Good hot .380 ball ammo

[kokapelli]

Some years back someone did gelatin vs water tests and found that a number of different brands of hollow point bullets consistently expanded in a water medium but never expanded in ballistic gelatin.

Shooting into jugs of water is interesting and fun but as far as I'm concerned not a satisfactory test method for bullet performance for real world situations, if it were why do law enforcement and military not just use water jugs instead of ballistic gelatin and save a lot of time and money?

 

[shootingthebreeze]

I'm getting a Kahr P380 after a ton of research. It's a good quality weapon and most important, concealeable.
I have looked into .380 ammo as well and have concluded that ball will be both range ammo and carry for this handgun. I want to maximize its penetration power. Engagement woud be less than 10 feet (hopefully that will never happen). So I have come with the same conclusion for such a light round.

 

[w2fnt]

Don't be afraid to shoot Tula also. The Bi Metal copper over steel over lead bullet has some real good penetration characteristics.

 

[481]

Bingo! I might add that water is also a constant. If you do a test using water someone else can make a direct correlation to their own water tests. On the "backyard ballistic" test I've done I prefer wet pack. While water kind of represents ideal conditions the wetpack does plug up some HPs. Wetpack varies in preparation though so I only use the comparison of bullets shot into that same wetpack because other results might no be analagous due to differences in preparation of the wetpack.

jon,

Water is definitely about as "invariable" a test medium as we'll ever be able to avail ourselves of (without going to significant expense) and the reason why I use a Fackler box.

Kind of hard to screw up water, although I do know of a few who could.

Here is the MacPherson analysis of my latest test:

Hornady .45ACP 230 gr. XTP +P JHP (#9096) v. four layers of denim

Test Platform: HK USP45
Caliber: .45 ACP

Test Media: Water
Barrier: 4 layers of 8 ounce denim

Muzzle Velocity: 921.75 feet per second (est.)
Impact Velocity: 916.75 feet per second (F-1 Chronograph @ 21 feet)
Kinetic Energy @ impact = 581.832 Joules

Test Distance: 21 feet
Temperature: 70° F

Recovered Projectile Data:

Average Expanded Diameter: 0.595 inch
Retained Weight: 229.6 grains (99.83%)
Total Length: 0.495 inch

Predicted performance:

Cavitation Boundary (Vc) = 402.83 feet per second

Permanent Wound Cavity Mass (Mw) = 63.39 grams (2.24 ounces)

Penetration Depth (Xcm) = 46.43 cm (18.28 inches)









Hope you like it.