My son and I did some testing of handgun component bullets. Our method was not ideal, but could be indicative of real world results.
We want to test rifle rounds but have not decided the best way, yet.
For pistol stuff we tested:
9mm 115 Gold Dot JHP
9mm 124 Gold Dot JHP
9mm 124 Gold dot JHP - nose hard packed with sand and cloth
9mm 115 Zero JHP
9mm 115 Montana Gold JHP
9mm 124 Nosler Sporting JHP
38 125 Hornady XTP
Tomorrow we're going to test a lot more XTP's in 357, 44 mag, 44 special, etc.
Our method was to fill a large garbage can with water, stand on a ladder for safety, and fire into the garbage can.
Results:
Every one of the bonded gold dots performed perfectly. Petals out, high expansion, zero weight loss. Even the gold dots with clogged noses performed this way. These bullets looked like the pictures in magazines, perfectly expanded and symmetrical. I'm sold on bonding in hand gun bullets.
Cup and core stuff:
Zero's and Montana Gold HP's simply disintegrated. We scooped up a bunch of fragments from the bottom of the can.
Nosler Sporting Handgun HP's. They performed very admirably. They all shed their jacket, but had very, very nice expansion and good weight retention. Good weight retention, if we took the separated jacket and weighed it with the lead core.
Hornady XTP 125 grain .357 diameter bullet fired from a 38 at 38 velocity. Jacket half way peeled back. Lead core slightly deformed with no expansion. I suspect these are made for 357 velocity (despite book claim), but we'll see tomorrow.
We want to test rifle rounds but have not decided the best way, yet.
For pistol stuff we tested:
9mm 115 Gold Dot JHP
9mm 124 Gold Dot JHP
9mm 124 Gold dot JHP - nose hard packed with sand and cloth
9mm 115 Zero JHP
9mm 115 Montana Gold JHP
9mm 124 Nosler Sporting JHP
38 125 Hornady XTP
Tomorrow we're going to test a lot more XTP's in 357, 44 mag, 44 special, etc.
Our method was to fill a large garbage can with water, stand on a ladder for safety, and fire into the garbage can.
Results:
Every one of the bonded gold dots performed perfectly. Petals out, high expansion, zero weight loss. Even the gold dots with clogged noses performed this way. These bullets looked like the pictures in magazines, perfectly expanded and symmetrical. I'm sold on bonding in hand gun bullets.
Cup and core stuff:
Zero's and Montana Gold HP's simply disintegrated. We scooped up a bunch of fragments from the bottom of the can.
Nosler Sporting Handgun HP's. They performed very admirably. They all shed their jacket, but had very, very nice expansion and good weight retention. Good weight retention, if we took the separated jacket and weighed it with the lead core.
Hornady XTP 125 grain .357 diameter bullet fired from a 38 at 38 velocity. Jacket half way peeled back. Lead core slightly deformed with no expansion. I suspect these are made for 357 velocity (despite book claim), but we'll see tomorrow.