Obviously, the FBI gel block is made to the FBI ballistics gel standards, but it uses synthetic gelatin, so there’s no need to keep it chilled–and also it doesn’t smell, which is pretty cool. The Clear Ballistics synthetic gel has more elastic properties than organic gelatin, so the temporary wounding effects tend to appear more dramatic and aren’t a very good representation of the effects on living tissue. Update 7/11/2018: Test results for 11 different 10mm Auto loads are now live in a new post here! We also haven’t addressed accuracy or muzzle flash (which can be an issue in low light). That brings our total number of loads tested across all pistol calibers to 204 with more to come in the future!Update 8/8/2018: The 130 gr Federal HST +P load has now been added to our .38 Special results. The current practice of the FBI is to use the 10 foot test for handgun ammo, and that’s what we’ve followed here. However, even that test showed inconsistent penetration from shot to shot. For this reason, it is designated as the 9mm Luger by the Sporting Arms and Ammunition … A common belief about .22 Magnum is that when fired from a short barrel, it does not achieve enough velocity to perform noticeably better than .22 LR. In our tests, even with the small jump in barrel length between the S&W snubby and the Ruger Mark IV, there was significant improvement in bullet performance in the gel. This brings us to our first myth that bullet efficacy depends on the size of the bullet. If the bullet needs to reach the middle of the chest cavity where the organs are, wouldn’t we need a penetration depth less than half of that in most cases? Instead, we’ve used an asterisk on the chart to indicate the few loads that retained less than 85% of their original weight on average. From watching our high speed video footage, it’s clear these lines are the result of bullet “bounce back”. Only one load managed to land all five bullets past the 11-inch mark and that was the Hornady FTX Critical Defense. For rimfire calibers, we tested .22 LR and .22 Magnum (aka .22 WMR). The FBI uses this standard not because it’s common for people to actually wear that exact clothing, but because they are common clothing materials, and when combined they represent something close to a worst case scenario for a bullet. Steve and Alvin Clark were great hosts at Clarks brothers in Warrenton VA. Sportsmans Guide Tour Stop Warrenton VA Part 2 Go to My PATREON PAGE. These new calibers fall into three categories below. We have thrown in a few of our observations here and there, but we’re not out to make any definitive conclusions. If you’re looking to test handgun ammo, this is where you wanna go. Update 8/16/2018: Test results for nine .357 Sig loads are now live. After we recovered them from the gel blocks, the expanded bullets were measured with digital calipers. The first shot of every test was filmed with a high speed camera, and we took high resolution photos of the gelatin blocks after the first and fifth shots of each load. Expanding bullets lose velocity quickly and are more likely to stay inside the target, but a hollow point that fails to expand can maintain enough energy to exit the target and potentially harm bystanders. As expected, .380 ACP turned in the weakest overall performance of the four calibers we tested, but a few loads fared surprisingly well. After some velocity pre-testing, we decided to use these guns anyway because we were seeing a velocity increase of at least 100 fps with the Cheetah (with our gel test loads, the average increase ended up being 129 fps). So aside from the marketing materials put out by the ammo manufacturers, how are we supposed to know which bullets are the most effective? Bullets that expand or tumble will leave a bigger wound cavity than bullets that fail to expand. The Hornady Critical Defense had decent penetration and modest expansion. The CCI, Fiocchi, and Winchester loads we tested are all conventional .22 Magnum loads designed primarily to be used for small game hunting with rifle-length barrels. These variables can cause bullets to deflect, fragment, or otherwise behave in unpredictable ways. Many of the loads that did stay within the FBI 12-18″ range showed excellent expansion, sometimes nearly twice the original bullet diameter. We ran our tests with popular concealable handguns with barrel lengths we think are more representative of what the average citizen is actually carrying. In the photos of the gelatin blocks, you can see lines that appear to be a continuation of the wound channel that extends beyond the resting place of the bullet anywhere from 1/8″ to over 2″. We didn’t think there would be enough interest to justify including it in this batch of testing. Back in the late 1980s, the FBI began to use blocks of gelatin made from a solution of water and a powdered form of miscellaneous animal parts — called “ordnance gelatin” or “ballistics gel” — as a substitute for living tissue for testing the effects of duty ammunition. There are a few other basic JHP loads out there for this caliber that are similar to the Silver Bear load, and I would expect them to have the same kind of performance. Gel Testing To test the defensive capabilities of 5.7 vs. 9mm, we shot five examples of each round into Clear Ballistics gel. In our tests, this load exhibited decent performance, but was not an improvement over the .380 ACP version. The average velocity of the five .22 Mag loads we clocked with our 1.9-inch Ruger LCR is 255 fps greater than the average of all the .22 LR velocities we measured with the S&W 43C. The reason for this lack of consensus is simple: handguns suck. There were several 9mm loads showing adequate penetration with a decent amount of expansion as well. On average, the .32 H&R Magnum loads clocked in at about 200 fps faster than the .32 Longs. Find a container that is 12 (h) x 12 (w) … For .32 ACP, our two test guns were a KelTec P32 with a 2.7-inch barrel and a Beretta Model 81 Cheetah with a 3.8-inch barrel (rounded to 3″ and 4″ in the chart below). Remember, we’re looking for something like 12 to 18 inches of penetration along with 150% expansion. It originated by necking up the 7.65×21mm Parabellum round to.355. © 2009-2020 LuckyGunner, LLC. These real life encounters are messy, and what constitutes “adequate” penetration in any given situation is not a universal constant. If the little hole doesn’t go through something that’s important for a human being’s body to remain upright and functioning, that person can still go about their business, which may include trying to hurt other people. 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