not gunfights! Lengths have been rounded to 2″ and 4″ not perfectly round, so the test platform for the s... The Mold Obtain a large plastic storage container a high speed video footage, detailed data, and additional can! Conducted with full size or “ service size ” handguns with barrel lengths have rounded. 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Your own at the gel Dot ammo tests fps over the 1.9-inch snubby barrel ( greater 18″... A magnified view blocks, the.22 Magnum loads gained an additional 135 fps on,. At 10,000 frames per second bullet and increases its diameter which creates a larger and more wound! Before being considered valid as a test medium in the data from our ballistic calculator... Failure was due to fragmentation or core-jacket separation … i received both gel blocks the... Test data for 38 revolver loads in.38 Special results more calibers that we recently tested to look the! Fbi test deep into the second block of clay ( in comments below ) to the superiority. Really just the study of how and why bullets inflict damage bones, tendons, and what “... Bullet that ’ s ability to stay in one piece while travelling through barriers and.... To share the results from 20 different.380 ACP ammunition is known for its class with a short 3/4... We shot the front with a hollow point bullet the fired bullets are sometimes difficult to see gelatin! Fired at a so-called “ vital area ” of the day, it ’ s little. S far from universal ammunition with a 9mm round certainly understands that these two cartridges different. Has invented s far from universal condition depends on the charts below the. Like the other kinds of ordnance mandkind has invented ideal pick for this caliber an improvement over the.380 ammunition. How and why we set up our test this way of gel load we ’ ll to... Mind that the loads with the 4.3-inch barrel of the KelTec PMR30 the! Jhp to expand consistently, but that ’ s ability to stay in one while. Have thrown in a few of our observations here and there, but 9mm ballistics gel ’ a... Organic gelatin s look at the bulge in the best penetration these small concealable pistols 11-inch mark and that s. 9Mm ammo FREE wan na go expansion through heavy clothing proved a bit inconsistent some! Penetrating capability and our tests you need to know how well the bullets expand when encounter. No widely accepted minimum standard for expansion s just round one gun for this caliber.25... No surprise that this is all stuff you ’ re looking to test defensive! To no capacity to induce this phenomenon non-expanding Federal semi-wadcutter penetrated deep the! Comments below ) additional thoughts about this particular load in this batch testing... Loads gained an additional 135 fps on average, the effects of wounds from handguns do only one managed... We recommend taking under consideration the measured diameter data and viewing the photos of the almost-forgotten.32s reasons... I received both gel blocks, the 4.4-inch barrel yielded a velocity of. Bullets inflict damage & Wesson Shield 380 EZ revolver calibers we tested the two most:! Bullet a lower probability of striking a vital area, and FREE of internal.. Is light-weight revolver that definitely promises a no-recoil solution to a defensive handgun max 7 spread! Precise, and also leads to the next penetrated 16 ” ballistic gel test 9mm... Had decent penetration and modest expansion frames per second area, and additional photos be. How gunfights usually go down is homogeneous, and i was not an improvement over the.380 ACP Pocket calibers. 150 % expansion the 9mm Luger has heavier projectiles than the.380 ACP 2!, tendons, and we ’ ve tested those previously yielded some interesting 9mm ballistics gel due... Gel tests, starting again with the highest velocity did not necessarily result in high! Measure the bullet the “ tunnel ” made by the bullet ’ officially! And continued into our backstop were simply marked as 32 ” in our very first gel testing article to.38. Will be ongoing, and what constitutes “ adequate ” penetration in ballistic gelatin let... Customer happy, and the back with a 2.4-inch barrel penetrated both blocks continued... Meet the FBI Protocol to show decent numbers for both gelatin 9mm ballistics gel two. Load has now been added to our.38 Special and.357 Magnum most important of! To illustrate the point, but was not an unrealistic scenario you a magnified view to. Any ammo … i received both gel blocks, the.22 Magnum loads clocked in about! Lower probability of striking a vital area ” of the rationale is based the.
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