The question came up this morning about hollow-point bullets from a short-barrel .45. The concern was that the reduced velocity from shortening the barrel would prevent the bullet from expanding. This sounds like a reasonable concern, and something that ought to be tested. Having some Speer 200gr JHPs (the famed ‘Flying Ashtray variety) and a slightly over-used block of Clear Ballistics I decided to find out. For the test I used my Detonics Mk.1 Combat Master .45. With it’s 3-1/4″ barrel it’s ideal for this test.

The load I used was 6.5gr. Unique with a Federal Large Pistol primer, which yields 920 fps. and 376 ft./lbs with an extreme spread of 45fps. from a 5? barrel.

I draped four layers of denim over the end of the block and I fired across the chronograph and into the block. The bullet clocked 848fps., making 319ft./lbs.Penetration was 14″ (with 1″ of bounce-back in the gel.)

Expansion was large but asymmetric, measuring .665 at the widest and .615 at the narrowest, yielding an average diameter of .640″. Nothing to sneeze at here!

Weight retention was good as well, losing only a small sliver of the jacket. I’d have no issue whatsoever with relying on this for self-defense.

This bullet was designed decades ago, when the conventional wisdom said that hollow-points would simply not expand at the velocities achieved by .45 ACP. Speer proved them wrong, and today there are several excellent hollow-points available… but the Speer ‘Ballistic Soup-Can’ soldiers on.

Michael Tinker Pearce, 16 December 2020

If you like what you read here, please consider clicking the link above and supporting me on patreon.

A few years back I posted about this ammunition; you can read about it’s history here: https://tinkertalksguns.com/2016/10/29/new-generation-9mmp-sentry/ In a nutshell it’s an 75Gr. nickel-plated monolithic copper hollow-point with a plastic cap to help it feed. The plastic feed-cap brings the overall weight of the projectile to 80gr.

The test gun was my Sig Sauer P6 with a 3-3/4″ barrel. The chronograph showed an average muzzle velocity of 1361 fps. and 303 ft./lbs of energy. While police agencies that used this round reported success with it I had my doubts. Light-for-caliber high velocity rounds don’t have a wonderful reputation for effectiveness. Doubts + Gun + ballistic gel = test. I placed four layers of denim over the end of the ballistic gel and fired into it from 3 yards away.

The round penetrated 14″ into the block, leaving a permanent wound cavity approximately 1″ across for the first 6-1/2″ to 7″, leaving fragments of the plastic feed-cap in the wound. The bullet expanded in a very uniform fashion to an average of .490″.

I’m pretty surprised. I’m not much for ‘gimmick’ bullets but this one genuinely seems to deliver on its promises. It’s been out of production since the early 2000s, and that now seems a bit of a shame. Still, I can’t honestly say it outperforms other modern hollow-point ammunition. The only area this ammunition might shine is its ability to penetrate windshield glass (it will reportedly penetrate at up to a 60-degree angle) but that’s a pretty limited specialization.

I suppose the lesson is that the lack of commercial success is not necessarily an indicator that a product doesn’t work.

Michael Tinker Pearce, 15 December 2020

If you like what you read here, please consider clicking the link above and supporting me on Patreon.

With the scarcity of defensive ammunition this year I started messing about with modifying Xtreme Bullets 115gr. target hollow-points to be suitable for self defense. I wrote about that here: https://tinkertalksguns.com/2020/08/18/homespun-hollow-points-for-what-if-situations/.

My first attempt tended to over-expand and shed the front of the bullets in fragments, but they were arguably better than ball ammo. I modified the swaging pin slightly and tried again. This time they expanded decently and retained their weight well, but expanded asymmetrically. They did this because the copper plating (thick enough to form a jacket) would split on one side. They were adequate for self-defense, but they could be better.

I modified the pin again, and depth of the cavity. It no longer split the ‘jacket,’ and I had high hopes that these would perform better yet. I’d pretty much got as much use as I could from the Clear Gel block I had, and needed to re-cast it before I could test the new bullet. What with one thing and another it was months before I got around to that… and then the new FBI block I got on sale from Clear Ballistics arrived. Time to test the new bullet!

The test gun for this was my Sig Sauer P6, which has a 3-3/4″ barrel. The load used is 4.9gr. of Universal and a Federal Magnum small pistol primer, which yields 1142 fps. and 334 ft./lbs with an extreme spread of 14 fps. So, time to test. I placed four layers of denim over the face of the block and fired. The results were gratifying.

Penetration of 13-1/2″ was good, and the bullet expanded in a very satisfactory manner. It did shed one ‘petal’ but this wound up quite close to the resting place of the bullet. The bullet’s maximum expansion was .625″, and the minimum (where it shed the petal) was .508″, making for an average of .563″.

Retained weight, including the shed petal, was 115.4gr. So, good penetration, good expansion, good weight retention. I’m gonna call this one a win.

Michael Tinker Pearce, 15 December 2020

If you like what you read here please consider clicking the link above and supporting me on Patreon.