very unscientific expansion test

[Byron]

Recently I was able to test expansion on 3 9MM factory rounds: 124 grain Gold Dot +P HP,147 grain HP Winshester white Box and the UMC Remington 115 grain HP. My pistol is a Glock 26 Two shots of each were fired. I was using a 55 gallon drum full of water and shooting straight down at 3 feet.The Gold Dot expnded to an avg of 71 caliber and 1/2 grain of weight loss;the Winchester 147 grain expaned to about 64 cailber and 1/2 grain of weight loss. The Remington UMC exapanded to 62 caliber and no weight loss.
I shot aRuger 32 mag revlver with a handloaded Hornady 85 grain XTP. Expansion was to 43 caliber and 7 grains of weight loss. Byron

 

[RyanM]

Actually, that's pretty much the best way to test expansion if you don't have the money for gelatin testing. It's much, much more consistent and repeatable than wet paper and things. Then you can use the recovered diameter plus MacPherson's equations (or graphs) to figure out the penetration depths. Using the equations:

Speer: 9.25", or perhaps an inch or two more due to the "starfish" shape.
Winchester: 11.25"
Remington: 10.5"
Hornady depends on velocity
800 fps: 11.1"
1000 fps: 12.5"
1200 fps: 13.7"

 

[Byron]

Ryan, thanks for the info. Where can I get the MacPherson's scale as I have more calibers to test.My estimate on the 32 mag is about 1100+ fps. Byron