someguy2800
Member
I’ve been searching high and low for the past couple weeks to find a 9mm bullet that checks my personal boxes for what I like in a “hunting bullet” to use in my every day carry LC9S and it was right under my nose. I carry this a lot around my property and when I go camping or atv riding in the summer or snowmobiling in the winter for this kind of situation below.
I realize a 3” 9mm is not the best choice to keep yourself from getting stomped to death by a moose, but it’s what I like to carry so might as well optimize it. I wanted something with a big wide flat meplat, that would penetrate about 3-4 feet, and expand to just over bullet diameter. All the jacketed hollow point on the market that I’ve tested all either expand way too big to try to reduce over penetration in 2 legged predators, or don’t expand at all if the impact velocity is too low. A truncated flat point FMJ or typical 147gr cast bullet penetrates like 5 or 6 feet and doesn’t really transfer much energy. I wanted something like 124-150 grain weight with a big wide flat meplat like a WFN revolver bullet, but I have never really been able to find such a bullet in 9mm except for some from a couple very expensive boutique casting companies. In the past I’ve been using a Berry’s plated target hollow point as these have the widest meplat I’ve ever found in a 9mm bullet but these are extremely hard and will not expand at any velocity and they penetrate like an FMJ.
It finally dawned on me that I had a bag of the perfect bullet sitting in my reloading bench the whole time. These 125 grain .357 Zero JSP bullets do exactly what I want.
I bought a 1000 of these to shoot in my 357 magnum. When I tested them in water jugs I didn’t really get the mushrooming I wanted from the 357, but that’s exactly what I need in the lower velocity 9mm. Here is what they did a few years ago at about 1400 FPS
testing them today in 9mm I worked up to +p load of power pistol and got about 1140 fps from the 3” LC9S and 1240 fps from a glock 19 with no signs of pressure. Shot into gallon milk jugs the first bullet went out the bottom of the 7th jug and bounced away, but the 2nd bullet I caught in the 6th jug, which is exactly where I wanted the penetration to be.
I would like to do some testing to see how well it penetrates a cow bone, but so far I’m very happy with how that turned out.
I realize a 3” 9mm is not the best choice to keep yourself from getting stomped to death by a moose, but it’s what I like to carry so might as well optimize it. I wanted something with a big wide flat meplat, that would penetrate about 3-4 feet, and expand to just over bullet diameter. All the jacketed hollow point on the market that I’ve tested all either expand way too big to try to reduce over penetration in 2 legged predators, or don’t expand at all if the impact velocity is too low. A truncated flat point FMJ or typical 147gr cast bullet penetrates like 5 or 6 feet and doesn’t really transfer much energy. I wanted something like 124-150 grain weight with a big wide flat meplat like a WFN revolver bullet, but I have never really been able to find such a bullet in 9mm except for some from a couple very expensive boutique casting companies. In the past I’ve been using a Berry’s plated target hollow point as these have the widest meplat I’ve ever found in a 9mm bullet but these are extremely hard and will not expand at any velocity and they penetrate like an FMJ.
It finally dawned on me that I had a bag of the perfect bullet sitting in my reloading bench the whole time. These 125 grain .357 Zero JSP bullets do exactly what I want.
I bought a 1000 of these to shoot in my 357 magnum. When I tested them in water jugs I didn’t really get the mushrooming I wanted from the 357, but that’s exactly what I need in the lower velocity 9mm. Here is what they did a few years ago at about 1400 FPS
testing them today in 9mm I worked up to +p load of power pistol and got about 1140 fps from the 3” LC9S and 1240 fps from a glock 19 with no signs of pressure. Shot into gallon milk jugs the first bullet went out the bottom of the 7th jug and bounced away, but the 2nd bullet I caught in the 6th jug, which is exactly where I wanted the penetration to be.
I would like to do some testing to see how well it penetrates a cow bone, but so far I’m very happy with how that turned out.
