I'm doing another round of bullet testing, this time using ballistic gel. I didn't plan on doing a whole lot of testing this time, but I figure that if I have the gel I may as well have fun. This time I'm also taking videos of all of the impacts.
The first round of testing was while working with a prototype 10mm bullet I asked the guys at Hammer Bullets to design for me. I did a very in-depth round of testing with these comparing them to a few other common bullets used in high performance 10mm ammunition. This is the testing from the Gen 1 Jack Hammer bullet in 10mm. This testing was before I started taking videos of the impacts.
Gen 1 Jack Hammer compared to a 180gr XTP
For load data, I ran the numbers through Quickload using a bullet modeled after the 180gr XTP with a reduced bearing surface and reduced weight. I took that data and compared it to other established data for 155gr bullets and the 155gr Barnes Tac XP. Since I have a somewhat limited number of the Hammers to play with, load development was very abbreviated. My goal was to match the velocities of high performance, lead free, ammo offered by Buffalo Bore, Double Tap, and Underwood Ammo. I was able to do that in my guns, but I won't make any claims as to whether or not these loads are safe in any other gun. I shot these loads first in a GP-100 revolver to check for safety, then tested them in a Kimber Camp Guard 1911. The 1911 has been modified with a 22# variable weight recoil spring, a 28# hammer spring, and a flat bottom firing pin stop. These modifications make a significant difference in how a 1911 performs and handles with high power loads.
Here are the test guns.
Here are the loads I tested:
180gr Hornady XTP
- 1245fps from the 4.2" GP-100
- 1294fps from the 5" 1911
This has been a standard load I've shot out of 7 different 10mm handguns over the years.
220gr TC flat point
- 1120fps from the 4.2" GP-100
- 1162fps from the 5" 1911
This load duplicates the Buffalo Bore Outdoorsman load and uses the same bullet used by Buffalo Bore and cast by RimRock bullets.
200gr WFL-pb coated with Hi-tek coating
- 1265fps from the 4.2" GP-100
- 1290fps from the 5" 1911
This bullet is cast by Montana Bullet Works using the NOE 403-198-WFN PB-Y1 bullet mold. This is has been my gold standard heavy bullet in all of my 10mm pistols for years.
152gr Claw Hammer
- 1360fps from the 4.2" GP-100
- 1405fps from the 5" 1911
I tested this bullet with 2 different powders, both gave similar velocities but one powder showed significantly better accuracy. This load was shot for accuracy and function out of the Kimber 1911 at 50 yards and the results were a 4.5" group, well within what I expect from this gun when fired at that range. Functioning was 100% with a loaded OAL of 1.240". A longer OAL (1.250") resulted in some failure to feeds.
Bullet performance was tested on two separate trips. The first trip was to get a baseline of performance and compare how the 4 different bullets perform in ballistics gel. All shots were from 15 yards into 20% ballistic gel from Clear Ballistics. Handguns don't provide quite the same dramatic wound cavities in ballistics gel that rifles do, and even less so when using 20% gel. I was more interested in overall penetration depth and how straight the bullet travels.
This is a top down view of the total penetration of the 4 bullets relative to each other.
- 180gr XTP = 14", straight line
- 220gr fp = 20", bullet curved up and turned backwards
- 152gr Claw Hammer = 30", straight line
- 200gr wfn = 32", straight line
This is a total of 6 bullets, 3 of the 152gr Claw Hammers and 3 of the 200gr WFN bullets. The CH are the two at the far left and bottom on the right. The rest are the 200gr WFN bullets. I can't give a good reason why, but the first shot from both the CH and the WFN penetrated farther than the follow 2 shots of each bullet. Penetration was very consistent with both bullets traveling in a straight line and stopping at roughly 30" of penetration.
It's difficult to see in the picture, but these are the tracks of all 4 bullets. The top track is actually two, the one with the largest wound cavity is the 180gr XTP. Behind that is the 200gr WFN. The middle track is from the 220gr load. You can see that it starts to curve up about roughly the 6" mark. The bottom track is from the Claw Hammer. I fired 3 of each bullet into the gel and all of them showed consistent performance. All 3 of the 220gr bullets curved up, with 2 of them actually exiting the gel block.
The next trip out was the first "proof of concept" trial of my new idea for an accurate representation of bullet performance on game. This test consists of a layer of heavy apron leather, 2" of 20% gel, the shoulder blade of an average sized (175#) Washington black bear, then 20% gel. This was the first test of this setup, future blocks will have the bone inserted into the gel before it cools, making the bone a more natural part of the gel.
I fired one of each of the bullets into the gel/bone and attempted to record it in slow motion. I'll work on getting the videos edited and uploaded later, but here are the best still shots I could get from the videos. I wasn't able to get a good picture of the 200gr WFN wound cavity.
152 Claw Hammer
220gr fp. Note that the bullet is curving upwards after roughly 6" of penetration.
180gr XTP
The most significant wound cavity was caused by the 180gr XTP, which was expected since it's the only expanding bullet I tested. I was disappointed to see that the 220gr bullet curved up, again. The wound cavity of the 220gr bullet was significant though. The Claw Hammer made a larger temporary cavity than the still picture shows; it's difficult to get good images when I'm only filming at 240 frames/sec though.
These are where the bullets stopped after penetrating the leather, bone, and gel mixture. The top bullet is the 200gr WFN, next is the 152 CH, then the 220gr FP (flipped backwards), then the 180gr XTP (flipped backwards). It's worth noting that the 180 XTP penetrated more on this round than without the bone. I attribute that to the limited expansion after the bullet hit the bone. The bullets' penetration relative to each other stayed the same when comparing the gel with and without the bone.
Here are recovered bullets compared to unfired samples.
