Ruger ARX 9mm 80gr +P in Clear Ballistics Gel

MikeInOr said:

I thought the ARX bullets were claimed to be less likely to penetrate dry wall or bounce around and cause collateral damage. It seems like the ARX mfg has stopped making this claim. Does anyone else remember this claim? Or am I remembering incorrectly?

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I can only speak to what I have seen. My Dad and I shot up some 1 gallon water jugs with 380 HP ammo out of a Ruger LCP. He had some Winchester soft point that had a flat end with exposed lead, but no hollow point. It penetrated 4 jugs of water and kept going. Rupture the first one or two okay. I had some Underwood Extreme Defense which ruptured the first jug heavily and ended up in the 3rd. The Inceptor round I bought went through 4 jugs and kept going, partially ruptured the first two. The surprising part was some Hornady HP ammo. I think it was the cheaper American Gunner ammo. The bullet stopped in the 2nd jug. I figured the penetration with that ammo would be pretty poor.

So in my experience the Inceptor ammo penetrated very well in water jugs. I might have to think about testing with pieces of wood or other solid object in front.

MechAg94 said:

Paul Harrell has done some testing of the Extreme Defense and Inceptor ammo. He uses his "meat target" rather than ballistic gel. I find it to be an interesting alternative.


Underwood with the Extreme Defense bullets in a meat target.


Here is a test of the Inceptor ammo including a meat target test.

There might be some interpretation to this. I thought he found these non-expanding bullets did more damage than FMJ, but might not do quite as much as good hollow points. He mentioned the inceptor ammo had a lot of penetration which I saw when shooting water jugs.

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The damage done by the Inceptor round in the meat test absolutely re-enforces my decision to carry it in my EDC.

WheelGunMan said:

The damage done by the Inceptor round in the meat test absolutely re-enforces my decision to carry it in my EDC.

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I assume your guns don't have the accuracy issues at range that his had?

JR24 said:

I assume your guns don't have the accuracy issues at range that his had?

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I am able to keep a consistent 3"- 4" grouping at 7 - 10 yards with .38 Special rounds with my LCR.357, which I feel is fine for its intended purpose.

WheelGunMan said:

I am able to keep a consistent 3"- 4" grouping at 7 - 10 yards with .38 Special rounds with my LCR.357, which I feel is fine for its intended purpose.

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Ok, I think his issues were his Beretta being way off at 15+

It's difficult to determine the effectiveness of this ammo and the damage it can do. I don't think it's a good choice for a full size pistol because the longer barrels of full size pistols help hollow points expand due to the higher velocity, but it's in short barrels where velocity can be reduced enough to the point where hollow points aren't able to function properly where this specialty ammo can work really well.

The Inceptor ammo is my go to for .380 and it may find its way into my snub .38's. For 9mm I think there are a lot better options that work, but for a 9mm snub revolver like the LCR, this would work. .40, .45, .357 I see no point to this ammo.

I had wondered how these rounds and the Underwood versions would work out of a pcc.

The extra velocity can cause issues for hp ammo breaking, but these being solid rounds that would not be an issue.

BlueHeelerFl said:

I had wondered how these rounds and the Underwood versions would work out of a pcc.

The extra velocity can cause issues for hp ammo breaking, but these being solid rounds that would not be an issue.

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The issue out of a rifle or PCC that would likely happen is the bullets are moving so fast and are so light that they will not be accurate past a certain distance, probably 50 yards. Inceptor also makes rifle ammunition with the copper/polymer bullet, but they put on the box "short range rifle", so they're basically saying even in .300 BLK or 7.62x39 that this is not meant for long distances.

If you do try some of this ammo from a PCC at longer distances, I'd love to know the results. I'd think that sticking with standard FMJ would be better tho.

BlueHeelerFl said:

I had wondered how these rounds and the Underwood versions would work out of a pcc.

The extra velocity can cause issues for hp ammo breaking, but these being solid rounds that would not be an issue.

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I can't speak for these ARX rounds, but I have played with the Underwood Ammo 10mm 140gr Lehigh offering. I have a KRISS 10mm carbine with an 18 inch barrel. Those 140 gr screw drivers were leaving the barrel of my 5" P220 at 1500 ft/sec. From the Carbine they were very accurate at 25 yards, and leaving the barrel at 1750 ft/sec.

I haven't played with them at longer ranges, but if you aren't fighting the wind, I have no reason to believe they wouldn't be accurate out to 50 yards or more. The monolithic construction and concern about HPs coming apart is what interested me about those rounds.

I'm going to experiment with the Cutting Edge 190 gr all copper bullets, and see what kind of results I can get out of them.

My .380 loves the ARX ammo. It shoots POA = POI at 7 yards. I don't expect any .380 HP ammo to expand, but if the ARX and screwdriver ammo do some of what they claim, with good penetration, they are statistically ahead. I have some of each for .380 and 9mm but won't carry them until there are real world positive results. I won't be the beta tester.