Joined
·
174 Posts
I have a small bullet trap that I built in the basement. It's 1/4" steel with sandbags. I use it for testing out the P3AT now and then so I don't have to go all the way to the range to pop off a few rounds.
I shot some DPX many weeks ago before switching to Remington Golden Sabres after a very in depth bullet test one of the members did on here. (GS came out on top) Anyhoo, I found an old complete box of Federal Hydrashok's in 9MM in my safe and decided to shoot them with a Smith & Wesson model 39 pistol I have. I've also shot some crap .22's into the trap over the weeks that I had these sandbags in there.
The sandbags were getting pretty torn up so I decided to replace them. I started finding rounds and decided to keep looking through the sand. What I found was strange. So you have the following rounds all shot into the same sandbags:
Remington Golden Sabre .380
Cor-Bon DPX .380
Generic .22 HP's
Federal Hydrashok 9MM
The .22's had no problem expanding...
The Hydrashok's made these beautiful mushrooms:
The Cor-Bon DPX:
The Golden Sabres:
So I know we're comparing apples and oranges here since while the 9MM's are the same caliber as the .380's, they have a hell of a lot more powder behind them. Also barrel lengths are different and therefore velocity (also varied from the different powder charge of course) but shouldn't these .380's be expanding??? I'm no ballistics expert by any stretch of the imagination, but since they are lighter, wouldn't that account for the lower velocity and result in an expansion? Heck the crap-o .22's did a magnificient job. Any input here is welcome.
-MG380
I shot some DPX many weeks ago before switching to Remington Golden Sabres after a very in depth bullet test one of the members did on here. (GS came out on top) Anyhoo, I found an old complete box of Federal Hydrashok's in 9MM in my safe and decided to shoot them with a Smith & Wesson model 39 pistol I have. I've also shot some crap .22's into the trap over the weeks that I had these sandbags in there.
The sandbags were getting pretty torn up so I decided to replace them. I started finding rounds and decided to keep looking through the sand. What I found was strange. So you have the following rounds all shot into the same sandbags:
Remington Golden Sabre .380
Cor-Bon DPX .380
Generic .22 HP's
Federal Hydrashok 9MM
The .22's had no problem expanding...

The Hydrashok's made these beautiful mushrooms:


The Cor-Bon DPX:

The Golden Sabres:


So I know we're comparing apples and oranges here since while the 9MM's are the same caliber as the .380's, they have a hell of a lot more powder behind them. Also barrel lengths are different and therefore velocity (also varied from the different powder charge of course) but shouldn't these .380's be expanding??? I'm no ballistics expert by any stretch of the imagination, but since they are lighter, wouldn't that account for the lower velocity and result in an expansion? Heck the crap-o .22's did a magnificient job. Any input here is welcome.
-MG380