corbon .357 sig bullet failure?

[walking arsenal]

I did a ballistic test on some of corbons .357 sig 125 grn jhp. Heres what happpened. I conducted the test using the tightest measures and the best equipment i had available ( a garbage can full of water in the back yard). i fired two rounds out of my glock 33 into about 3 feet of water from aprox 4 ft above the surface, the bullets didnt strike the bottom as near as i can tell. However, the results worried me a little. both rounds fragmented severely and one experienced jacket seperation. it almost looks like they blew up, there wasnt much left of either round.

I have my theory of why this happened but hoped maybe some of the more experienced guys could help me out.

does corbon just use the same bullet they load in their 125grn 9mm rounds for the .357 sig? is that possible?

my theory is that they do and that the poor little bullet is cruising way too fast for it to keep together on impact.

Is this a detremental effect to have in a carry round or any bullet for that matter? I would think it is but want to make sure im right in assuming so.

I have since picked up some speer gold dots to carry until i get this sorted out.

 

[jc2]

Frankly, the only reason I would shoot CorBons if someone them to me--and then only for practice.

 

[walking arsenal]

Quote: "Frankly, the only reason I would shoot CorBons if someone them to me--and then only for practice."

????????

 

[jc2]

Sounds pretty clear to me. Could you be more specific?

I will not buy CorBon ammunition, period.

I would shoot it (but only for practice), but only if someone gave it to me.

You could probably take this a recommendation to foget about CorBon and stick to a better designed and better quality ammo (and that I am not surprised by your experience with CorBon).

 

[mountainclmbr]

Water is not a good media for testing bullet performance. It is too dense and will often cause fragmentation and jacket separations.

I think Corbon makes some really hot rounds, but I have switched away from them because the flash is blinding in low-light situations. The Remington Golden Sabers also have too much flash. The Speer Gold Dots are a good combination of bullet design and low flash in my opinion.

 

[cratz2]

Well, it seems to me that the Corbons are among the bullets most likely to result in unplanned fragmentation... whether that's because of bullet design or the fact that their bullets usually reach very high velocities, I don't know.

In long barrel guns, they would not be a first choice. I'm kind of surprised that they fragmented even out of the short 33.

 

[mountainclmbr]

It is true that when ammolab was operating that their gelatin tests with Corbon often showed fragmentation, but overall penetration was not too bad.

I don't prefer Corbon because the muzzle flash is very bad in low-light conditions.

Speer Gold Dots have a bonded core and low flash.

 

[Preacherman]

Bear in mind that Cor-Bon designs its high-velocity bullets for fragmentation. If you think back, this was one of the hallmarks of the very successful Federal and Remington 125gr. JHP .357 Magnum rounds - the base of the bullet remained intact, but the hollow-point walls fragmented, creating secondary projectiles. I recall reading an article about 357 SIG ammo a couple of years ago in which the author pointed out that Cor-Bon and ProLoad were using bullets designed to produce this fragmentation effect, and were thereby duplicating the ballistics of the .357 Magnum round.

Personally, I prefer slightly more penetration, whilst still going for optimum expansion. I don't use the lightest-weight bullets in a caliber, preferring the medium-weights as usually offering the best of both worlds.

One caveat about Cor-Bon: their quality control does not appear to be very good. I've shot many calibers with their loads, and seen chronograph readouts of the velocities, and have often found as much as a 10%-15% spread in velocities over eight or ten rounds. This is not acceptable to me, and is one reason why my Cor-Bon loads are now relegated to the "ammo trade" box. I prefer consistency over hoop-la, thank you very much...

 

[Sox]

I agree with the reliability issue. I have had FTF's with several different calibers purchased in different states and frankly just don't trust it.