Gimmick or effective?

Many of you probably remember when these first hit the market a few years ago. Many have labeled them a gimmick or a novelty. Especially with the over dramatic marketing video that accompanied these they truly did come off as gimmicky, being advertised as "the last defensive round you will ever need."

Well fast forward to a few weeks ago I also saw these as a gimmick, the "magic bullet". Well as I have shared in the past I work at a trauma center and work with and see the effects of many different bullet wounds. Had a patient come to us with a reported self induced gunshot to the chest. When patient arrived the gunshot was actually to the shoulder girdle and thankfully not the chest. If able the PD and paramedics try to provide an example of the bullet used so we know what we are dealing with. They produced one of these RIP 9mms. As expected there was an entrance wound but no exit. Upon imaging the effected area the damage was very impressive. The core of the bullet completely shattered the head of the humerus and had stopped just prior to exiting. The frangible petals had all dispersed covering an area of about 6 inches in diameter with some in the bone. The internal damage to the muscle and ligaments were extensive from the petals. Luckily the subclavian and brachial arteries were miraculously missed.

Long story short thankfully the patient was not successful in shooting their self in the chest and got the "yips". To shatter the humerus takes a lot of force especially in a patient of the age they were so I am convinced the bullet and petals would have easily penetrated the ribcage and the internal damage to the lung and heart would most likely have been to much to overcome.

There's a lot of different factors that go in the shootings and damage caused; distance, angle, bullet profile, etc. From the real life example I witnessed this round seems like it would be very effective and "may" have the ability to cause more internal damage than traditional hollow points. Then again if used in a SD scenario I'm sure the prosecutor would demonize the use of such a bullet just by the way it looks.

Have you ever tried these? What are your thoughts? Gimmick or effective?

IJustLikeGuns said:

Self inflicted? Like, the gun was like six inches or less from the dude when he shot himself and there was all this aMaZiNg DaMaGe done? Yeah, sounds super effective, I’m sure no other round would do as much damage from that distance. I’ll order 1000 rounds immediately.

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I know you're being facetious here but I have seen the damage the typical hollow point does to the same area. Bone destruction was the same with more soft tissue damage from the RIP.
I've unfortunately seen a number of attempts this way. Always sad to see someone come to that point in life. I'm not promoting this brand over the next, just sharing my observations as they happen.

Since it's in the same realm as the current discussion I will share another example. This was with a traditional hollow point but don't know the exact brand because this time the PD didn't have a recovered round. This was a drug deal gone wrong. Victim was shot in back from unknown distance. Bullet entered right above illeum about L4 and stopped at the pubis bone. Petals had fully expanded. Sadly the patient did not survive. According to imaging either the descending aorta or the femoral artery was hit and pt was basically doa but we did what we could for 30+ minutes.
I know this has what been discussed here before about the viability of pelvic shots and the effectiveness due to the vascularity. I think a frangible round such as the RIP and the like would be devastating to such an area especially if shot from the front, not hitting bone before the vitals. Again, these are just observations and me talking out loud more or less, not making suggestions.