May 20, 2024
Bullet Breakdown The What, Why, and How of Selecting Self-Defense Rounds
Ever wondered how to pick the right ammunition for self-defense that won't let you down when it matters most? David and I have got you covered in our thorough dissection of self-defense ammunition considerations. We've sifted through the crucial details of an extensive Lucky Gunner study, shining a light on what the FBI ballistics gel testing really tells us about the bullets you might depend on. From the nitty-gritty of how full metal jackets differ from hollow points to the nuanced effects of grain weights, our chat is your ticket to a deeper understanding of ammunition performance.
When it comes to knowing your ammo, it's about more than just numbers – it's about trustworthiness and predictability. That's why we've delved into the gritty details of ballistics gel testing and what it means when bullets meet barriers. We'll lay out the top performers in popular calibers, like 9mm and .380 ACP, assessing their stopping power post-barrier and considering factors like consistent expansion and penetration. Our insights on rounds like Corbon's Powerball and Federal's HST aim to guide you through the maze of options, pinpointing ammunition that's as reliable in practice as it is on paper.
Lastly, David and I take it beyond the test results, offering tailored recommendations to align with your personal defense needs. Recognizing that not all firearms are created equal, we emphasize the importance of firing a few boxes through your own gun to guarantee compatibility and performance. Looking toward future discussions, we hint at expanding our horizons to include tactical considerations and the world of competitive shooting. And as we round off, we stress the importance of education and preparedness, sending out holiday wishes and the gentle reminder that our podcast is for enlightenment, aiming to arm you with knowledge for responsible self-defense choices.
https://www.luckygunner.com/labs/self-defense-ammo-ballistic-tests/
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00:04 - Self-Defense Ammunition Considerations
15:19 - Ballistic Gel Testing of Firearms
32:22 - Ammunition Performance and Recommendations
40:29 - Educational Self-Defense Ammo Selection
WEBVTT
00:00:04.868 --> 00:00:08.455
Hi, welcome to the Armed Guardian Podcast, season 2, episode 9.
00:00:08.455 --> 00:00:12.430
Today, david and I will be discussing self-defense ammunition.
00:00:12.430 --> 00:00:29.155
We'll be referencing an article from Lucky Gunner from 2019 that shows a lot of currently used self-defense ammos and how it relates to effectiveness in a FBI ballistics gel test.
00:00:29.155 --> 00:00:34.012
We'll go over some of these, tell you what we think is the best.
00:00:34.012 --> 00:00:45.729
It shows the photos of the bullets after they mushroom and also the penetration that the bullet does, and we'll talk more in the podcast about that.
00:00:45.729 --> 00:00:49.207
But sit back, enjoy and listen to today's podcast.
00:00:49.207 --> 00:00:58.548
Thank you, hi.
00:00:58.588 --> 00:01:00.210
Welcome to the arm guardian podcast.
00:01:00.210 --> 00:01:02.372
I'm your host, brian, here here with David today.
00:01:02.372 --> 00:01:03.393
How are you doing, david?
00:01:03.393 --> 00:01:06.135
Doing pretty good, mr Brian, good deal, good deal.
00:01:06.135 --> 00:01:19.769
So we've got this little podcast today that we wanted to go over with calling it Ammunition Considerations for Self-Defense, and there's a lot of different ammunitions out there.
00:01:19.769 --> 00:01:43.959
There are some newer from the report that we're going to be referencing from, but it's still a lot of what's currently out there on the market and some of the ballistics testing how they come about, the numbers and what seems to be, from the tests that they've ran, what seems to be the most effective for self-defense.
00:01:43.959 --> 00:01:54.409
So a lot of this is referenced from an article We'll have the link in the show notes from Lucky Gunner, and it's a self-defense handgun caliber.
00:01:54.409 --> 00:02:00.084
It's called the Handgun Self-Defense Ammunition Ballistics Test.
00:02:00.084 --> 00:02:01.587
So what are some of the things we're going to discuss there, david?
00:02:01.587 --> 00:02:04.573
The computer handgun self-defense ammunition ballistics test.
00:02:04.573 --> 00:02:09.669
So, um, what are some of the things we're going to discuss there, david?
00:02:10.300 --> 00:02:23.014
So we're going to be discussing definitions, uh, for basic understanding of bullets such as full metal jacket, all the points um, self-defense ammo, specialty ammo.
00:02:23.014 --> 00:02:24.622
Some of these are interchangeable, but what?
00:02:24.622 --> 00:02:25.066
What exactly?
00:02:25.066 --> 00:02:26.718
These are interchangeable, but what exactly do these mean?
00:02:26.718 --> 00:02:40.009
We're going to discuss the test procedures as far as how this article, the procedures that were used, fbi, the ballistic gels, the penetration standards, that stuff.
00:02:40.009 --> 00:02:49.312
Then we're going to discuss some caliber-specific stuff for the 9mm, the 40S and W, the .380 ACP and then the 45 ACP.
00:02:50.433 --> 00:03:01.860
Okay, and when we discuss the specific calibers, we'll give the top two rounds that tested the best in the gelatin and what those were.
00:03:01.860 --> 00:03:11.909
And again, just keep in mind this was an article from a few years ago, back in 2015, and there's been other ammunition that has come out.
00:03:11.909 --> 00:03:20.389
But, like I said, the article references a lot of popular ammunition that's still out there being used for self-defense purposes.
00:03:20.389 --> 00:03:26.973
So it's still a good, valid summary of everything that's going to be used and is out there.
00:03:26.973 --> 00:03:45.039
But what this Lucky Gunner article did is tested over 100 self-defense handgun rounds from various calibers and we're just picking on the select couple that we announced here because they're the most prevalent.
00:03:45.260 --> 00:03:48.591
There's other self-defense rounds out there that people can use.
00:03:48.591 --> 00:03:57.114
They even make them for .22s, .327, and different calibers like that.
00:03:57.114 --> 00:04:03.574
But today's world, most of us use semi-autos for our self-defense handguns.
00:04:03.574 --> 00:04:08.451
A few use the .38, special uh three, 57.
00:04:08.451 --> 00:04:17.872
There is a separate article uh on lucky gunner, if you wish to look into that, if you carry a revolver or uh around like that.
00:04:17.872 --> 00:04:20.824
So, but, um, what do we?
00:04:20.824 --> 00:04:30.007
We've got, uh, some of the definitions for the definitions for the main handgun that are out there Full metal jacket, what is that?
00:04:30.048 --> 00:04:30.329
David.
00:04:30.329 --> 00:04:35.192
So full metal jacket is basically a bullet that's jacketed with copper.
00:04:35.192 --> 00:04:41.891
Most of the time they don't have, or I've never seen any actually with a hollow point or anything like that.
00:04:41.891 --> 00:04:45.309
They're designed mainly for target practice time at the range.
00:04:45.309 --> 00:05:03.646
Most of the time they're cheaper than the self-defense rounds, hollow points, rounds such as that Right, and you know, or even I guess I don't know, about the wad cutters, but most of the time they're cheaper.
00:05:03.913 --> 00:05:06.742
Yeah, I don't know about the water cutters, but most of the time they're cheaper.
00:05:06.742 --> 00:05:17.196
Yeah, so a lead-encased bullet, and it's the cheapest way for training ammunition that's out there without spending a bunch of money.
00:05:17.196 --> 00:05:25.747
Which is good to use some of your self-defense ammo just to see how it performs or make sure it performs in your handgun, but for overall training, the full metal jacket is what you want.
00:05:25.747 --> 00:05:26.334
To use ammo just to see how it performs or make sure it performs in your, your handgun.
00:05:26.334 --> 00:05:29.750
But, uh, for training, overall training, the full metal jacket is what you you want to use.
00:05:29.750 --> 00:05:32.901
And there's typically different grain weights.
00:05:32.901 --> 00:05:34.966
Uh, the grains are.
00:05:34.966 --> 00:05:47.413
There's um is the the weight of the bullet, instead of some people think it's the propellant that's in the casing, but it's actually the lead weight of the bullet.
00:05:47.413 --> 00:05:56.055
So the heavier the bullet, like four or nine millimeter, you got 115 grain, 124 and 142.
00:05:56.055 --> 00:06:00.831
So the 142 is a heavier bullet than the 115.
00:06:01.019 --> 00:06:01.461
I believe it's.
00:06:01.461 --> 00:06:03.548
I don't know if they have any 142, but they may.
00:06:03.548 --> 00:06:05.473
But I know I think it's 147.
00:06:05.740 --> 00:06:06.444
That I actually see a lot.
00:06:06.444 --> 00:06:07.672
There may be some 142s.
00:06:07.672 --> 00:06:11.444
I might be thinking of the 147.
00:06:11.444 --> 00:06:17.136
I know that there's the 115, the 124, and I knew that there's a 140.
00:06:17.661 --> 00:06:19.947
Most popular in the heaviest caliber.
00:06:19.947 --> 00:06:23.016
Now there may be some 142s.
00:06:23.156 --> 00:06:24.499
There may be some 142s.
00:06:24.499 --> 00:06:32.374
Yeah, I typically use the 124, the 115 in my nine uh, haven't haven't encountered any of the, the heavier bullet yes, yeah, I don't use the heavier bullets either.
00:06:32.434 --> 00:06:51.086
Most of the time I use either the 124s, the 115s for target practice, and then I actually right now I'm using the uh 135 grain critical duty okay for my self-defense ammo, but I may be changing that right soon because it's getting close to time to change right.
00:06:51.107 --> 00:06:59.966
Yeah, so, so, uh, then we got, uh, hollow points, which is, uh, the basic self-defense round.
00:06:59.966 --> 00:07:32.245
It's a lead-jacketed bullet that has an actual hollow point inside it and what that hollow point does is it allows the bullet, as it penetrates, to what we call mushroom or expand and that's what causes the critical injury to stop your threat, injury to stop your threat and it inflicts the most trauma to the attacker.
00:07:32.245 --> 00:07:32.887
To be able to stop the threat.
00:07:32.887 --> 00:08:02.833
You wouldn't want to use a full metal jacket in self-defense unless that was all that you had because the full metal jacket tends to over penetrate or go through the object that you're shooting as far as if it's flesh where hollow point will expand and slow down and typically doesn't leave the body unless it's a all flesh wound where it doesn't actually penetrate muscle or other internal organs.
00:08:02.833 --> 00:08:04.865
So that's your typical.
00:08:08.319 --> 00:08:18.889
There's different styles of the hollow point and one thing on the hollow points that me is you know you'll see some, such as the I know the winchester pdx one because I've used them in the past and and actually still have some.
00:08:18.889 --> 00:08:23.211
So they have the open hollow point right, unless it's changed.
00:08:23.211 --> 00:08:28.548
And then you also have like the hornady, like the critical duty that I have, and a lot of the hornady bullets.
00:08:28.548 --> 00:08:33.385
They actually have like a little neoprene thing in the, in the inside the.
00:08:33.385 --> 00:08:35.490
Um, well, you've got some right here.
00:08:35.509 --> 00:08:45.254
So, yeah, got the um that one is a federal um, so there is some differences in the.
00:08:45.620 --> 00:08:47.005
You want to hold them up to the camera there.
00:08:47.961 --> 00:08:52.364
If you're online and watching this online, then you'll be able to see.
00:08:52.364 --> 00:08:57.933
Maybe it's got the rubber tip in it.
00:08:57.933 --> 00:09:09.395
That helps, as it goes in the neoprene center, helps keep the hollow point from clogging and allows for maximum penetration.
00:09:09.395 --> 00:09:30.802
If you go through, whenever we talk about the different ballistics, you'll actually see the actual fired bullet that they shot, bullet that they shot and um and uh they um will show you.
00:09:30.802 --> 00:09:31.244
You know some of them.
00:09:31.244 --> 00:09:35.514
There's some where the hollow point, the neoprene, didn't fall out and maybe the expansion wasn't all that great.
00:09:35.514 --> 00:09:42.261
But you'll be able to see actually how each bullet bared in their their tests that they recovered from the gel.
00:09:42.261 --> 00:10:09.793
Then you've got got a standard hollow point with this round and sorry, I can't get it a little bit clearer with our virtual background, but it's an actual hollow point that doesn't have anything in the center of it and that's a typical self-defense round is a plain, open-ended hollow point bullet.
00:10:09.793 --> 00:10:14.807
So what else we got there, david?
00:10:15.388 --> 00:10:23.546
um, we also have, you know, uh, some people refer to self-defense round, that's basically the hollow points.
00:10:23.546 --> 00:10:34.431
Um, there are some specialty rounds out there, I guess, maybe for certain specialties, um, for law enforcement, you want to confound on that a little bit?
00:10:34.451 --> 00:10:36.354
Well, there are different rounds.
00:10:36.354 --> 00:10:45.534
People are making self-defense rounds and a lot of them may not be fully tested or vetted as they should.
00:10:45.534 --> 00:11:05.254
You know, somebody's got a round that they've manufactured or patented and make a claim that it will do XYZ, but there's, they've done their own independent tests but there's not a lot of real world tests to actually say if it's good or not.
00:11:05.254 --> 00:11:13.831
I've heard of some that claim to be real good and whenever they've actually been used in a self-defense incident did not fare all that well.
00:11:13.831 --> 00:11:16.758
Incident did not fare all that well.
00:11:16.758 --> 00:11:38.562
So just be wary of the rounds newer rounds that they may not be vetted to perform as the person or the company states that they would just because they don't have any reporting data typically on those newer rounds and you're taking a chance and I I wouldn't want to take a chance on something that I don't trust.
00:11:38.883 --> 00:11:58.868
uh, and these, some of these specialty self-defense rounds now, and another thing I would like to mention, and, um, you also have rounds out there, I know for the nine millimeter and the 45, I don't think the 38080 or the .40 make them, but they're called plus P rounds or plus P plus.
00:11:58.868 --> 00:12:02.206
Those have added pressures.
00:12:02.206 --> 00:12:07.773
They actually have more velocity, and more velocity equals to greater energy, right?
00:12:07.773 --> 00:12:15.948
But with that being said, you need to make sure that your gun is rated for the plus P or the plus P plus.
00:12:15.948 --> 00:12:21.222
A lot of the newer guns are, but if you have an older nine millimeter it may not be.
00:12:21.222 --> 00:12:29.226
Um, so make sure, because you could mess up your barrel, your gun, or it could be potentially be dangerous.
00:12:29.388 --> 00:12:32.666
So um that make the plus P the plus B plus.
00:12:32.666 --> 00:12:35.830
They're good, but just make sure your gun can handle that Right.
00:12:44.109 --> 00:12:46.659
So check with the manufacturer, maybe in your instruction booklet that came with your firearm.
00:12:46.659 --> 00:12:59.182
So what we've got.
00:12:59.182 --> 00:13:03.154
Whenever we talk about self-defense ammo with a handgun, you want to quickly and definitively stop a determined attacker, and that's only done by two if two conditions are met.
00:13:03.154 --> 00:13:03.956
That's the adequate shot placement.
00:13:03.956 --> 00:13:12.280
They got to hit that vital area that we should be training for, typically that eight inch circles, high center mass chest area.
00:13:12.280 --> 00:13:18.653
Uh, that's where you've got going to inflict the most damage to the attacker.
00:13:18.753 --> 00:13:42.190
To stop the threat you may have to do a groin or headshot, uh, if that doesn't work, uh, whether they're wearing armor or jacked up on something that no, like pcp, where they don't feel any pain and they keep going because their body's telling them to go, but then also something that has adequate penetration.
00:13:42.190 --> 00:13:49.821
The bullets got to have the ability to penetrate what is between the muzzle and those vital organs to disrupt their function.
00:13:49.821 --> 00:14:04.687
So, um, no, a lot of civilians, we wear our jackets, our polos, t-shirts, things like that, and this is something that the lucky gunner throws in with their tests that they do.
00:14:04.687 --> 00:14:10.635
That comes from the FBI standard that we'll talk about here in just a moment.
00:14:10.635 --> 00:14:16.969
So you want to talk a little bit about ordnance or ballistics gel.
00:14:17.990 --> 00:14:27.134
Yes, so one of the testings they use to test bullets is ballistics gel.
00:14:27.134 --> 00:14:32.731
Basically it's gelatin to simulate human flesh.
00:14:32.731 --> 00:14:47.121
Of course that kind of makes sense because you know it's it's not exact, but it's the closest we can get, because you know we can't test, test people I'm gonna shoot you with this people.
00:14:47.182 --> 00:14:49.186
So this is one of the things where it doesn't work that way.
00:14:49.186 --> 00:15:02.671
So, um, this gives us the best understanding of how ballistics work right and in a, in a simulated form, it gives us a baseline, right, yeah, to be able to see that yeah, so that's.
00:15:02.871 --> 00:15:05.582
It's uh ballistics ordinance gel.
00:15:05.582 --> 00:15:06.705
It just helps.
00:15:06.705 --> 00:15:17.793
It's the closest thing to conformity of our human flesh and stuff that we have and it's a good indicator for how a bullet is going to react.
00:15:17.793 --> 00:15:38.211
Part of this test that they do they do the FBI standard with the ballistics gel and they shot this from a 10-foot distance and they were looking for penetration according to the FBI standard of 12 to 18 inches.
00:15:38.211 --> 00:15:54.315
They wanted to know how well the bullets expand when they entered the barrier of a heavy clothing item before entering the jail and, whenever feasible, they tried to duplicate the testing protocol reportedly used by the FBI.
00:15:54.315 --> 00:16:00.567
But the first priority was consistency and using the same procedure for every load that they tested.
00:16:00.567 --> 00:16:11.145
So what the lucky gunner did is they fired five rounds all from the same uh caliber weapon in their article.
00:16:11.888 --> 00:16:20.807
Uh, that um was shot into ballistics jail and it was also through a barrier of clothing, five layers of clothing.
00:16:20.807 --> 00:16:32.389
They took into a little bit of the distance, since 10 feet is the typical distance that we encounter an attack.
00:16:32.389 --> 00:16:39.275
Typically we say the three yards, three seconds, three shots.
00:16:39.275 --> 00:16:42.984
So that's something that they do.
00:16:42.984 --> 00:17:05.709
Then they used heavy barrier clothing, they used five layers and what they did use was a cotton t-shirt material, a cotton shirt material um, a fleece jacket and regular cotton denim like you would wear with jeans or a denim jacket.
00:17:05.709 --> 00:17:49.643
Uh, so they were four layers that were stacked on top of each other and then shot through the, the gel, Um, um again, they did five shots and they did these from, like the various uh guns we're going to talk about, like david said, the 380, the 9, the 40 and the 45, which are your more prevalent calibers for self-defense, and got anything else you wanted to add on that, david um, no, that's you pretty much covered, covered, all of that okay, um, on this uh link that's going to be.
00:17:49.702 --> 00:17:59.634
In there you'll actually see some videos of the shots, uh as they were shot, and um see how the bullet actually penetrated.
00:18:00.214 --> 00:18:07.484
So um got some good information but one thing was sorry, but one thing I did I do do want to add.
00:18:07.484 --> 00:18:18.643
Um, talking about penetration, uh, you know, I think the 12 to 18 inches is a good standard, because of course, you won't adequate penetration, but talking, you want adequate penetration, but talking about the adequate penetration.
00:18:18.643 --> 00:18:43.480
With that being said, you don't want overpenetration, such as the reason why we don't really use hollow points unless we have to in our self-defense guns, because if the bullet goes through and still has velocity and energy, then it could impact somebody or something else that we don't want to right, don't want to damage or hurt, right yeah, so that's, that's the typical.
00:18:43.640 --> 00:18:57.692
Anything over 18 inches would be considered uh over penetration and something that's less than 12 would be something that would not sufficiently hit a vital organ whenever shot um.
00:18:57.692 --> 00:19:02.464
And our first one we'll go into is the 380 acp uh.
00:19:02.464 --> 00:19:15.791
They used uh see a good number of rounds here and the best one that performed adequately well.
00:19:15.791 --> 00:19:17.275
Well, there's three of them.
00:19:17.275 --> 00:19:27.950
I guess I'll go ahead and read over the three that they showed was the best shots.
00:19:27.950 --> 00:19:32.847
One was a Corbon 70 grain Powerball.
00:19:32.847 --> 00:19:37.489
All of those shots were within the 12 to 18 inches.
00:19:37.489 --> 00:19:41.210
It was an average of 14.9 inches.
00:19:42.681 --> 00:19:58.029
Like I said, in the link you can go see the actual expansion of each of the bullets Got the muzzle velocity and the five-shot average, the uh diameter of the bullet.
00:19:58.029 --> 00:20:07.233
The next one would be the hornady 90 grain xtp round was a good, sufficient round.
00:20:07.233 --> 00:20:15.248
Looks like all the rounds were in that 12 to 18 inches and um performed adequately.
00:20:15.248 --> 00:20:22.135
You've got um the remington 88 grain htp.
00:20:22.135 --> 00:20:28.528
That um was on the further end, almost over the 18 inches.
00:20:28.528 --> 00:20:32.237
It was at um 16.8 but it uh.
00:20:32.237 --> 00:20:35.443
All of the five shots were consistent uh.
00:20:35.443 --> 00:20:38.502
Something you'll see in some of these is the shots are.
00:20:38.502 --> 00:20:42.656
There's a great variance in the performance of them.
00:20:42.656 --> 00:20:59.595
You got some where all five shots are very similar and you've got some where the five shots are either over penetrated, under penetrated or didn't hit the mark, and I think that's a really good thing to look at is consistency Right.
00:21:00.221 --> 00:21:10.748
To me, that's probably one of the most important things, Right, Because I know you know in general what that bullet's going to do every time I fire it, Right.
00:21:12.585 --> 00:21:33.246
And you can see on some of these, like I said, they've got pictures of the bullets after they were extracted them from the gel and you can see some of the issues that some of the bullets may have had where they didn't expand, that cause the over penetration, um things like that, and it's just um, that would be our, our recommendation.
00:21:33.246 --> 00:22:12.343
Uh, for the three best rounds that they that they showed on here, that Hornady 90-grain XTP, the Corbin 70-grain Powerball and then the Remington 88 grain HTP For the .380 caliber, that's the best top three rounds in our opinion that showed the most consistency and the best expansion from a compact .380 handgun.
00:22:12.343 --> 00:22:14.868
Do you have anything else on the .380?
00:22:14.888 --> 00:22:16.088
I think that covers the .380 pretty good.
00:22:16.088 --> 00:22:16.788
Okay, look at else on the 380?
00:22:16.726 --> 00:22:17.321
I think that covers the 380 pretty good Okay.
00:22:17.740 --> 00:22:42.374
Look at the 9mm now, yeah, we'll go to the 9mm, and there are several different things to look at as far as there was a large number of self-defense rounds that they used, and what we need to be looking for is the consistency.
00:22:42.374 --> 00:23:03.911
So, surprisingly, there are some that I've seen that were lacking in self-defense, and then there are some that over-penetrated in self-defense and then there are some that over penetrated For a nine millimeter Barnes 115 grain Tacx, xpd plus P.
00:23:03.911 --> 00:23:11.387
It was an average of 13.4 inches, but everything was fairly consistent.
00:23:11.387 --> 00:23:16.750
You also had the Corbon 115 jacketed hollow point plus P.
00:23:16.750 --> 00:23:18.353
That performed real.
00:23:18.413 --> 00:23:28.473
Similarly, another one of the ones that I like with the nine is the Federal 124 grain HST.
00:23:28.473 --> 00:23:41.007
It was an average of 18.3, but from the results that I saw, it was the most consistent in expansion compared to some of the other rounds that they had.
00:23:41.007 --> 00:23:52.125
And you got the mag tech 115 grain.
00:23:52.125 --> 00:23:58.471
Guardian gold plus p was pretty consistent at 15.2.
00:23:58.471 --> 00:24:16.249
Um, yes, yeah, the P&W Arms 115 grain TACOPS, uh, schp 13.8.
00:24:16.249 --> 00:24:19.480
It was fairly consistent with each of the five rounds.
00:24:19.480 --> 00:24:29.509
And then we had this one, the Spear 115 grain gold dot.
00:24:29.509 --> 00:24:38.292
The Spear gold dot 115 grain was pretty consistent 16.4 average for the shots.
00:24:38.292 --> 00:24:43.151
Everything was within the green, or within that 12 to 15.
00:24:43.531 --> 00:24:45.163
I'm sorry but also you have.
00:24:45.163 --> 00:24:56.645
If you go to the website Lucky Gunner, you can see the mushroom rooming on the bullets that they recovered and there's a pretty consistent mushroom pattern.
00:24:56.645 --> 00:24:59.224
Yeah For the spears.
00:25:01.602 --> 00:25:27.605
So those, the spear, the federal HST and and I would say the Barnes or Corbin 115 would be the top rounds for the 9mm for self-defense and, like I said, they do some testing with some of the others, uh, like with Hydra shock from federal.
00:25:27.605 --> 00:25:32.028
I use those when I was in law enforcement but those went over.
00:25:32.028 --> 00:25:36.525
Uh, they were over the 18 inches and average.
00:25:36.525 --> 00:25:46.152
Uh surprised me a little bit about the inconsistency and looking at some of the mushrooming, some of them just didn't mushroom out like they should have.
00:25:46.152 --> 00:25:53.859
Inconsistency and looking at some of the mushrooming, some of them just didn't mushroom out like they should have.
00:25:57.109 --> 00:25:59.460
The HST was pretty consistent with Federal.
00:25:59.460 --> 00:26:15.480
They even had a Hornady critical duty or critical defense was just barely in the 13 inch range, um, which kind of surprised me uh whenever I looked at it, because we think of the critical duty or the critical defense as a pretty good round.
00:26:15.480 --> 00:26:30.236
But even with the critical duty they went past that 18 inch barrier and there was some differences in the um, the consistency of the rounds.
00:26:30.236 --> 00:26:37.251
So just something to kind of look at for the nine millimeter, uh, realm of ammo.
00:26:37.251 --> 00:26:40.022
Anything else on the nine.
00:26:40.063 --> 00:26:45.442
um, yeah, the one other thing I was going to add is, once again, I know some of the rounds we talked about here were plus p.
00:26:45.442 --> 00:26:56.593
So just make sure, if you are looking at the plus piece or the plus P pluses, that you check to make sure your firearm can take the extra pressure Right.
00:26:56.593 --> 00:27:01.586
So check, check with your manufacturers, check with your and your instruction manual.
00:27:01.768 --> 00:27:06.290
Okay, and then we go to the 40 Smithith and weston.
00:27:06.290 --> 00:27:09.059
This was um a little.
00:27:09.059 --> 00:27:15.811
We had a few that were over penetrated um like um.
00:27:15.811 --> 00:27:27.420
The most consistent one that over penetrated was the hornady 155 xtp custom which was 22 and a which was 22.4 inches.
00:27:27.420 --> 00:27:36.307
As far as the penetration, you had the federal 180 grain Hydra shock for the 40 Smith Wesson.
00:27:36.307 --> 00:27:43.288
That was pretty consistent both in expansion and consistency with penetration.
00:27:44.132 --> 00:27:47.368
The Hornady 165 grain critical defense.
00:27:47.368 --> 00:27:56.555
It did really nicely as far as consistency in the 12 to 18 inch standard.
00:27:56.555 --> 00:28:17.194
It averaged the five shots were 16.6 inches and the muzzle velocity actually or 40 is actually pretty decent, so it's uh see, we've got, uh, the Remington 165 grain golden saber.
00:28:18.361 --> 00:28:23.125
It was the average of 19, but it had one that was extremely over penetrated.
00:28:23.125 --> 00:28:41.853
It had one that was extremely over-penetrated and I don't know if that's because of the gel Maybe it hit the edge of the gel or something but the other four rounds were well within that distance and the mushrooming appears pretty consistent.
00:28:43.020 --> 00:28:56.230
When you get to the 180-grain Golden Sabre, you've got a very consistent, um, very consistent right and and if you look at the mushroom once again if you go to the website we would encourage you to do that look at these mushrooms.
00:28:56.250 --> 00:29:22.384
There's a consistent mushroom right the 180 grain golden saber and then we got the 100ington 180 green ultimate defense, which was pretty consistent with a 15.5 inch penetration and it seems to be that the faster heavier the bullet is, the better the expansion is.
00:29:22.384 --> 00:29:29.003
On a lot of these rounds that I've noticed, uh, looking at them, the there's more energy.
00:29:29.003 --> 00:29:31.170
Um, the heavier the bullet.
00:29:31.170 --> 00:29:41.044
Uh, the faster the bullet goes, the better it mushrooms out and and penetrates and does the intended uh damage that it does.
00:29:41.044 --> 00:29:45.944
Um, got the spear gold dot 180 grain.
00:29:45.964 --> 00:29:54.971
That did, did well well, yeah, and then if you look at the 165 grain um, they all over penetrated yeah.
00:29:54.971 --> 00:30:04.185
So yeah, I think you're right, the heavier bullets seem to do a little bit better, maybe as a general rule.
00:30:04.185 --> 00:30:18.077
Although the Winchester 165 grain PDX one we look here, it had a consistent mushroom um, consistent depth of 14.6 inches and you know pretty good muzzle velocity.
00:30:18.077 --> 00:30:23.480
So some of the 165 grains actually do pretty decent, or smaller bullets for the 40.
00:30:24.826 --> 00:30:26.231
pretty decent, or smaller bullets for the 40.
00:30:26.231 --> 00:30:42.652
So again, uh, we're doing this, uh, this podcast, uh, to kind of educate you to a little bit about what the tests are, the expansion, what some of the what happens, and to kind of help you better pick your self-defense ammo.
00:30:42.652 --> 00:31:05.608
Um, and I'm not going down on negatively on any of the others that didn't meet our what we thought were the best rounds for self-defense, and again, this is an older article, but I would just encourage you to do some investigating on your rounds before you definitely pick.
00:31:05.608 --> 00:31:17.702
This is my go-to round, this is what I'm going to carry and keep in my gun, because things do evolve, the rounds do get better over the years.
00:31:17.702 --> 00:31:23.749
The propellant has become better manufactured.
00:31:23.749 --> 00:31:34.151
The bullets may have had maybe a tweak in their design that causes the expansion to be a little bit better keeping the same name.
00:31:34.151 --> 00:31:39.833
So just do some investigating whenever you decide.
00:31:39.833 --> 00:31:43.431
Last one we're going to talk about is the 45.
00:31:44.301 --> 00:31:50.951
Want to give your recommendations there uh yeah, as we look down here at the 45 we see let's.
00:31:50.951 --> 00:31:58.412
So the magtech 230 grain bond did really well um, it was very consistent.
00:31:58.412 --> 00:32:12.080
Five shot average shot depth of 15.3 inches um the golden saber, the 185 grain golden saber plus p was very consistent at 15.5 inches.
00:32:12.080 --> 00:32:28.616
The mushroom um very consistent, uh hst the 230 grain h yeah the federal 230 grain HST five shot depth of 14 inches.
00:32:29.240 --> 00:32:31.647
They were very consistent to be in the 12 to 18 inches.
00:32:31.647 --> 00:32:35.749
All of them were in that, once again, very consistent mushroom pattern.
00:32:37.080 --> 00:32:38.547
That one we didn't talk about.
00:32:38.547 --> 00:32:40.945
It was a little off, but everything was within that 18.
00:32:40.965 --> 00:32:42.230
Yeah, within that 18.
00:32:42.230 --> 00:32:43.112
We're pretty close to it.
00:32:43.112 --> 00:32:44.747
The average was 16.3 inches.
00:32:44.747 --> 00:32:45.280
The Remington.
00:32:45.280 --> 00:32:48.509
This is the remington 230 grain golden saber.
00:32:48.509 --> 00:32:50.313
It did really nicely.
00:32:50.313 --> 00:32:56.527
That's a really slow round, chugging along at 724 yeah, foot per second it was.
00:32:57.127 --> 00:33:04.970
It was not a lot of penetration is more than that 12 inch requirement, but um, it was consistent.
00:33:04.970 --> 00:33:09.984
So that's something that Spear Gold.
00:33:10.005 --> 00:33:15.027
Dot did really well 230 grain did well.
00:33:15.119 --> 00:33:22.279
The 185 did fairly well, but not as consistent as the 230.
00:33:22.640 --> 00:33:25.060
And the Plus T did actually really good too.
00:33:25.060 --> 00:33:26.248
So the Spear did did actually really good too.
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