Report : .40S&W JHPs versus Bone and Ballistic Gelatin

That's fairly eye-opening. Thanks.

I agree, guess that means the Remington JHP bulk I use wouldn't expand either after going through bone.

Illuminating... My wife actually already loads the DPX 9mm rounds in her Sigma, (not quite comparable but still)

I'm running 165 grain Ranger-Ts in my .40 M&P

Thank you for the non-speculative look at expansion!

Wounder how some of the popular used 9mm and 45acp's would fair ???????

One more reason to love a quality hard cast bullet.

Great report! I had been worried the DPX would penetrate too much but I see from your work that the reverse is the case, at least for a bullet that initially strikes bone. Do you think the same conclusions would apply for calibers other than the .40 S&W tested?

Those are interesting tests. In using dried out cow bones I'm seeing expansion, but the petals rivet inward toward the center of the bullet.

Just posted this pic on another thread, .40S&W/180gr PDX;



Bone;



.45auto 230gr PDX;



I set up bone tests different than what you do and I use water. The set-up for this test was .357mag/140gr XTP/1420fps. The 20oz bottle in front is about 3" deep, cow rib bone is bleached out, bullet captured in water;





Another .357mag/140gr XTP test with a redwood 4x4, cow rib bone and bullet captured in water.



XTP expanded (riveted) w/i the 4x4 and blew a large hole through the cow rib;



I saved the best for last, the set-up is redwood 4x4, metal washing machine lid, cow rib bone and bullet captured in water;




9mm/147gr Gold Dot expanded (riveted) and busted through the cow rib;



You may want to retest that ammunition by placing 1" to 2" of gel in front of your bone simulant, I think you'll see bullet expansion in subsequent tests.

Does the bone simulant fragment?

I just completed a RA45TP test with 3" of water in front of a cow rib (0.565" thick), this is a monster load that caused considerable bone fragmentation. I'll be posting the pics on another thread.

Bob

Great info..... I use the Corbon DPX 9mm

I did my test in milk jugs and wet newspaper.

The Corbon was the best performer

I tend to agree with 2zulu1. A small layer of gel should be put in front of the bone. I know that there isn't much soft tissue between the bone and skin in some places in the body, but we don't have exposed bone either.

Yikes.

My preference is towards 165 Gold Dots. I may have to look into DPX.

Love then barne's bullets

Wonder if at 10mm velocities the dpx would have penetrated more and the others expanded?

Thanks for posting that... nothing like good old visual aids to drive a point home..

This is the EXACT reason, that for carry ammo in my 40's I have always used the 135gr Norma bullet, and push them hard... 1350fps or better to open...

Two schools of thought on pistol bullets, large and slow, or light and fast... Me, I like light and fast... Thanks for posting why...

Wow, I have an entirely new respect for Corbon DPX. And... I just stocked up on Federal HST in 9mm, .40 S&W, and .45 ACP.

I don't get the summary. JHP's wound by expanding, whereas FMJ's wound by tumbling? Where did they get that idea? I'm guessing a JHP that never expands will do just as much damage as an FMJ that never tumbles, all else being equal (at that point they ARE equal). Either of those could easily be lethal.

^^^ I want my expanding bullets to expand, dog gone it.

Wish they'd do a similar type of testing for the 9 and 45.

Jack tripper said:

Wish they'd do a similar type of testing for the 9 and 45.

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Me too and I wish they would have included Federal HST as well as a few other types... but I'm fairly certain the results would have been similar anyway.

no surprises here. hollowpoints generally cave inwards when encountering hard barriers.
DPX are ok, but they're obscenely overpriced and generally yaw off course either due to low sectional density or certain petals expanding before the other depending on the angle of impact.


here's four HST 147gr 9mm's i fired into dry phonebooks:

I guess I need to start carrying my XM25

Although I think this is a good test, it certainly wont make me hesitate to carry HST's Gold Dots, Or Rangers. They have been proven effective if you do your part.

Although I think this is a good test, it certainly wont make me hesitate to carry HST's Gold Dots, Or Rangers. They have been proven effective if you do your part.

Click to expand...

Well, that beggars the question - was this test not a reasonable facsimile of real life shootings, or do real life shootings with 40S&W not heavily depend upon bullet expansion (due to other factors, such as multiple shots, shot placement, etc.), or is real life shooting effectivity data simply not being well collected?

Can't open the file, my Adobe Acrobat says it's damaged...

Here's my question, all of the bullets that failed seemed to fail because the cavity became filled with bone, however the Critical Defense bullet which has the synthetic plug in order to prevent clogging and aid in expansion still failed, but one round the Cor-Bon performed seemingly flawlessly?
Also, why no shots of the bone plate and ballistics gel after each shot? I'd be VERY interested in seeing these?
Regardless, 2Zulu1's results seem to be more accurate, but much less scientific.

If this was for a research paper/class it seems like an excellent test and write up. If this is trying to simulate real life situations, many variables need to be tweaked and adjusted.

That's fairly eye-opening. Thanks.

Click to expand...

+1

Barnes bullets FTW again.