Unexpanded Hollow Point Penetration

[LookAtYou]

Are there any gel tests out there that show how deep an unexpanded 9mm Hollow Point will go? Not like the "partially clogged" hollow points in denim tests, but either fully unexpanded (no expansion at all) or bare minimum expansion. I feel this would accurately depict what HP's might do once encountering heavy bone, like going through an arm bone first, then striking ribs.

I frequently see statements like, "A failed HP acts like FMJ at best, but does it really penetrate as much? I would think that open cavity still causes some drag effect. Thanks!

 

[Hartkopf]

Look at the Lucky Gunner tests. There is a 40 S&W round that didn’t expand and it went something like 30”. I think it was a Golden Saber. I’m sure there are 9mm rounds that didn’t expand. I don’t think this will give you any indication of what happens when a bullet hits a bone though.

 

[Hartkopf]

 

[herrwalther]

Occasionally on gel tests you will see a HP that failed to expand. The totally unexpanded rounds are getting rarer as ammo gets better. Unexpanded HP rounds are something of a wild card, they are very difficult or impossible to intentionally setup. Gel for ballistic testing is expensive. So for a low budget operation like a YouTube tester, they would need multiple backup blocks of gel in the hope of catching that unexpanded HP just to see how far it went. This is where the statement comes from that an unexpanded HP acts like FMJ, they just keep on going until they hit something and stop or drop into the ground from gravity.